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LMTV Shocks Absorbers

GCecchetto

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So it sounds like fox stopped making the LMTV specific shock, and it seemed like they were marketing on shock for both the front and rear. Aren't the A0 and A1 front and rear different? I have an A1R so the front is obviously different. Getting rid of the overly stiff, and noisy, front coilovers is on my hit list to do soon. Does anyone have the info for what exactly to order from King in a 3" body shock for the front and rear of an A1R? Also, is the rear shock on an A1R the same as the rear of the A0 and A1 trucks? Seems like it would be.
 

charlesrg

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So it sounds like fox stopped making the LMTV specific shock, and it seemed like they were marketing on shock for both the front and rear. Aren't the A0 and A1 front and rear different? I have an A1R so the front is obviously different. Getting rid of the overly stiff, and noisy, front coilovers is on my hit list to do soon. Does anyone have the info for what exactly to order from King in a 3" body shock for the front and rear of an A1R? Also, is the rear shock on an A1R the same as the rear of the A0 and A1 trucks? Seems like it would be.
Did you already checked with Grigsby ? I've waited almost 2 years for mine, but they did deliver.
 

Third From Texas

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So it sounds like fox stopped making the LMTV specific shock, and it seemed like they were marketing on shock for both the front and rear. Aren't the A0 and A1 front and rear different? I have an A1R so the front is obviously different. Getting rid of the overly stiff, and noisy, front coilovers is on my hit list to do soon. Does anyone have the info for what exactly to order from King in a 3" body shock for the front and rear of an A1R? Also, is the rear shock on an A1R the same as the rear of the A0 and A1 trucks? Seems like it would be.
Ideally, you'd get corner weights, per axel weights, and overall weight of the truck. Then King (or whoever) can valve the front and rear shock to the specific weights.

But you absolutely want to stick with a 3" body.

Yes, the rear on the A0/A1/A1R are the same for a M1078/M1079 afaik. Not sure about the 6x6 trucks, though.

Fox never really made an "LMTV shock". They valved one of their stock bodies that had the correct travel. But w/o knowing those valving specs (and your truck's actual weights) it's kinda sketch....
 

GCecchetto

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Did you already checked with Grigsby ? I've waited almost 2 years for mine, but they did deliver.
No I didn't, but I have no interest in an extended wait to get the shocks. Spoke with King today, interesting, they have zero knowledge of ever having built shocks for these trucks. Anyway, if I do a 3" body performance series king, they can ship in 6 weeks.
 

GCecchetto

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Ideally, you'd get corner weights, per axel weights, and overall weight of the truck. Then King (or whoever) can valve the front and rear shock to the specific weights.

But you absolutely want to stick with a 3" body.

Yes, the rear on the A0/A1/A1R are the same for a M1078/M1079 afaik. Not sure about the 6x6 trucks, though.

Fox never really made an "LMTV shock". They valved one of their stock bodies that had the correct travel. But w/o knowing those valving specs (and your truck's actual weights) it's kinda sketch....
Yes, I understand about the weights, but it will be several years before I could get final weights since I'm building the truck in an adventure rig. If the performance series shocks are available with adjustable damping, that will significantly help in terms of getting the valving right. I ran Kings on a Tundra I had years ago and would run the damping adjustment almost all of the way out unloaded, When I put my camper on, it would swim all over the place. Stiffen up the damping and it would completely clean up that behavior.

Given the rear shocks being the same, I can provide King the info for the rear since the compressed and extended lengths and bolt diameters are in this thread. That leaves me just needing to measure the upper mount width to determine if and/or what spacers are required.

For the front, all I know about them is that the upper and lower bolts are 20mm, and that someone early in the thread posted a "length" of 33.5". I would assume that is the extended length. Obviously easy enough to measure the width of the mounts, but even if I pull a front out, I can't get the compressed length without pulling the spring off and I'm not about to mess with that.
 

Ronmar

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but even if I pull a front out, I can't get the compressed length without pulling the spring off and I'm not about to mess with that.
Well you can get a good idea. Measure the difference between the mount bolt centers as it sets, then measure the space between the bump stops And where they contact And subtract that from the mounted length. The unknown is how deep the system can get into the bump stops…

I have this info from my notes and a discussion here many years ago, for an A0…
20.94” to 33.26” 12.32” travel
5/8”/16MM top, 7/8”/22MM bottom.
 

GCecchetto

Active member
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Woodside CA
Well you can get a good idea. Measure the difference between the mount bolt centers as it sets, then measure the space between the bump stops And where they contact And subtract that from the mounted length. The unknown is how deep the system can get into the bump stops…

I have this info from my notes and a discussion here many years ago, for an A0…
20.94” to 33.26” 12.32” travel
5/8”/16MM top, 7/8”/22MM bottom.
Kinda, but not really, there is upward and downward travel, so you have to get the truck in a situation that will fully extend the shock, which might not even be possible with an unloaded truck, but would think the coil spring will help in that regard.
 

Ronmar

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Port angeles wa
Kinda, but not really, there is upward and downward travel, so you have to get the truck in a situation that will fully extend the shock, which might not even be possible with an unloaded truck, but would think the coil spring will help in that regard.
It wont tell you travel, only get you in the ballpark for compressed length. you had the extended length already right…
 

ramdough

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I think everyone is looking at this wrong.

The most important number is minimum length. You want your bump stop to hit before your shock bottoms out.

After that, you want to maximize droop. Your suspension will stop you droop or your shock will max out. So the manufacturer should put the longest possible shock that hits just shorter than your minimum length.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

GCecchetto

Active member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Location
Woodside CA
I think everyone is looking at this wrong.

The most important number is minimum length. You want your bump stop to hit before your shock bottoms out.

After that, you want to maximize droop. Your suspension will stop you droop or your shock will max out. So the manufacturer should put the longest possible shock that hits just shorter than your minimum length.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes, this is why I was hoping someone knew the compressed length of the A1R coilover. The only feasible way to figure that out if you don’t know what it is, is to compress the shock and measure it. That’s an undertaking on an A1R coilover for obvious reasons.

It seems from the lengths of the A0/A1 shocks, that the shock travel is just north of 12”, which I highly doubt these truck can use, so one approach would be to go for a shock with more travel to make sure the bump stop is engaged first. King shocks, for the same extended length, will likely have more travel than the stock shocks so the bump stop will likely do its job. Problem with this approach is that these trucks likely get most of there articulation from downward travel and from what I understand the front driveshaft angles are already at their design limitations for movement, so you don’t really want to allow additional downward movement in the front. My truck has the later high pinion rear diff, so not really worried about the rear, but the front driveshaft is quite short, so the angles will go to hell quickly.
 
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