What shocks should I go with?

[NickCJ7]

I am doing a complete frame off build of my CJ7 and it will have about 6" of lift. I'm looking for some shocks, but don't know what I need. Most lift shocks say up to 5" of lift and I'm going to be a little higher. So does anyone have any recommendation on what shocks I should go with? (Cheaper the Better!)

 

[BusaDave9]

Here's what I would do: first install your springs and axles. Then when you are ready for the shocks make some of your own measurements. Lift your front end by the frame so the springs are extended as far as possible. Keep in mind that on the trail the shocks may extend even farther than this. Then determine how much the suspension will compress. With a 6 inch lift you will want to install bumpstops so the suspension and drive shaft wont compress too much. Then with these measurements go to the following link:
http://www.gorancho.com/assets/catalog/Specifications.pdf
This way you can find the right shocks for your jeep. Making your own measurements also helps when buying brake lines too. I have found this works better that just buying shocks that are said to be good for a lift of X inches. When I needed new shocks I was able to increase my wheel travel by almost 2 inches by making my own measurements.

 

[BajaEdition]

A little bit of advice. Nothing going on a 6 inch lift needs to be cheap.
lifting a jeep that much is a huge compromise, it makes the jeep way top heavy and it needs to have quality parts so it does it's job correctly.
Going cheap is like deciding to go out and buy a rope that is 4 years old and deciding to use it window washing on the empire state building.
You need a good quality shock, the better the shock will give you a lot more stable ride, a cheaper the better shock is going to get you a bad reaction when you need it to be stable. Plus you need a shock that fits 6 inches so you do not destroy it. I would settle if I was doing such, I would make a plan, go out and stick to it. A compromise is just such.
I see mall crawlers all the time that are lousy on street and suck off road. Now if you must have a mall crawler, go for it, if you want a street Jeep or a off road jeep, get a plan and make it right.
OK rant over.

 

[CJ]

Qa1 - great shocks, great price!

Qa1 - Jeep-CJ WEB Links

 

[Old Dog]

As busadave said, you have to measure yourself and than buy what size you need.

 

[NickCJ7]

A little bit of advice. Nothing going on a 6 inch lift needs to be cheap.
lifting a jeep that much is a huge compromise, it makes the jeep way top heavy and it needs to have quality parts so it does it's job correctly.
Going cheap is like deciding to go out and buy a rope that is 4 years old and deciding to use it window washing on the empire state building.
You need a good quality shock, the better the shock will give you a lot more stable ride, a cheaper the better shock is going to get you a bad reaction when you need it to be stable. Plus you need a shock that fits 6 inches so you do not destroy it. I would settle if I was doing such, I would make a plan, go out and stick to it. A compromise is just such.
I see mall crawlers all the time that are lousy on street and suck off road. Now if you must have a mall crawler, go for it, if you want a street Jeep or a off road jeep, get a plan and make it right.
OK rant over.

Yea that was quite the rant. No body ever said I'm using cheap parts that aren't up to the task. The rig is going to be a multi-use rig. I'll drive it to the trails and back home. I'm not skimping on quality. I'd doing everything I can do so that the Jeep has the best parts and is done RIGHT. But going from a $29/hr job to being unemployed I need to find deals. I can't go out and buy $2000 shocks because I don't have $2000 to spend in the first place. I am a single father with full custody of my daughter as well so that means I got to get the best possible price on things.

The Jeep is being done right all I did was ask a question and you came off a little rude but it don't bother me.

 

[BajaEdition]

look at my shoes going from a 125 thou a year job to being unemployed
I have a project that I am drooling over to finish (stretched TJ frame with 4 to one tcase 3 inches of Nth degree lift with all the bells and whistles etc etc etc, My old TJ and putting my 70 CJ6 body on it) and have no money to spare at all. AURGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I am sorry about the rant but you will not believe the amount of guys who do things on the cheap and ruin some jeep. We get pics from newbies all the time trying to figure out how to fix some backyard engineered mods.
Like the 2x3 blocks for body mounts
Remember the home fabbed coil spring thread guys?
or some scary mod you would not want to get in the jeep with

so I ranted

look at my signature, I put my foot in my mouth a lot, I do not deny that and everyone here knows that

but I was scared some guy was going get a 6 inch lift and put some dihatusmishi Chinese tinfoil shocks on it to save money.

Now, I think the best bang for the buck is Rancho Shocks, the 5000 series,
firm, good dampening and are relatively cheap.

I love Old Man Emu shocks, but I do not think they make a shock for a 6 inch lift, not their style, they stay away from big lifts, instead work with lower lifts and make products that our preform the big stuff.

Being as the current trend is lower lifts with bigger tires and tuned in bump stops, I think I would check out a 4 inch lift and tune it up to work great, have a lower CG and a easier ride
but that is my opinion, not yours.

 

[NickCJ7]

I got the 4" lift already. I was thinking about adding a 1" BL and a 1" shackle lift. My plans are to put some 25x12.5x15 wheels on it and still want to be able to flex it out. I'm going with special tube fenders up front that will allow me to run the bigger tire without rubbing. In the rear I plan on using TJ style flares and cut the body to match to get the extra clearance there. I would just like to have the extra 2" of lift to make sure I don't rub and can articulate without hitting everything.

My plans were to go with the Rancho 5000 shocks but they only have a shock that says it's good for a 4-5" lift and I'll be an inch taller. Maybe I can call Rancho up and they can help me find a shock suitable for the lift I'm running.

 

[BajaEdition]

Stick with the 33s
you have the lift for it already
35s start to cause problems on a CJ, they really do good with 33s look good with 33s and it does not tax the suspension with the weight of tires and stuff
rims need 3.75 inch back spacing or more, tune up the bump stops and have one of the best looking Cjs in town, with 35s you will soon want power steering, have to do some more lift and need a regear to get the amount of performance you have now. I think the regear would be the sticking point. I mean do you want to spend 12 to 14 hundred dollars besides the cost of the tires, just so you can go down the road without waiting for grandma to pass you?

 

[CJ]

I'll stick with Qa1

Custom shocks with reasonable price.

I gave them my height, / compressed length / extended length

and then had shocks out the door the next day.

 

[NickCJ7]

Stick with the 33s
you have the lift for it already
35s start to cause problems on a CJ, they really do good with 33s look good with 33s and it does not tax the suspension with the weight of tires and stuff
rims need 3.75 inch back spacing or more, tune up the bump stops and have one of the best looking Cjs in town, with 35s you will soon want power steering, have to do some more lift and need a regear to get the amount of performance you have now. I think the regear would be the sticking point. I mean do you want to spend 12 to 14 hundred dollars besides the cost of the tires, just so you can go down the road without waiting for grandma to pass you?

I already have power steering so that's not a problem. I'm going to only go with 5" of total lift. I'm still going to stick the 35's under there but I'm going tube fenders up front the allow for larger tires without more lift. I'm also going with Poison Spyders Crusher Corners with the TJ style tube flares which should give me plenty of room for the 35's. I'm going to be adding 1-piece axles in the back and a locker and putting 4.56 gears in while I'm at it. Same thing with the front. Going to regear, stronger axles and locker. I doubt grandma will be passing me with the motor I'm building either. AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l block, 4.0L head, cam, custom TBI, ect... so the motor will be putting down some power.

 

[BajaEdition]

oh, by the way
in your signature
a 42 CJ2a
they did not make a CJ2a that year

 

[NickCJ7]

oh, by the way
in your signature
a 42 CJ2a
they did not make a CJ2a that year

You sure about that? I'll have to take a look at the title as it's been forever since I've done anything with it but it is a CJ2a early 40's

 

[BajaEdition]

CJ2a was not offered till after VE day until then the entire production went into military jeeps except a very Limited amount of cj1s and cj2s
so the CJ1 was a 44, no surviving example
CJ2 had a run of 45 jeeps in 45
the CJ2a was from 45 to 49 and considered the first true CJ as production numbers were close to a 250,000
Jeep CJ - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.thecj2apage.com/story.html
http://www.jeepbrokers.com/jeep_history.htm#cj2a

 

[NickCJ7]

CJ2a was not offered till after VE day until then the entire production went into military jeeps except a very Limited amount of cj1s and cj2s
so the CJ1 was a 44, no surviving example
CJ2 had a run of 45 jeeps in 45
the CJ2a was from 45 to 49 and considered the first true CJ as production numbers were close to a 250,000
Jeep CJ - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The CJ2A Story
Detailed Jeep History from World War II to Present

Whe knows. All I know is the titles says CJ2 . And it's early 40's I could have shown it said 1942. Maybe it's a WWII jeep?

 

[BajaEdition]

post the vin number and we can get it identified
and I can understand the confusion, not a lot of guys really know jeep history and if it had dropped off the horizon and been re titled they can claim it is anything. More people get taken thinking they are buying WWII jeeps and finding they have CJs than anything. Also claiming a jeep is WWII is quite common as many people will bite thinking they have a piece of history.
does it have a tailgate?
post a picture of the grill

 

[NickCJ7]

post the vin number and we can get it identified
and I can understand the confusion, not a lot of guys really know jeep history and if it had dropped off the horizon and been re titled they can claim it is anything. More people get taken thinking they are buying WWII jeeps and finding they have CJs than anything. Also claiming a jeep is WWII is quite common as many people will bite thinking they have a piece of history.
does it have a tailgate?
post a picture of the grill

Don't have any pictures of it, but like I said the tub was cut off after the dash. The dash did have some military stickers on it, but faded real bad and couldn't make out what was what. It does was a real military jerry can. Actually I did find a picture:

 

[BajaEdition]

That is a CJ grill
the WWII jeep, both the MB and GPW(Ford made under license) have lights that fit behind the grill and can be flipped up.
Such as this

so I think you have a CJ2a , that would be a 45 to 49
Like I said, if it is titled 42, that can be explained as a lot of guys bring really old jeeps back to life and just guess at year when titling it.

 

[NickCJ7]

That is a CJ grill
the WWII jeep, both the MB and GPW(Ford made under license) have lights that fit behind the grill and can be flipped up.
Such as this

so I think you have a CJ2a , that would be a 45 to 49
Like I said, if it is titled 42, that can be explained as a lot of guys bring really old jeeps back to life and just guess at year when titling it.

Ehh anyways it's a cool rig. I could of sworn the title said 42 but maybe it was 45 but it was in the 40's.

 

[BajaEdition]

Ehh anyways it's a cool rig. I could of sworn the title said 42 but maybe it was 45 but it was in the 40's.

just trying to help date the Jeep
Any CJ2a is a way cool Jeep