Hard Clunking!

[trogdor]

I just put and A/C 2" on my pathy, and now when I go over anything it feel like I just hit a three foot pothole, I asked a friend of mine and he said it was my struts (KYB GR-2, and Bilstiens) I checked all the bolt and they are as tight, I had my friend double check them to make sure I got the tight enough when I got my tires, If any of you have had this problem any info would help on what you did to stop or if it will just go away with time please let me know. I want to post some pics but it always gives me an error how do I shrink them down?

[Orangetang]

Your friend is probably correct that it is your struts making all the noise, but not in the way you think. When the stiffer springs are installed, they are basically stretching your strut which gives you the lift. Becuase of this, the strut travels a longer distance than normal over bumps... I havn't installed an AC yet, but I've been advised that this is generally a temporary issue, which resolves itself as the springs break-ion and begin to sag. At that time you can add spacers up front to level it out again.... A thread a few below this one shows how a guy used the spacers in a unique way which might be better for your CVs in the long run...

 

Again, I don't have an AC lift so if I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

[DJ Dank]

Its called topping out. With the front struts, you keep the same length as the stock struts compared to getting longer shocks to increase travel in the rear.

 

Just remember, you're not increasing any travel up front. IE, Lets say with stock struts, you have 4 inches downward travel and 4 inches upwards travel when its sitting level, well when you lift the front, you're increasing the downward travel by 2 inches via the AC lift and losing 2 inches of upwards travel. So you have 6 inches of downware travel and 2 inches of upwards travel.

 

Get the picture? There's been lots of posts about this along with also people's fright when they first hear their struts topping out. Just gotta take it easy over speed bumps and pot holes. But Orange is right, over time, the coils will settle and this won't be such a big issue anymore. Enjoy the lift!

Edited April 20, 2007 by DJ Dank

[trogdor]

You guys are awsome thank you so much for the explanation it make perfect sense in my head now I just did'nt know if it was suppose to do that, but I guess it is all good thanks again. so far i love the lift and the new tires are great they are so quit for being an big-o XT. way quiter than an bfg MT or any MT for that matter.

Edited April 20, 2007 by trogdor

[tmorgan4]

Just remember, you're not increasing any travel up front. IE, Lets say with stock struts, you have 4 inches downward travel and 4 inches upwards travel when its sitting level, well when you lift the front, you're increasing the downward travel by 2 inches via the AC lift and losing 2 inches of upwards travel. So you have 6 inches of downware travel and 2 inches of upwards travel.

 

You've got this mixed up. With the lift you increase uptravel since the struts sit closer to their fully extended state at the new ride height with the lift. That's the reason it tops out is due to the lack of downtravel when going over bumps.

[trogdor]

Oh, cool thanks for the explanation.

[DJ Dank]

You've got this mixed up. With the lift you increase uptravel since the struts sit closer to their fully extended state at the new ride height with the lift. That's the reason it tops out is due to the lack of downtravel when going over bumps.

 

I totally get what you're saying. When I was writing the post, I was picturing downward travel of the shock as upwards travel in terms of the actual body of the vehicle. Like when you go over a big speed bump too fast, its when the front of the vehicle is rising/going upwards that you will hear the topping out but in essence that translates to downwards travel of shock. I can see how my explanation can sound confusing. Hell it even confused me.