ok, maybe its been asked before, but mainly people talk about the shock mounting positions.

my question is: where, on the stroke of the shock, should its shaft sit when on level ground and at nrmal ride height (as in, when parked on you driveway)

is it more desirable to have more down travel, or up travel from the middle of the shock?

ok, example: i have a shock, compressed, its 300mm, or 12", and extended, 600mm, or 24". now half way, it would be 18", 6" up and 6" down. would this be a good set up, or would it need to have more up travel, or down travel?

the reason why i'm asking, is if its got a lot of down travel, it would be very easy for the shock to bottom out on dips and pot holes etc. when being compressed quickly and hard. but then if its got more up travel, the shock may tend to top out and over extend, and maybe get pulled apart.

i understand that you can/should use bumpstops to limit up travel, and usually a shock is used to limit down travel.

my mate and i are building a sierra/sammy swb up, and have finished RUF, with chassis extension, and now we are sort of trying to figure out how to mount the shocks. i know shocks can be done at the very end, as the sierra/sammy is not yet rolling on its own. (still need to put together the back diff and hang it.

we are planning on rolling it out of the shed, and using the fork lift to flex it up front and rear to see if anything is binding, hitting, or limiting, and then we plan to measure the total travel we are getting, and then to find a shock to match.

on the rear, we are planning to inboard the shocks for the upper, but still unsure on how or where to mount for the lower mount. on the front, we are looking at putting some shock hoops in, and make some mounts for the lower on the diff.

so if anyone can help us out, or even better, some pics, and maybe some measurements, that would be really good.

is there any rule for the height of a shock hoop on the front? or can it just be anything? what have other people done?

thanks for any help
Steve

here are a couple of pics of my mate Mike's Sierra/Sammy.

most of the samurai's like about 2 1/2'' inches of up travel I do not think your down travel will be a problem with leaf spring type suspension,the stock mounting of shocks or close to it is the best to get the maximun effect of the shock for bumps and for your axel not trying to turn on you  or torque when you step on the gas with that big engine  They make shocks that have built in bump stops or you could give your shocks 3'' of up travel and cut a leaf spring eye bushing in half and put it on the shaft of the shock with a hose clamp to make your own.