Stock height rear shock length

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fitzmotor

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Hey, if anybody knows or would be willing to take a quick measurement, I'm looking for eye to eye rear shock length at stock height, I have 2010 a Scab, in case there are different factory ride heights for Screw or other years.
The reason I ask? I want to know how far my truck is from stock, the back is lowered a little bit, almost leveled.
I am going to cut down shock shafts to get the shock in the middle of it's travel again.
I got info that it's 29.5 eye to eye, I just want to verify that before I start machining shock shafts.

Thanks in advance!!
 
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fitzmotor

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Anybody? I may have to try and find one here in town that wont think I'm a weirdo as I ask to crawl under his truck with a tape measure.
I know most raise their trucks, but the principal is the same, the shock is designed to have a certain amount of travel in compression and droop.
Raised is a much better situation, (the shock is to short) the shock probably wont be damaged if it tops out when extended, you only have the weight of the axle. Lowered is a much worse situation (shock is to long) bottom it out under compression you have the whole weight of the truck pounding the shock to junk.
I recently bought the truck, it was a beater with issues, I'm trying to get everything sorted out, I love it though.
So if anybody has a notion to help some frickin newbie with a rear leveled Raptor, it would be greatly appreciated.
 

MTF

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I'm a little confused as to why you would want to cut the shock shaft.
Doing so will most likely not be good for the intended design of the shock.

A couple of questions,
We would need to know more about your truck.
Pictures would help a lot!!!

What perch setting are the front shocks in?
What are the springs in the rear, are they stock or aftermarket?
Are the factory rear bump stops still there?
Measuring from bottom of the fender flares to the ground, what are you getting.

I'm on mid perch and have Deavers +2 (stock height) rear springs.

2012-12-23_08-46-38_447.jpg
Front height 41 1/2"
IMG_20200515_120814943.jpg
Rear height 42 1/4"
2012-12-23_08-49-01_108.jpg

I purchased a bump stop strike plate for the stock bump stop.
Bump Stop.jpg
 
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fitzmotor

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It's simple, if you raised or lowered a vehicle 4.0" you would want a 4.0" overall longer or shorter shock to keep the shock within the intended design, but you gain or lose 4.0" travel.

If you want to raise/lower 4.0" and keep the same travel, then the shock mounting points must gain/lose 4.0" to keep the shock in it's intended design and the shock stays the same length.

When it's raised with a stock shock you gain 4.0" of compression stroke, lowered you lose 4.0" of stroke, which brings this to where I'm at, I can bottom my shocks out easily, (they are probably already damaged)

With 12.1" total travel, you have 6.05" comp/droop travel, lower/raise 4.0" that would leave only 2.0" available comp/droop depending if lowered/raised, that's if Ford put the ride height in the middle of the shock travel, they may have biased it toward the comp side,

The proper way to shorten a shock is to cut and re-threaad the shaft and to cut the housing down, I have done this many times on race cars, typically Mcpherson strut cars, sealed shock cars you move the mounting points, Raptor rear shocks are similar to struts.

I would lose some travel but I wont be bottoming out the shock, I choose this method over cutting off the shock perches and welding them up higher, that way I can always put back on the stock stuff. (I may do a small shock drop mount on the axle to gain more travel) I will mock it up, but I figure the frame and body might not allow the full 12" travel at a lower ride height without modifications.

Because I don't know the factory installed length I can't do the math on how much to cut, it is factory installed length, minus new installed length, divided, that is the number I need.

I was given 29.5 as a installed number but that's the freelength number not installed.

Example; and I will use random numbers, 25.0" factory installed, minus new installed length 21.0 equals 4.0" divide by two, equals 2.0", shorten it that value and you would put the shock piston right back in the center of it's travel, the same equation holds true for raising it but you would have to lengthen it.

So after this long drawn out explanation and 2 cups of coffee, I hope that is a reasonable breakdown of the how and why I'm doing this.

The part I didn't go into, it's lower so my old wore ass out skeleton can load my 140lb High power ebike (9Kw) in the back without a ramp, as anything in the back of a truck gets stolen (like a ramp while you are out riding) and I'm on my 3rd shoulder surgery, 3rd knee surgery and a back surgery, I really need airbags to drop it down Ha! And NO, a different truck is not a option.

So, if anyone could please give me a eye to eye rear shock measurement on a stock height truck that would be great, I did email Fox requesting the info but haven't heard back.
 

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Why not just use a stock f150 shock? You are already negating any advantage the Raptor suspension has by reducing the travel. It seems like the 2wd trucks sit at about the height your talking about, and the shocks will likely perform better with loads.
 
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fitzmotor

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It's bad enough to level a Raptor by lowering the back and giving up a little travel, putting on non Fox shocks would be worse.
Thanks for the suggestion though, and I dont carry any real loads.
 
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fitzmotor

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Thanks for the links, I appreciate the time and effort for that.

I'm just wondering what the installed length of a stock height rear shock is.

Sorry this took a turn, I'm just a old racer that overthinks things, I will just go off extended/compressed lengths and installed height. The stock length would tell me where Ford put the shock, toward the top or in the middle of it's travel.
 

MTF

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I could give you my measurements but I don't have stock springs, even though there are stock ride height it was different and I carry about 500 lbs. in the truck including the electric bed cover.
 
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fitzmotor

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Hey, I really appreciate the thought, If I have figured it right and Ford made the comp/droop travel equal, it should be 23 3/4" eye to eye, if they favored compression it could up to 25+" I dont know.
Hopefully if someone is willing and or curious enough to measure and post, then I can know for sure if I'm close or way off.

Thanks again.
 
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