flatbed

There 8" shock is 1" longer in both the compresed and extended positions. The lower mount would have to be moved closer to the wheel, i think you would be giving up some of your compresion stroke. It would be interesting to know how much more this shock weighs. On the fox shocks they where alot lighter than stock. It does look like these shocks would work. don't know how well, but almost anything is better than stock.

On my rear susp my axles are rubbing the trailing arms when they are in full drop, and also when fully compressed. I have relieved the arms so that i can get the most out of the cv's. I am going to replace the rear cv's boots only so i can see the cv's, and what the end of the axles look like. I would like to put longer rear axles in. with longer axles you would probably get 18" of travel in the back.

To get the full amount of travel you will need to alter the lower rear shock mount along with lowering the diff. You will also have to put a bump-stop on the shock shaft to keep your cv's from pulling out. 14 1/2" travel with stock cv'S

On the rear diff lock the shaft moves outward to engage. It will move aprox 1/2" outward.

A WORD TO THE WISE, WHEN WELDING ON ANYTHING THAT HAS A COMPUTER DISCONECT THE BATTERY OR TURN THE MASTER SWITCH OFF.

you need some tubing 1 1/4 and some tabs so you don't have to use the old ones. cut the old crossmembers out, lower the diff with the drive-line hooked up, make shure you can get all the bolts out and start welding it back in. As far as the doors the trooper is not like most utv's it is pretty hard to roll and have your legs come out. Where you notice the extra weight is in the sand, try to keep extra weight off.

Stock shock has 5" of travel so you are getting maybe 9" at the rear wheels. I lowered my diff so that i could use all the travel the cv joints give you,

The id on the springs for 2.0 is 2.5", they will work on the stock shocks. I think you would want to use a 10 and a 5 for the tender on the rears

Latch 73 Have you had any luck finding a ring gear for the trooper, i know you where looking for info on other sites, jusst wondering if you came up with anything.

Rocmoc, i think there is more power in the intake system. The intake manifold is what you would use for a high reving engine, plus the you know the throutle body could be bigger, and than you have the long distance the air has to flow in the aircleaner system. Build a new intake plentem with the trottle body up on top, you can put the air cleaner next to it, i think we would pick up alot of bottom-end. I would not think these engines run this way when they are in the cars in china. I don't want a turbo either, break to many parts, but it would be nice to get 25 more hp on the bottom end.

Kinarfi, I am thinking you will be sorry if you do not move the one set of tabs rearward on the fuel tank, with the added resiviour and the longer filler neck it is almost certain to break. Also you can fill the tank with carbon deoxside while welding, that is what i did. Keep the bottle on it with very low flow and little preassure.

Rocmoc, on the 2.0 shock that i used i put a bump stop on the shock shaft, 1 1/2" long to limit the compresion stroke, the bump stop is rubber so it will give alittle, don"t for get that i lowered my rear-end. I ended up with 14 1/2 inches of travel. I am curious what Simon is going to come up with. The front will end up with 14 1/2" travel also, i just have to rebuild the uper shock tower to get the shock to fit. Like you said the 2 spring setup is the way to go, very soft ride, made the wife very happy. If you take your time you can get a deal on the springs, same with the shocks. On the rear shock sticking the bump stop in keeps you from pulling the cv out on compression, you also have to clearance the trailing arm alittle, very easy. I cut the lower shock mount off and built a new one so i could get the shock shaft fully extended and not pull the cv out, don't need to run a limit strap on the fox shock in this application. I did not sycle the suspension with the tire on, i think if i hit hard enough i could get into the fender, stock i was getting around 8" of travel, so you can see the travel almost doubled. I am going to a wedding this weekend so it is going to be awhile before i get the front shocks in.

Be careful about putting things on the trooper you don't need, the car is already heavy. I am geeting ready to do my front shock mounts, i am going to get rid of some of the tubbing in the front tha you don't need. I lowered my rear diff so that is going to let me lower my radiator which will let me lower the rear deck for the rear seat. everything i do i keep in mind that i am trying to loose weight. If you are goingh to do anything, change the shocks, it makes a huge difference.

kinarfi, if you look at the tank that i change you will see that i moved the mounts closer to the edges of the tank, if you hold the tank on the mounts closest to the filler spout the tank will balance on those two tabs, that means those two tabs are holding all the weight and the others are balancing the tank. Move the tabs to the end of the big part of the tank and make sure you put rubber on the mounts.

Rocmoc, i think the gear ratio is 286,s I read it some wear but don,t remember. I know it is high, we are getting our low gearing through the tranny, it must be under driven.

The 2.0 fox shock that has a 8.5" stroke will not fit in the front without limiting straps. It is about 2 1/2" to long. I am going to redo the frame where the upper shock mount is because i want to have as much travel as possible. I will have to cut the shock tower out and build a new one. Like i said the fox 8.5 in stroke shock will work in the front. I think you would want to run 2 8" springs instead of a 8 and 10" spring. Anyway i took the trooper out last night in the rain with the wife. I can not tell you how big of a difference the rear shocks make. The back is so smooth and no bucking. It makes the front feel very rough. For clairaty the 8" spring is called a tender spring and the 10" is your primary spring. I am running a 300 on the tender spring, this is the spring that is holding you up when you are just crusing. I think a 350 would be better but the 300 works great. on a t-4 i would run a 400 because of obvious reasons. The 600 is the primary spring witch gets used when you get after it and start working the susp. As the coil over shocks compress through there stroke the tender spring will colaspe first because it is soffter. there is a collar on the shock that will only let the tender spring colaspe so much and than it starts working the primary spring wich is stiffer so it slows the susp. down. The valving that i have in the shock is 50-40. The collar that is holding the tender spring is 4 3/8 down from the colored part of the shock, i believe the primary is down 6". I will give you more info wen i get back home. The trooper feels very different when driving. Because the springs are soffter than stock with the tenders the car leans when you turn just like a race truck in the dirt. It is a good felling, you can tell you have more hook up in the dirt. I can not wait to get the front done. After market shocks should be the first thing you do on a trooper, it makes a huge difference, i have only done the back and the car is 100% better.

Yes you could doit without lowering the diff, you just would not have as much travel.

If you can wait till after this week-end, and i know what i have done works, i will geve part numbers and valveing specks with spring rates and where to put the jam nuts and collars.

In our semi trucks we run 456s, we used to run the 488s. our trucks move loads up to 300,000 lbs. the 456s are a stronger gear, you have more teeth in contact and the gear is thicker. When you run planitarys they run a high gear on the ring and pion and then lower the gear back down with the planitarys at the hub. In racing we had a problem on short tracks, (need lower gear ratio) the ring gears would break. !st gear in the trooper has plenty of torq so i don't think the gearing would kill you.

I have some pictures like that of my grand son, he is due in january at the end of the month. My son is 6' and his wife is 5' so i am currious how this is going to work out. you must be very excited, very prety name

Just came in from my shop, the stock shocks have 4 1/2 of stroke, the new fox's have 8 1/2. I have to ad a limit spacer around the shaft to knock it down to 7 1/2 " of stroke. I have ended up with 14 " of travel in the back. the trailing arm needs to be dimpiled and the weld smothed when you are in full compresion to keep from rubbing the axle. Like i said before i have 300 over 600s in the back. I could not resit, i baught another set of shocks for the front to day. I am going to run 300 over 400s on the front. Shocks are around $200 apiece, I got one set for 189 apiece and the other set today for 175. Springs are around $75 apiece and it is two per shock. You could probably get 15" of travel, i just don't want to push my luck pulling the axle out. Don,t forget i have lowered the back diff so it is leting the wheels drop futher with out binding the cv's

latch73 What happened as far a getting parts for the diff. did you find a ring and pion. another thing to think about is changing the gear ratio. going to a taller gear will make the ring and pion stronger. you would have to change both ends of course.

brostar, when i was a kid, about 20 years old i had a 56 ford pickup that i had done alot of work on. It had a 327 with a 4 speed muncie tranny. all the body work had just got done and i was going to get it painted in the next couple months. Any way i was down at salton sea where they can have flash flloods. this was back in i think 1974. Anyway i was down at the dessert and driving through this dip that had about 6" of water in it and it is about a 100 yards long. I get about half way through it and look to my left and see a wall of water about 3' high. it hits the door and caves it in, shoves the pickup of the road and into a hole full of water. The pickup flips and i am standing inside of the cab with my feet on the roof waiting for the truck to fill up with water so i can get out. I end up going out the passanger side window as the truck starts tumbling. After i got out i was in the water a good 1/3 of a mile befor i got to the side of the river. The only thing i had on was my under wear, everything else had been riped off me. I was cut up pretty bad. It was raining so hard you could hardley see and my skin was burning so i wraped myself under a bush till it stoped raining. After about 3 hrs somebody found me and took me to my parents camp. The next day we went back and found the pickup. it was upside down, totaly buried in the river bed. The tires were the onlything showing and you could only see about 4"of them. the truck was completely pulverized from rolling rocks hiting the cab and it was full of sand. I was very lucky. So what i am trying to say is be careful when you are around water and it is raining. I never expected a wall of water to come down that river bed and it was not very deep when i started into it. It was like a damn broke. That same rain storm washed out interstate 8 and the rail road tracks and alot of other bridges

Just got done changing the springs again. keep the 300s on and stuck a set of 600s with them, the suspension came alive, the car has a totaly different fell to it. I will get the limit straps on before thanksgiving and be able to test it. The car is almost the same height and i dont have the collars wound down as far as the stock shocks. Stock they were wound down 6 1/2" and these are wound down 4" so i think i am getting close. the car fells alot softer.

I had a set of 10"350s, bought a set off 8" 300s. Installed them this morning. They hold the rear of the car up, but they are way to soft. I guess i will get a set off the 10" 500s and try them. The car allready fells alot better. I could run the collars down to get the ride height but it would not be right. The 10" 350s should work in the front.