[ex670c]

Hi Guys,

Way back in June 2015, The Terra Tigers were approached by AIR90 Automotive to identify a list of Off Road Equipment, which will be welcome in the INDIAN off road scenario.

Additionally Terra Tigers have to prepare installation procedure, kits, identify best practices and Test these products off road, since we have a very active offroad calender.

For this purpose Vijay (petrol_head) and Me were sent to the Profender Factory for a 2 Day training Program in December 2015.

We identified the following
Remote Reservoir Shock Absorbers
Return To Center Steering Damper
Suspension Upgrades for Toyota Fortuner, Isuzu Dmax and new Ford Endeavour.
Coilover (Strut) conversion kits for Mahindra JEEPs & Maruti Gypsy.

This thread is about the Remote Reservoir Shock Absorber installation and testing.

The Profender 2.0 Remote Reservoir Shock Absorber in 24" Long Fully Extended with a 8" Shaft Travel.

The Shocks are hard mounted on Spherical Bearings with Mis-Alignment Spacers.

The Shocks were mocked up on the axle tube to check for clearance.

This design led to the shock interfering with the front fender, and there wwasn't enough room to place a good shock hoop.

So wwe decided to go with the Original style shock mounts in the front, and a completely different shock orientation in the rear.

For this we identified the Leaf Spring Plate as the starting point and modified them.

The modified leaf spring plates have 2 advantages
1) Protect the Shock Absorber eye
2) Protect the Leaf Spring Plate U-Clamp and act as a mini skid plate.















Regards,

Arka

[ex670c]

In a Leaf Sprung Vehicle the Shackle allows the suspension to compress and rebound, this cause the axle tube to move along with the shackle in the direction of the shackle.

The idea was to have similar Shock absorber orientation front and back.

In the Rear there are some considerations.

1) The Shock Mount can be installed flush with the chassis as up front, but the rear tub has to be cut and the shocks will sit 4-6" inside the Rear Tub.

2) This will add body work

3) If the Shock Hoops are mounted outside the tub, they will rub with the tyre.

We chose to retain Tub Space, otherwise from Pure offroad perspective it is better to push the shock hoops inside and make two boxes inside the tub to cover the shock hoops.

[ex670c]

The Shock Hoops have the following uses

1) Orient the shock to swivel in direction of shackle movement
2) Transfer the shock absorber action to the chassis
3) Locate the shock absorber between the chassis and suspension

To achieve the above criteria, we did the following

1) The shock hoops are mounted on the chassis and the chassis is boxed in.
2) Outer Reinforcement Plates to distribute the weight
3) the hoops are mounted on tubes which run through the chassis

[Shubhendra]

Great to see a meaningful/useful post, these shocks are just wonderful as i had an opportunity to drive this particular jeep with this particular shocks last month in Goa during RFC. I am waiting for another indigenous product which you have developed and which was very relevant as observed in RFC 'Bead locker' the actual one not the one we all typically see in most of the thars.
Many vehicles had their tyres popping out during RFC and Mahindra Club Challenge which could have been avoided if they would have been using bead lockers.

Another innovation which I am expecting from you Arka is PTO/God Winch, I am ready to be your Guinea Pig for trails for this

Regards,
Shubhendra Singh

[Twinn]

Informative post Arka, I remembered we speaking about this. Tell me one thing .. Will this shock be effective for a leaf spring suspension? Since the length of travel is governed by the shackles, would the shock reach its optimum travel..

[DirtyDan]

Originally Posted by ex670c

The Shock Hoops have the following uses

1) Orient the shock to swivel in direction of shackle movement

Originally Posted by Twinn

.. Tell me one thing .. Will this shock be effective for a leaf spring suspension? Since the length of travel is governed by the shackles, would the shock reach its optimum travel..

Arka, could you tell us a little more about what variables are involved with mounting the shock and at what angle? I don't know what you mean by #1 above but I would like to know.

[ex670c]

Originally Posted by Twinn

Informative post Arka, I remembered we speaking about this. Tell me one thing .. Will this shock be effective for a leaf spring suspension? Since the length of travel is governed by the shackles, would the shock reach its optimum travel..

Originally Posted by DirtyDan

Arka, could you tell us a little more about what variables are involved with mounting the shock and at what angle? I don't know what you mean by #1 above but I would like to know.

Hi Amrith and DD,

The Length of Suspension Travel in a leaf Spring vehicle is dictated by the length of the leaf spring and it arch.

The Shackle locates the leaf spring and axles to the chassis and allows for the leaf spring to elongate (compression/up travel) shorten (rebound/down travel)

Up Travel/Down Travel/Ride Height

In up travel/compression the shock absorber mustn't top out, this is prevented by the axle snubbers/bump stop on the chassis

In Down Travel the shock absorber mustn't droop out when the suspension is fully extended.

Ride Height this is when the vehicle is static, 40-60% of shaft travel length must be available for Up Travel.

The simplest way to install remote reservoir shocks is to
i) set the suspension to full droop,
ii) the shock fully extended,
iii) mount the lower eye on the leaf spring/axle tube and
iv) measure the height at the chassis

Remote Reservoir Shock Absorbers and Leaf Spring
The Leaf Spring carries the Vehicle Weight and Suspends the Wheels

The RRSA, dampen the leaf spring action in Up Travel and Down Travel

i) When the Leaf Spring fully compresses,
ii) the axle tube moves forward/Backwards along the shackle about 1/2 to Full shackle length (25mm to 70mm)
iii) the RRSA should IDEALLY be 90 Degrees to the Leaf Spring Plate when viewed from the side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TjN0FjgCzo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hotaz66adTY

Regards,

Arka

[DirtyDan]

Nice short articulate answer. The two film clips are worth 2000 words. Let's see, that averages out to...better than 10 words per clip total savings! It looks like you have reinforced both the frame and the hoops with steel plates. That is meticulous and brilliant, as is the protection for the shock bottom eye and shackle. Wow! That's some nice forethought.