From two shocks to one

[akaFrankCastle]

My Bronco came with dual shocks on all four corners. Seeing as I am not planning to do any Baja racing anytime soon, I'm hoping to improve the ride quality a bit.

Today I removed the forward most shocks on the front axle. Now, I'm having a tough time deciding which of the two rear shocks to remove.

So, given the choice between removing the forward facing rear shocks or the rearward facing, which should I pull and why?

[landshark]

one on each side and pretend your a chevy :)

[Justin]

I doubt it matters much. I'd pull the front shock mainly because it's closer to the factory setup.

[Kinder]

I believe most of the upgraded suspension systems have the shock going forward, but the factory engineers put them facing back. So who do you believe had the best insight. Helpful?

[Gunnibronco]

I discussed this with Jim Cole when I was buying my long arms. He said put the rear shocks forward of the axles, so I did.

I've read that since the axle travels slightly backwards when the leaf springs compress, the shocks should be behind the axle for maximum dampening.

I don't think it really matters.

[akaFrankCastle]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Just when you think you might obsess too much over something, your OCD Bronco friends chime in and make you feel better.

Factory versus aftermarket is an interesting comparison. My '66 had forward facing rear shocks so I suppose the Ford engineers were of similar thinking as the aftermarket at one point in time.

I'm just happy with the results of pulling off the two fronts earlier today. Less dump truck full of cinder blocks feeling on the way home. Maybe tomorrow I can drive to work and hit a pothole without my coffee spraying the roof of the truck.

[cpldavis37]

Can you pull the rear facing, see how it drives, then swap and see what feels better?

[Kinder]

^ good idea. Do you have an iPhone? If so download one of those fancy apps that use the accelerometer and give us a data output on the differences. Too OCD?

[hockeydad4-22]

Good Grief Kinder - 1/2 of us are lucky to have an accurate speedometer and functioning tachometer in our trucks

accelerometer indeed

[akaFrankCastle]

I pulled the rear shocks. And downloaded an accelerometer app.

The truck rides pretty well now. I still lose coffee on the drive but it doesn't feel like I'm hitting a parking block every time I hit a bump.

There won't be any data comparison any time soon. I sheared off one of the studs on one of the rear shock mounts.