Friday, March 18, 2016

Rough Country shock mount breaks factory shock mount...

I have two Grand Cherokees, the second one came with a 4" long travel Rough Country (RC) lift and a blown motor - this one is burgundy.

The rear of my truck was factory springs with 2" spacers, so it sagged compared to the front which had new 4" springs.

I borrowed the rear 4" springs, shocks, and shock mounts from the burgandy one while I saved $$ for the engine replacement in the burgundy one.

The RC shocks are low end hydraulic units, cool looking enough, but also fatter by a bit than the stockers. Combine that with wide tires at OEM wheel offsets, and rubbing is guaranteed. 

You get this bracket (black, RCX), and move the shock to the inner side of the shock mount. There's a spacer to go in the shock bracket, and a longer bolt. The shock is upside down in this shot (not my truck).



I get what RC was trying to do, but they didn't make it.

I lost 2 shock bolts that vibrated out with the RC shock mounts, and that should have said something. Both were on the left rear, but the right rear would become loose. All over just a few thousand miles. 

Loose bolts allow hammering, and hammering breaks things. You can see the break is rusty, so it's been broken for a while. What's interesting is that the mount breaks are TEAR breaks, suggesting that the suspension is topping out against the shock. This truck doesn't get jumped.

Seeing as the shock broke loose a mile from my house after a banging over a couple of speedbumps, that's concerning. It's an RC shock and and RC spring; it shouldn't be topping out over speedbumps.

Note to self: stretch this out and take a look at whether it's topping out or not. Because this shock/spring combo is going back on the burgandy truck and that would be bad. Fixing one was more than I wanted to do.



Fortunately this is an easy fix. For some reason, the pic quality is low, and the fuzziness makes the welds look worse than they are. Don't mistake it, they're not great, but they are serviceable. This truck is going to get coil overs in the future, and this fix will certainly last that long. Time to practice up again. I used to be pretty good at this.



This one looks bad on the outside for sure. LOL Looked good when I was under the truck grinding it flat for the shock. Must have been tired.



One more excuse offered - my shop at my current house. Needed to run power through the window as there is no outlet on the outside and extension cords reduce welder efficiency.


Better than new because the metal thickness has been doubled. Let's see how it holds up!