Rear Foam Cell shocks

[brad_871 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close brad_871]

Hi everyone,
My lift kit turned up today and I unpacked it all for a good look. Its tough dog coils all round with ironman struts and ironman foam cell rears. I have a question about the rear foam cell's though which I cant seem to find an answer to anywhere.

Having read the DIY install by Chippy, I saw that he said, "Give the rear shocks a three or four pumps to prime them and then locate in the top hole as the shock expands." Problem i'm having is that the rear shocks dont want to expand. Straight out of the box they have no tie around them to keep them compressed like the front ones do. They need a lot of force against them to open them to full travel then they close really easily with little resistance. They are behaving more like a steering damper rather than a shock absorber.

Can anyone tell me if this is normal or should they behave more like the front struts (needing force to push them down rather than apart). Hope this makes sense???

Cheers,
Brad

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Re: Rear Foam Cell shocks

I've played around with a couple of shocks recently and they all expand by themselves after compressing.

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

Re: Rear Foam Cell shocks

hey brad i have the ironman foamcells in the front and from memory they were the same, easy to compress and hard to pull out, nothing to worry about, they will prime up a little harder when its been used a bit but mainly all the control is on rebound, that way when the suspension is compressed you dont get the inital thump on compression and the rebound is more controlled and doesnt want to jump around as much, thats the way i read it, and the difference from foamcell to nitro is a big difference, theses are just my opinions, others might have a different opinion. cheer samo

[brad_871 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close brad_871]

Re: Rear Foam Cell shocks

cheers for the replies guys. I just want to be sure that they're right before I put them in just to find I have to pull it all out again to send them back!

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

Re: Rear Foam Cell shocks

put them in and take them for a decent drive and tell us what you think of them cheers samo

[brad_871 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close brad_871]

Well I've had the setup in the Prado for a week now and I'm very impressed. No problems with the shock compression. The ironman shocks and toughdog springs seem to be a great combination. Handling and comfort is almost the same as the factory springs. Gained an extra 50mm of lift overall. I'm very happy with the setup. I have some pictures of the setup if anyone is ever interested.

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Well I've had the setup in the Prado for a week now and I'm very impressed. No problems with the shock compression. The ironman shocks and toughdog springs seem to be a great combination. Handling and comfort is almost the same as the factory springs. Gained an extra 50mm of lift overall. I'm very happy with the setup. I have some pictures of the setup if anyone is ever interested.

Love to see the pictures
What are you measurements now?

[iantz Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close iantz]

My Ironman lift just came in the courier today. Like Big Kev used to say - I'M EXCITED I went with ironman constant load springs as the price I got was simply unbeatable (too good to publish). When I unpacked the foam rears about 1 hour ago I thought the same as you Brad. I was getting nervous. I'm due to install on Saturday, so I am very glad to read in here that this in normal.

P.S. - Please post some piccies

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

installing the rears is the eazy part should take about an hour, the front is a bit different you will need a decent set of spring compressors or better still a strut press. cheers samo