Today I broke my coilovers.

We were driving to the dry lake bed to go get some shooting in. Access is on a wash boarded sand road that goes up to the hillside on the opposing side of the lake. Most of the way we took at 35 and since some of the bumps are more like large "whoopteys" we would slow down from time to time.

Now, I've had these coil overs a few months and haven't really gotten to off road them. Mostly highway driving and some snow driving. Nothing too out of the ordinary to cause undue stress.

One of the whoops caught us off guard at about 30 we caught maybe a few inches of airtime and thud. We crashed down on the up slope of the following bump. Immediately i knew something had failed catastrophicly when the suspension did not rebound, the brakes went soft and we rolled to a stop. I jumped out to asses the damage and saw what I feared. A collapsed front end.

Climbing underneath I saw what failed. The 5/8 shaft of the fox 2.0 emulsion. The point of failure; where the shaft enters the lower eyelet. The sharp point created by the shear fractured a hard brake line and sliced through the cv boot. Assessing the opposite side, a slight bend at the same point or failure as the right.

This failure(s) was not a materials flaw, but a misapplication of parts. For what I was doing and how I offroad. I now so clearly to me made a mistake and purchased a far too weak component for my application. For some this may not apply, and I hope that your 5/8 shafts continue to hold up for you. For others I hope this may lend another perspective.

I am now looking into purchasing the 2.0 nitrogen air coilover they have with the 1 1/4" shaft as an upgrade to my current situation. I will rebuild the broken 5/8 shaft emulsions and keep as emergency spares or maybe sell.

Pictures to follow.

 

That sucks man. This is a good word of warning for guys doing a coilover swap.

I've accidentally caught small air with my setup and I could tell feeling the landing I should never do it again

 

Glad nobody got hurt. When in doubt build it stout.

 

its becuase you didnt bump/strap it correctly. The shock would never break like that if the limit straps and bump stops were doing their job.

An air coilover is not your fix at all

 

Does it seem like a shock alignment issue? My understanding of a shock is that it's not designed to take lateral (sideways) stress, just up/down.

Would overextension cause this sort of misalignment?

I thought a lot of guys had beat on these coilovers pretty hard in the desert, etc. Am I wrong?

 

I have taken some very hard hits (skid plate bashed into ground on landing) with my coils and have had no issues. What are you running for bump stops and straps? It's very possible the were damaged on top out the sheared laterally when you landed and the bottomed out.

Post pics when u can! Interested to see his the failed.

Glad your ok

 

It probably was the bump stops. I've been intending on getting better ones and one did go missing after the incident.

 

 

I'm sure I'll be okay. I am just a bit higher level than stock height, and it looks like you only need to take the corner off the bump stop and bracket, so that's all ill do.

 

I still think I'm going to upgrade to the air coils. The thick shaft just makes me feel better after this. Since it will take more stress. And I'll probably be buying a NICE set of bump stops to help prevent this from ever happening again. Since my other ones were junk... The shocks were aligned fine and the limit straps are nearly an inch short of max extension so their fine. Looking up close at the damage it looks like I lost the bump on the right which caused the shock to bottom out. The left I'm betting was due to the bump just being garbage. Their so old it nearly did nothing.

 

You've got another issue besides bumpstops. Something is flexing that shouldn't. You wouldn't bend the shaft of one coilover because the other broke and that side of the truck dropped down. If that were the case, every time you flexed your truck you'd replace your shocks.

Buying a different shock with a thicker shaft is a bandaid fix and will just cause you to break other parts instead. Figure out what caused the damage in the first place and fix it. Plenty of others have these same shocks and no issues.

 

Never said that's why the left bent.

BOTH sides are damaged from the impact, not from the other side breaking and collapsing.

There has never been any issues or binding or flexing where it's not intended in the front suspension. I recently flexed it out on the snowbanks this winter before moving out here so I know thats all fine.

The damage was from the impact, and potentially a few factors played into it. Bad/missing(?) bump stops, the terrain, speed... Looking over the front end it seems fine, theres a few more things Im still going to check for such as bends in my cross beams but it seems I'm lucky nothing worse came of it and it happened where it did in the sand where i could get the trailer to it...

I also noticed so far the grade 8 bolts for the top shock eye are slightly bent from the force as well. As the casualties from this add up ill keep posting.

 

pretty simple, shock is the bump in your case. if you drive it hard like that you will wreck those air shocks as well which arent any stronger btw. like doyouquaxu said fix the other issue. take coils off mount shocks and cycle the suspension and see where your bump stops need to be

 

Like I said, fix your issues. Bending is one thing, but having the shock shaft sheer like that can and will happen even with those new shocks you think you need. It will be cheaper for you to repair the shocks you have and then get them tuned to work with your truck instead of buying new shocks. A shaft will not break or bend unless there is binding or unusual movement. A quick hit from hitting a little rain rut or small whoop at a relatively low speed will not cause your problems. Fix your bump stops, make sure everything cycles CORRECTLY (at full bump metal to metal, you still want a bit of shock shaft showing so you don't end up breaking your shocks again), use limit straps, and tune your shocks to your truck. Bent & broken shock shafts plus bent grade 8 bolts sounds like you've got shocks that are too long for their application, or something is moving that shouldn't (lower arm is loose or has worn out bushings).

What's the valving in the shocks? Where'd you buy them from? What else is done to your truck and/or front suspension? The great part about what you have is that they can be 100% customized to work exactly like you need, but maybe 10% of people actually do that and the other 90% say the shock is faulty.

 

I'd like to thank the op for posting. Some of us (me) are still learning. Appreciate you posting your issue, and everyone else for their comments.

I use my truck on the street mostly, but now see I can't cheap out on the limit straps.....i was looking for ways to cut corners, but you really can't.

 

Bump stops are #1, as is making sure they work like they should. You can get away with no limit straps on the street. Don't get the front end off the ground from jumping. Flexing slowly and getting a front tire off the ground wont kill anything. It's the rapid movement of the suspension extending then the shock reaching the end of its working length (plus the momentum of your tire and other suspension components) that causes problems.

 

Sorry to necro this thread, but, whatever happened with this?