shock absorber angles

When starting from scratch to put shocks on the rear of my 41 (261 powered) Chevie PU I started to wonder how important the angles from perpendicular are. ie. front to back and side to side. Any takers on this one??
Yep a search was done.Thank you for reading (now help)

 

nobody know or nobody interested?

 

No more than 20 degrees in any direction,, the closer to straight up the better.
As the angles increase the effectiveness of the shock is reduced.

Hope this helps

 

Thank you, thats what I thought

 

I just went through this on mine......
You can either go inward, or forward 20-30 degrees. NOT BOTH. either canted inward, like a Corvette, or angled forward (or rearward) like a GM truck.

 

The shock doesn't know whether it's going forward, sideways or any combination of both. The angle measurement is off of verticle in any direction that is convenient to mount them and there is clearance for them to travel without binding.

Frank

 

18 -22 degrees as the angle increases as the car settles.

 

strait up is best but over 20* starts to get week as stated above.
In case your making mounts from scatch,the closer to the tires the shocks are mounted the better they work,shocks mounted in closer to center of axle get very week,this is seen a lot rods at the front & rear axle and they woneder why the steering gets the shakes .

 

I would also like to know, whitch would be better and why:
When I have the truck arm suspension in the rear, should I mount the shocks to axle but at an angle (at least 30*) or put them somewhere in the middle of arms, pointing straight up, if I need a lot of travel?

 

The angle affects the spring rate so more or less angle
is better as appropriate to get softer or stiffer ride.

 

This is true only when talking about coil-over shocks, not regular tubular airplane or gas-charged tubular airplane shocks.

 

Shocks are most effective when mounted the same as the direction of deflection. so in theory, you would mount them vertical. But of you do, they do not resist axle windup forces created by acceleration and braking, or side to side forces from body roll. Angling them forward helps resist axle tramp caused by acceleration, but not braking. Staggered shocks, one forward, and one back, resist both braking forces, and acceleration forces, as well as controlling bounce in the springs. And angling them in too, helps resist body roll, although the current thinking is to control body roll with a sway bar.

Another reason for angling the shock, you can mount a longer shock in the same vertical space, so for every inch the axle moves, the shock may only move 7/8". This does make the shock less effective, but you can use a stiffer shock to compensate. On a light car, where most shocks are too stiff to begin with, this can work in your favor. This allows using a longer shock on a lowered car without limiting axle travel like a short shock would.

The closer a shock is to the wheel is is controlling, the more effective it is, because the leverage of the wheel is less against the shock. When a wheel bounces, the fulcrum of the lever is actually the opposite wheel.

The more a shock is angled to the direction of the foce acting on it, the less effective it is. Vertical to the force, it is 100 percent effective, 45 degrees to the force 50 percent effective, 90 degrees to the force, 0 percent effective. Most shocks are calibrated to be run at 15 to 20 degrees from vertical.

 

Interesting shock lesson, thank you. I just went through mounting tubular shocks on a 49 Chevy half ton. It originally came with lever shocks which, when not leaking, are great. However mine were bad and it is too pricey to rebuild them.
When I adapted my truck I found a wrecked 51 Chevy truck chassis. That year (and later) had tubular shocks so I acquired the upper and lower mounts. The lower bolts on the axle u-bolts so figuring out location is not a problem. For the top I made a template from the 51 chassis hoping to use it on my 49. For some reason it did not work so I attached the mount about where it should go.
If anyone is familiar with the upper mount you will see 4 mounting holes but only 3 are used with the lower hole sitting below the truck chassis. In my case I used all 4 holes which puts the shock a bit more vertical than it would have been on the 51.
I was concerned about binding and such but I have driven the truck about 15 miles since and there appears to be no binding and the ride is good.
I am hoping there will be no problem with them being mounted in a place other than the intended location. I cannot say if they are bottoming or topping out and would like to know how I can tell if they are.