The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk rear shock mount location

Decided to replace my rear lever action shocks with tubulars on the 49. I have all the upper and lower mounting brackets and such.
To mount the upper brackets I made a template from my 53 to determine the location. I spent a fair bit of time doing so, starting with cardboard and transferring it to a piece of plexiglass.
My question is about how critical is the location? If I am off by plus or minus an inch or less is this going to be a problem?
I would like to have kept the lever action but at $165 each to rebuild them plus transport is out of my budget.

I would think you are good to go on that .
if ya dont have to seriously SMOOSH the rubber grommets to 1 side or the other it should work .

I installed a 2 inch piece of steel across the back behind the rear differential and bolted/welded to the frame on each side to act as a rear shock support and to strap up the rear tank I'm installing on my 46. I read somewhere that you should not exceed an angle on the shock more than 15 degrees if your mounting them front to back and 30 degrees if mounting them parallel to the differential. I also welded universal shock mounts onto the rear of the differential to connect the lower shocks which are available from any good parts store or do a search on the internet. I also used my newer 1/2 ton as a sort of template to go by. One of the big manufacturers of shocks puts out a chart for the proper length and travel recommended for your application. Also I recommend doing a little read up on how shocks actually work as I was quite surprised that they work to get rid of the rebounding effect in the rear. Hope this helps and good luck.
Bob T

Thanks all. I cannot say for certain but I think the stock location of the tubulars was more than 30 degrees off the vertical.

I don't think shock action would be affected much by position but as I recall the stem comes quite close to the bedwood underneath. I would double check the mount's relationship to the bed floor. I found a pic in my album that might help a bit. Good luck.

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2805825990023244788GtFrcu

Curt B.

You got my curosity going and since I have my truck with me today I had a peek. The top of the shock stem is at least 1 1/2" from the bed floor so no issue there but if you move it more towards vertical it looks like cross sill interference comes into play.

Curt B.