Overview of available lift kits

[RLW]

Thought this was a great over view of lift kits available for the bronco. Quite comprehensive as well.

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[goatman2]

Yes, lots of pretty good info there. He's mostly going over the various products, but doesn't have a firm grasp of the technical aspects. While it's a bit nit picky, I wouldn't want anyone watching to get bad info that they might repeat. He used two terms incorrectly. One term used is "body lift". He referred to coil/shock spacers as a body lift, which it is not. It is simply a suspension spacer. A body lift refers to body on frame vehicles (like a Bronco), and replaces the stock rubber frame to body mounts with a taller mount, which raises the body relative to the frame and allows more room for bigger tires. The taller body mounts don't change anything on the suspension. So, don't call coil spacers a "body lift" or some friends might call you on the incorrect term.

The other correction is the term "bypass" shocks. He kind of partially explained what a bypass shock is (but is obvious he doesn't really know), but the shocks he referred to are not bypass shocks. He was referring to reservoir shocks. When he changed from going over non-reservoir shocks to reservoir shocks, he used the term bypass, which they are not, simply a shock with a reservoir. Both King and Fox have bypass and internal bypass shocks as products, but the shocks so far available for the Bronco are not bypass shocks.

Other than a misuse of those two terms, it is a pretty informative video.

To clarify what a bypass shock is, the main point is that it is position sensitive, meaning that the valving is different for different positions of the piston while moving up and down inside the shock. The simplest explanation is using a two tube bypass. In the middle of the stroke some oil moves through the valving in the shock piston, but some oil bypasses the piston through tubes outside of the shock, so valving in the middle of the stroke is softer and more compliant. As the piston moves towards the end of the stroke it goes past the bypass tubes so then all of the oil must go through the valving in the piston which dramatically increases the stiffness of the valving. This allows softer, faster and more comfortable valving in the middle but much stiffer and more controlled valving as the shock compresses and extends. So, as the truck hits a big hole or whoops there is more resistance to fully bottoming out, and more resistance to bouncing off the bump stops in rebound. There is also more resistance at full extension to slow the shock before the piston travels back the other direction, gaining more control of the suspension. Most bypass shocks use external tubes and check valves, but internal bypass shocks use a double shock body with holes drilled in the inside shock body which allows oil to flow between the two internal and external shock bodies.