Thanks for the reply Mudd, The shock I am going to use on my first attempt at the rear will be a 12 inch fox coilover with a 1 inch spacer put inside to bring it down to 11 inch. The axle I ordered comes from sway away, the same place that ATv gets theres and is 2.5 inches longer than the stock axle, cost 325 for the pair. hoser mentioned you had 1 or 2 sitting with some parts Mudd. I will try to make a complete front and rear kit, Sway away can make the axle any length desired. One thing I have found that makes a kit a bit of a challenge for some is the outer Cv, Honda made it to not come apart, I did contact ATV racing and spoke to Niel who seams to be a very very nice guy who shared his info with me and he explained to me how to get it apart. It involves cutting the stock axle as close as possible to the outer cv, infact right up against it in a chop saw, that way you can turn the star and cage to remove 1 ball at a time because with the axle there you cannot rotate it far enough to remove the balls. It was still difficult to get the axle piece out of the star, and even more so to get the star and cage out of its housing. There is 1 spot that allows room to get it out I have found. The reason I bring this up is not everyone that owns a pilot is mechanically inclined, the axle change could be quite challenging for some, or undoable at all for some. But now that I know how to take them apart they could always send me the stock axles. This week is really the first time I have jumped into working and building this kind of thing for the pilot and am enjoying it, but working a real job 7-330 Monday-Friday and the after work welding I do on the side that pays real well, but is done at other shops and leaves me limited time to do this but I am going to do my best to make something you our anybody else may want. With patience you will get something that you will like at a price nobody can touch(they can but wont). I am also looking at cutting the front ball joints out of the stock arms if someone wants to save even more, they offer a bunch of movement as honda has them so drasticlly restricted with the stock front shock. The way I look at it if I cut them out is no loss, I never plan to go back to stock ever again anyway and they would just be laying around. As lite as the front is even if you let the ball joint bottom on every time the wheel leaves the ground you wont hurt them. As I said in another post I want to help people improve there pilot experience with out braking them At the end of the day it is just working with metal!, and that is something I love to do. When I get the rear finished and turn to the front I plan on making jigs from my finished product that will turn this into a a no time at all to build thing.This one will have hoops similar to the ATV r kit that is so expensive, it is 1---ONE simple bend that takes about 30 seconds on my bender(cant get out of my head how much there kit is)but I am going to look into different shocks to maybe mount in the stock position or maybe a bolt on mount? For me FOX will be the shock of choice for the rear, as I have no problem cutting the cans and shafts to make a shock length to fit what ever application, they are so easy to rebuild, and valving and parts are 3 miles away! and re valving to make it work the way I want will be very simple. There is zero reason a fox cant be made to work as well or better as any way overpriced ATV shock on the market. One thing I personally will never use on my pilots is a air shock, not that there is anything what so ever wrong with a airshock, people use and ride there pilots everyday with them and have a blast, but I want my car to handle the absolute best it possably can, one thing you NEVER see in desert racing is a air shock on any car and if it does have it it certainly is NOT in the winners circle or even close to it on its very best day. If cost on a coilover is to hi for ones budget, save longer, you wont be sorry. If air shock technology was so good, I asure you it would be on dezert racing cars of all types and sizes. Unless your running on a groomed track, with nothing but turns and some jumps or trailriding then the shock doesnt much mater, but if you like challenging long woop sections, typical desert type terrain, and handle it all the best your pilot can, then I would go coilover. I have watched and driven stadium cars, briggs with air shocks and eee with coils, I would take the EEE any day of the week just because of the shocks and because of the way it handled. The Price EEE I talk about was a proven victor over Briggs many time over and best part I got to drive them 1 after the other so the comparison was fresh, jump out of 1 and into the other. They both were capable of doing the same thing, at the same speed but the comfort and ride was much better in the number 1 EEE. The Briggs car worked ok and was fast but the other car gave more confidence and was more forgiving. The eee soaked things up where the other reacted off of things, kinda pranced over things Very noticeable difference. Took more effort to drive the briggs, and I am sure it rode the very best it could with airshocks, but you can only go so far with it. Any questions please ask, please give me your thoughts or concerns---Dave
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