Well in case you haven't seen it here is the youtube version of what happened!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwLBiVFE-xc
A link to the trip...


What I have been doing these last few days was fixing the damage to the left front of the pilot, and the minor damage on the left rear!
I replaced the a-arms (tanks again Slickrick) and Randy at www.odysseysalvage.com sent me some tie rod ends because the ones I had had some bad rubber! The hardest part was to straighten out the rear control arm that I thought was damaged in the rollver... But after removing it I really think it was damaged by hitting a rock the a few days before when Rick and I went rock crawling! Simply had a few dents in the angle iron where it was bent at! I will need to get a new one soon! I had to use my trailer and a jack to get it as straight as I could, but it is not perfect...
Need to see what size thes come in and I will start collecting them for an eventual long travel rear.. When time and money allow! I stitched up the plastic and also need to find a red reflector to replace the one I broke...
The rear bumper was a chore to get lined up and re welded! I still have to pull the "wing" area back square, but all the mounting hardware has been rewelded and remounted!
The front rim is tweaked real bad and I will try to beat it back out when time allows...
The "race" I thought was Saturday is only a "prerun party" and I won't drive 5 hours each way just to "party" At my age lol my parties require a good nap afterwards hahahaha
The actual race is not till March and I don't have the short term memory to remember the course from now to then!!!
My biggest concern is the 35 mile laps... I need to see if I can go that far full out in one tank... Sunday I will tape a gps to the pilot and see how far I get!
All I have left to do is to replace the front bumper and retorque the roll cage bolts and she will be ready to go!

Turbo, elabarte on the shocks please. An eye to eye shot and some comparisons. Might ask you shock guy about a dual rate spring package for them.

The eye to eye was only about 3/8" longer! It's the extra shaft is what I am assuming added the length! I do know my tie rods no longer rub the fram as they did with the fox's...
I didn't get any better pic's I will send BOTH Shocks back to Downsouth so he can fix them up.. but later after I get the ody up and running...

Thanks. Do yo know when they rub. Compressed or extended right or left lock upper or lower frame tube. Shoot a pic on the frame where they rub. I ran into some issues witht his on the wifes and found a way around it. An example of refrence would be: left side, shock extended, right wheel lock lower frame tube rub.

Here are some older pictures adnoh...
With the FOX shocks the "hoserized tierods would drag at full sag or drop and at lock only... So if the wheel was turned right the left tierod would rub on the frame... And the same for the opposite side. What I did to aleveate the issue was to grind the tubing over the stock tierod down where it rubed the frame. I never felt like the wheel was anywhere near a lockup or even stiff when trying to return to a straight drive position...

With the Stock shocks in it now it is no where near rubbing... I will try to find some pictures showing the longer shaft on the fox shocks!
I rode the Pilot for several hours Yesterday, and could feel the shocks bottom out on several occasions! I was really missing the fox shocks as I never fgelt the steering wheel jolt with them on!
Let me know what else you need!

Some pic's I took today with the stock shocks

So when your jumping and have the steering either turned fully right or left the steering will lock up until you make a slight contact with the ground and the shock starts to compress?

Those shocks longer than stock ?

They were only about 3/8" longer eye to eye... I will remeasure tomorrow... And yea I guess they would, but when I am in the air I tend not to do a "crossup" with the steering wheel. And no I don't thing it locked up just rubbed...

Sorry if I confused the issue of rub with lock up. What I meant was when the wheel was turned full right or left. It's an easy fix. What I did was add a spacer to the inner tie rod. I will post up a pic of what I did for clearence on frame rub. The picture does not show it but after the spacer was added I removed the stock lock nut and installed a castle nut so a cotter pin could be inserted for safty. Only add enough thickness to get ride of rub. Then reset your toe at ride height with rider weight in the pilot. Do not add spacer at the hub it will change the bump steer in the wrong direction. After you add spacer check it at droop and compression right and left to make sure there is no clearence or bind issues. This allowed my stock armed pilot to go to 9" of front travle with a shock relocate and altering the stock works shock.

That's a great idea!!! I think I have some castle nuts! I will have to remember this once I get the shocks back! How do you figure the ratio on the stock arms if my shocks have a longer traveling shaft...
I really like the fox shocks and until I put the stocks on I never knew how good they were!!!

How to figure the ratio is not very hard to do if you take the shock eye-to-eye and shaft length ( stroke) including the bump stop and the total wheel travel at the hub center line and do some simple math.

First: Measure the shock eye-to-eye shock extended. Example 20"
Second: Measure the exposed shaft length (include bump stop). Example 5"
Third: Find the compressed eye-to-eye. Example 20-5=15" eye-to-eye compressed.

If this was a one to one ratio the wheel travel is 5"
If the shaft length was 6" at a one to one than the travel is 6"

We all know the pilot front has an angle to them so we need to find the ratio.

So armed with the eye-to-eye #'s we can find the ratio by Jacking up the pilot with the front wheel removed and the shock installed (will take off later) and set the centerline of the hub at an even number like 20" off the ground. Now take a set of vise grips and lock in the steering column so it doesn’t move. Now remove the shock and us the numbers you have obtained by the example above. To do this you first set the hub centerline at the 20" mark from the ground which is the extended eye-to-eye #. Then use the compressed number and raise the arms to were the shock eye-to-eye are the compressed number in this case 15" ( install shock bolts to make it easier to hook tape measure and set at the compressed # with jack under hub) then measure you hub center line from the ground. Example: The hub centerline measures 28", 28-20= 8" of wheel travle.

Now to find ratio: 8”of wheel travel to 5" of shaft travel. 8/5=1.6, the wheel move 1.6" for every inch of shaft. This is a basic guide line this is not the case in all instances. As the angle changes so does the ratio.

Now you can add an inch of shaft and see what the wheel rate is for the new shaft length. If the shaft is 1” longer and the extended has not changed than then you just take
6 x 1.6=9.6 of wheel travel. If the extended has changed than do the simple math and use you tape measure to find the ratio and wheel travel.

Oh now I'll have to drag the pilot back out of the trailer LOL I put it up hoping to find a load!
Here are some pic's of the stock shock minus the spring, and the remaining good fox shock
The eye to eye is 3/8" longer! the shaft itself shows an inch longer including the bump stop!

No need to drag out if you do not want to I will use your numbers and let you know. I have data on stock shock and stock arms. All I will do is change the extended by 3/8 and the shaft stroke by an inch. I did notice on you upper arm in the pics they have been changed to heims. Is that on the donor arm or the one you distroyed. If it was onth eone you distroyed is there one one the other side just like it. I ask because if they added caster with that set up then it would add to the rub and another adjustment may be necesary as well.

No those are old pictures with the hiems... I took that off when I got the pilot! Just wanted oem and to match!
What I want to figure out with your help is how much travel I have with this setup, and also how much I would have with the yoda arms and these shocks... Simply trying to figure out what the cost would be, and if it would be worth the investment... If the setup is close to yours the 9" of travel is what I would get from yoda kit with airshocks... I do like the extra width and forward setting, but in these tough times I have to be wiser with the money I spend!!!

9" is a respectable travel for just changing shocks you will need to dial in the shocks real close to get the most! The adnoH route might be the way to go until the economy fattens up again I don't see that happening anytime soon lol

The stock shocks suck for sure but they are a well design tuff as hell shock! I bet I bottomed out my stock shocks 100k times before switching to the FOX airs...

I remember long ago guys talking about getting more travel out of the front by just going to a longer shock in front I guess this is what they were talking about.

I wonder if a shock that was 1.5" longer would also work and what travel it would provide?

I can see the only limiting factor would be the tie rod clearance... Without spending several hundred for an atv racing kit just for the linkage or doing what adnoh did and build your own I see this as a cheap alternitive! I am fixing to load tomorrow to PA and want to send off my front fox shocks to downsouth motorsports fpr repairs...
The only problem I have with the economy is the loads I pull have dropped in revenue! Same work for 1/2 the price... Hard to get used to!! But the fact that I have my truck paid for is a real blessing right now!

Turbo, did some math. Sorry it took so long I could not find my data. I missplaced a weeks worth. For your fox I come up with 7.5 inches rounded up ( 7.473). If the shaft had a stroke of +1.5 it would take it to 8.25 round down ( 8.259825). The thing I find interesting is the way the tie rod cleaenc is an issue at +3/8 extended. Would you look at you spring on the shock that snapped the shaft and see if there is any wear marks on the top and bottom of the coils. and if so tell me how many coil before the wear disapates.

Tubo I was reviewing your post agian and noticed you placed the stock shock upside down. With the stock shock the body goes down and shaft up. This efffect the unsping weight. This is why most after market changes this so as to increase the effectiveness of the shock. Less weight = better reaction.

His shocks are probably pumping nitrogen then most shocks cant be run upside down, if they have a external reservoir and their is no nitrogen in the body then your ok.

My vote is for a adnoh steering kit its all bolt on? How are those kits coming along?

"H" as far as a anti tie rod hit kit goes my hacker skills may not be good enough for a others to use. The design is working well so far with no failures. I have updated a few things when I redesigned them with the idol stops. I added a grease sert and groved the bushing for lubration and changes the angle of the idoler its self. On tare down every thing seams ok. No broken welds,no funny wear patterens,no torn boots or signs of stress on the ball joints, no paint chips showing signes of stress on the idolers and no loose nuts from stretching. I have a new design in the works that may allow the use on the stock and + 2 arms mainting the stock bump rates so the stock hubs can be used as well as an why to adjust them for different arms like the yoda to trx for those who just want something new. The new design is also a bolt up but a different confiquration. I been working on this since I installed a set on the wifes and went UM. The turing number just don't work. The outer tie rod and inter tie rod and angle don't pan out. I played wiht the idea of adding an adjustable ball to the upper stock arm and hiems on the pivot to fix. I found a ball joint that has a long stem so I could just cut off the ball at the tube and ream it a little and install with jamb nut on each side. Stixs has an arm with hiems on it and so does turbo. So I thought why not try it. I thought a over lay of chromoly with a bung and plus 2 arm. The arms still weak but good starting point for new arm design. The new design would be all one piecs that just slid in and bolted up. The tierod lenght would be basic but field adjusted for each arm set up. To many numbers with differnt arms and shocks. If it pans out to work I will post up pics for others to copy and improve on and build there own. The one thing I really do not like is te deflection rate. I build some in so as to give under harsh hit instead of bending and I have noticed in some video break down it apperas to be excessive but I do not feel any ill effects in the wheel or direction change. I'm not sure if the bushing material is not dense enough or the deflection is an angle issue. As a rule one does not want deflection steer and most steering has none to verry little deflection. So I pounder the two. The other thing is sterring effort. Gotta be a way to lighten it up and still reep the rewards of no whell lash. Oh well just keep hacking till I figue it out.

I put the stock shocks in upside down when I fixed the mess from the wreck... I saw ricks and just went by that instead of looking at the manual!!!

No big deal"H" said it does not matter. Heck for fun put one one way and the other the other way. Now that's how they do it in texas, upside down upside right your right both ways. Be safe on your trip. Its snowing up this way.

when you get the chance try to figure out what the fox shocks I have will do for the yoda kit!