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05-09 Legacy & Outback Stock Shock Travel


covertrussian

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In another thread MilesA mentioned that Legacies have a very generous amount of front shock travel stock. Since I had a few shocks laying around decided to measure them.

 

This is measured on an 09 Legacy 3.0R, but should be the same for all Legacy Sedans/Wagons. I measured a little more then 4.00" to the bump stop, this is pretty good for a strut car!

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=256154&stc=1&d=1506876477

 

Yesterday I was replacing the struts on an 06 Outback, I had a heck of a time getting the spring compressed enough to fit the top hat (had to resort to buying two more spring compressors). The same spring fit perfectly on the Legacy strut :confused:. Curious about whats going on I measured the Outback strut and bumpstop, to only get 2.25" of travel! Basically Subaru just raised the spring perch mount on the shock body, without changing the shock length.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=256150&stc=1&d=1506876165

 

The bump stop looked longer too, so then I plopped the the Outback bump stop onto the Legacy strut, and it reduced the travel to 3.25".

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=256151&stc=1&d=1506876165

 

To Summarize

Legacy Travel - ~4.00in

Outback Travel - ~2.25in

Outback Bump Stop is around .80" longer then Legacy one

1861372075_Travel-05-09Outback-2_25in.jpg.0ef1e417858aee5b241d8f755e90003b.jpg

747339471_Travel-05-09Legacyw-OBBumpStop-3_25in.jpg.5fa3a38512a2ad87ba7225840ce59770.jpg

950563206_Travel-05-09Legacy-4_0in.jpg.c7167b29eeeac96d2faec5fb62f6459f.jpg

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12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct

00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg

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In another thread someone mentioned that Legacies have a very generous amount of front shock travel stock. Since I had a few shocks laying around decided to measure them.

 

This is measured on an 09 Legacy 3.0R, but should be the same for all Legacy Sedans/Wagons. I measured a little more then 4.00" to the bump stop, this is pretty good for a strut car!

 

I think that was me. Rear travel is slightly more than the front, IIRC.

 

To Summarize

Legacy Travel - ~4.00in

Outback Travel - ~2.25in

Outback Bump Stop is around .80" longer then Legacy one

 

Surprising, I'm kind of disappointed to hear Subaru handled it that way. Or is that just the KYB replacements? What about the stockers?

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Travel needs to include the extension as well as compression parts of the piston stroke. Otherwise, your tires could not follow the road on dips and uneven surfaces.

 

Maybe it would be good to break the travel measurement up into two parts. Also, worth noting that travel at the shock is not necessarily the same as at the wheel.

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You're measuring the travel without the weight of the car on it,which would probably be 30 percent less.

 

Zack K.

 

As MilesA mentioned, the travel goes both ways, topping out the damper can be as damaging as bottoming it out. I would like to think in the perfect world you get 50% of travel up and down, but it's probably less. I should measure it with a zip tie.

 

Maybe it would be good to break the travel measurement up into two parts. Also, worth noting that travel at the shock is not necessarily the same as at the wheel.

 

Correct, thread is more about the maximum theoretical travel that our struts have. With that said, our fronts are very close to 1:1 motion ratio (~0.95:1), thus wheel to shock travel will be close. Rear has a much higher motion ratio (~0.85:1), so rear's wheel travel will be more then shock travel.

05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD)

12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct

00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg

22 Ascent STOCK

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The stock bump stops are pretty soft initially. What is the total travel on each including the bumpstop?

 

Does it compress all the way to the threads where you mount the strut top?

 

Do you have any way to test the maximum bump stop compression (two boards and driving over it with a car?)

 

This is making those Ohlins with 4" of travel look a lot better. If I could just find $2K hiding under a rock....

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The stock bump stops are pretty soft initially. What is the total travel on each including the bumpstop?

 

Does it compress all the way to the threads where you mount the strut top?

 

Do you have any way to test the maximum bump stop compression (two boards and driving over it with a car?)

 

This is making those Ohlins with 4" of travel look a lot better. If I could just find $2K hiding under a rock....

 

I need to measure all of this still.

 

Or you can swap in LGT struts and springs, which gives you 4" travel. Lowering on Outback struts = recipe for disaster.

 

These pictures look familiar.... lol

 

Man you're too skinny to provide me enough shadow for the pics :lol:

05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD)

12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct

00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg

22 Ascent STOCK

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what about mixing and matching parts. lets say you're sick of you old ride, lets pretend its an 02 legacy, could you put legacy bump stops on baja strut/spring assembly as well as keeping your subframe bump stop and keep the same size tire how much travel? like 3 or so?

 

what if you keep the legacy struts. but again same tire . baja spring . would you keep the 4in travel or would it just follow the road + grooves more terribly?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I took the spring off to measure my camber curves today. With the hub at the static height (height of the car while on the ground).

 

Anyway at static height, the suspension has only 1" of bump travel before you hit the bump stop.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=257459&stc=1&d=1509422340

 

I was able to force compress it to 2.40" but that wouldn't happen in the real world with the spring in place. 1.6" is about the realistic maximum of bump travel.

982393140_05LGTStockHeightTravel.thumb.jpg.550938c8eeb2885f2f9d5bfb675cffb1.jpg

05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD)

12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct

00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg

22 Ascent STOCK

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Interesting, so how are people able to get away with lowering springs that lower more than 1"? Wouldn't they be riding on the bump stops all the time? How is the car being supported on that corner if there's no spring there?
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Interesting, so how are people able to get away with lowering springs that lower more than 1"? Wouldn't they be riding on the bump stops all the time? How is the car being supported on that corner if there's no spring there?

 

It's possible that my stock springs are so worn out that they are lower then stock :lol:. But in all seriousness, they are probably very close to riding on their bump stops. It could be that our motion ratios are less then 0.96, which means wheel travels more then shock.

 

The car is supported by a jack, I measured from center of the hub to the top of the wheel arch (made marks on fender to keep the tape measure at same spot).

05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD)

12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct

00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg

22 Ascent STOCK

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I was able to force compress it to 2.40" but that wouldn't happen in the real world with the spring in place. 1.6" is about the realistic maximum of bump travel.

 

Out of curiosity, why do you think that the spring would limit travel this much?

 

Our front springs dont have many coils, thus have a lot of travel before they get into coil bind. They also have a fairly low spring rate compared to the bump stop toward the end of it's travel. So I dont think that extra ~400lb of spring force between 1.6" and 2.4" is going to have much effect on a pot hole that's trying to move a 3500lb car up 3" in 3ms.

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It was kind of weird, mostly by how much force it took me to compress it the last 1". Also how close the bottom spring perch was to the top one. It's kind of hard to see, but this is a picture of it being at 2.40", the lower perch is practically touching the upper one.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=257461&stc=1&d=1509424462

 

Now I did newb this up a little, I forgot to undo the swaybar end link, so that would explain why it got more difficult to compress it after a while. But still doesn't change the fact that lower perch was basically contacting the top perch.

05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD)

12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct

00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg

22 Ascent STOCK

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OK, wow. It looks like some aftermarket coilovers might actually give MORE bump travel than the OEM setup. From your data it looks like the front has a total travel (including bump stop compression) of ~120mm. KW V2's/RCE T1's for instance have 160mm of travel per RaceComp Engineering.

 

Any data on the rear yet?

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OK, wow. It looks like some aftermarket coilovers might actually give MORE bump travel than the OEM setup. From your data it looks like the front has a total travel (including bump stop compression) of ~120mm. KW V2's/RCE T1's for instance have 160mm of travel per RaceComp Engineering.

 

Any data on the rear yet?

 

Actually I just found another picture, I took it after the other picture I posted, looks like I lied. This one showed that lower perch was actually far from hitting the top perch. When I go in there again, I might check it again, but I believe stock springs would be binding by this much bump.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=257678&stc=1&d=1509758110

 

RE to your first post before edit, I measured around 2.9" of droop past the 0 point. Guess Subaru figured it would be drooping a lot more then compressing.

20171030_202658.thumb.jpg.f4004ebab602039afd0b4764c6d8588c.jpg

05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD)

12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct

00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg

22 Ascent STOCK

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