Can anyone tell me what effect the angle of the front shock absorbers has. I have bought a chassi and the front shock mounts have been welded on underneath the chassi rail and further in towards the center line of the chassi by adding another piece of box section to the top rail
Rescued attachment Shocker.jpg

The more angled they are, the less the effective spring rate is....I.E. they appear softer.

This isn't a problem IF it has been allowed for.

Why was it done, any idea?

I bet he bought coil-overs that were too long!

There are occasions when a shock has to be laid over, to fit within certain design constraints. Your chassis isn't one of them.
As Alan says, you can work out a spring rate that will do the job (there's an on-line "angled-shock-spring-rate" calculator on my site), but you're always better off mounting the shock as near to vertical as possible.
I'd try and sell the shocks you have, and buy ones of the correct length.

They look like RH's Zeemerides to me. Is your bottom wishbone made to the book dimensions. I have them on mine and they fit normally.

yours, Pete.

Depending on the size of the spring (OD) and the design of the top wishbone sometime you have to lean the top shock mount in so that the spring fits up inside the top wishbone V. I think this is one reason why locosts use 1.9" springs and why the MK wishbones use bent tubes and a wide V on the top wishbone.

You get a bigger falling rate effect by angling the shock in like this also. If its the correct length shock the ride height will also be lower than it normally would, although you should get this back on your adjuster, so long as there is enough adjustment available.

Kind regards,

Darren

Thanks for the replies hope to get it sorted this week.

As well as feeling softer initially, they get even softer as the unit approaches the bump stop.

As you get higher up, the shock becomes more horizontal, so there's even less spring compression for every inch of vertical wheel movement.

- Greg H