I’ve been toying around with the idea of adding some 14” king shocks (maybe bypasses, not sure yet). Now, just to get this out of the way: I’m not really doing this for the absolute purpose of better off road handling. I’m happy with how my jeep drives both on and off road. I mainly want to do this because I want to keep building my jeep (I have considered shifting focus to my interior as well, stereo, sound dampening, more comfy seats, an actual roll cage, etc) but I’m not interested in stepping up to $15k axles and new wheels. So, more flex and longer shocks seem appropriate. I’ll also add some dual rate springs too since my springs will just come unseated and become an issue.

I haven’t ever done this to a vehicle before and my google searches haven’t come up with much helpful info.

Would I be safe to assume that it’s as simple as figuring out shock mounts to make sure I don’t bottom out the shock at full stuff, and have limit straps to not over extend them at full droop? What else do I need to consider?

 

I am certainly no suspension guru, but it seems to me at that point you are asking a lot out of a traditional coil spring and shock setup and would instead be moving to coilovers. I can't imagine that at your height it's going to make any improvements. It seems like the shocks would be too long and you'd simply then limit them with straps so would likely not even see that full travel. Curious to hear what @TheDirtman has to say about your idea.

It kinda seems like the idea is doing something for the sake of doing something, and if you're happy with how it's driving on/off road, I think it would be smarter to focus on other things. If you're willing to go down that road, a full cage could be pretty nice, though that is a pretty big commitment.

Regardless of how far anyone takes it, a build does eventually level out. Finding happiness before you overbuild and grow tired of it is key IMO .

 

It depends on how much lift yo are running. If you are a LCOG build then 14" is too long as in you will be all down travel and you will be on the bumps a lot. ifyou are up around 6" of lift, then you can make 14" work pretty well. I don't care for mounting coil overs out back behind the axle either. The weight weight of the vehicle is always trying to rotate the axle pushing the pinion up. It puts more wear on the joints and when you remmove a link it is a pain to get it back in unless you have the weight off the coil over.

 

I have right at 3” of lift and 5” up travel and 5” down. As of now I have about 2.5”-3” before my hydro bump (2” travel there) hits the bump pad on the axle.

Can I just make new shock towers to raise the top mount? This will keep me at 5” up and then give me 9” down. Is that too much?

The shocks are my limiting factor on suspension travel and I do feel like I get a wheel off the ground too often which reduces my stability. I can only do so much for up travel without doing a bunch of cutting that I don’t wanna do. I also won’t be using coilovers, not for a long time, if ever. I don’t mind a little fab work for shock towers, I’ll keep the lower mounts in the same spot on the axle but will use different axle mounts to rotate the shock mount orientation.

 

You will likely have to move some stuff under the hood to make room for the tall mounts. The passenger side is pretty easy since you can move the battery to the rear of the jeep but the driver side has the ABS module and is a bit harder to make the room. With 9" of down travel I would check your drive line to make sure it wont bind at that much droop. That is right about where mine binds up at 9" of down travel. I run 7" up with 18" travel shocks. I have my fenders clearanced out and moved all that stuff under the hood, notched both sides of the frame, and installed a shorter radiator to get the up travel. My upper shock mounts are thru the hood. 3" tripple bypass and 2.5" coil over are more than you are doing but still not easy as "installing new mounts". You are also going to mounting them below/rear the axle and they really should be mounted on top of the axle which would require an even taller upper mount. EVO and Rebel have kits out there that let you run coil overs but they are expensive and not optimal. At least you get the tuning of a coil over which is better than convential coil and springs. ORI struts would also be an option to look at if you are not racing.

 

What shocks are you running now? You have to remember the taller shock that you get the longer the body will be as well. Do you have room to outboard your shocks in the rear? I'm at 4" lift and I tried to run 12" 2.5 kings in the rear and the shock body is too long. It only gave me about 3" up. I had to take them off and will be doing an outboard setup in the future to utilize them. At 3" lift I believe 12" is all you would need.

 

Get yourself ADS 3 tube bypass shocks ...will make a huge difference offroad.

 

Kinda pricey to put on a jeep and at 12" would be the max without major work. They are a good alterniteve for someone with deep pockets but it is not going to help the OP with acheiving more travel.