Shocks...

[Divster]

I have DeCarbon shocks on my 90 and I have not managed to damage them.

I do know someone who slipped in the shower though so I would suggest only taking baths, all showers are death traps.

Chris

Only baths for me

Still wouldn't go back to De-carbons

[MarkieB]

Have you lot tried those kind of grippy rubber stickers for the bath? Saves slipping when bathing as well as when showering? Modern showers have generally got this kind of textured surface, although you could probably stick the rubber stickers to them as well. Try your local hardware barn? :D

My coat, thanks!

reminds me of the Darwin award story involving a woman + a lobster..

[Mark90]

and a lighter?

[Turbocharger]

Do any of the shock manufacturers give tech info on the damping coefficient, or do they just sell them in "will break" and "won't break" bins, and charge for them by length?

[Daan]

Do any of the shock manufacturers give tech info on the damping coefficient,

No, I asked explorer uk when I bought Procomps but I didnt get the answer. I can recommend the procomps though. Some bilsteins are rebuildable to give you the right coefficient, all the others are sealed and are as is. Unless you go and buy the megabucks shocks of reiger or ohlins.

I am a bit amazed that many springs you can buy dont actually have their springrate mentioned, so you cant compare with what you have. I mean you cant say these springs give you 2 inch lift, because it depends on how heavy your car is.

[MarkieB]

and a lighter?

that'll be her; my memory must have glossed over a few of the details until you reminded me

[jules]

Unless you go and buy the megabucks shocks of reiger or ohlins.

My challage truck runs Pro-comps as part of my sposership which I wanted for rock crawling ability where they excel but she is a bit wollowy on the road but there +4's and at the time it was what I wanted.

Both my racers run Reiger and Ohlins both fully two way (damp and rebound )adjustable and hight adjustable as well.

Ohlins talked about the 90 but it was too much money for what I use the truck for.

for good shocks you will need to look at the £250 each starting price but the average truck just does not need them.

My Reigers are £1750 + Vat each (WRC Focus strut redesigned and fitted to a Freelander)

My Ohlins are £1200 + Vat each (Made for the Dakar Rally)

That hearts when you need four at a time but the diffrance is worth it when raceing

So as you can imagin I have looked into shocks over the years but gave up and left it to the experts.

When Racing a good shock and spring set is worth 50bhp all day long

[rick]

My challage truck runs Pro-comps as part of my sposership which I wanted for rock crawling ability where they excel but she is a bit wollowy on the road but there +4's and at the time it was what I wanted.

Both my racers run Reiger and Ohlins both fully two way (damp and rebound )adjustable and hight adjustable as well.

Ohlins talked about the 90 but it was too much money for what I use the truck for.

for good shocks you will need to look at the £250 each starting price but the average truck just does not need them.

My Reigers are £1750 + Vat each (WRC Focus strut redesigned and fitted to a Freelander)

My Ohlins are £1200 + Vat each (Made for the Dakar Rally)

That hearts when you need four at a time but the diffrance is worth it when raceing

So as you can imagin I have looked into shocks over the years but gave up and left it to the experts.

When Racing a good shock and spring set is worth 50bhp all day long

Jules, have you thought of Fox for the challenge truck ?? Fox Racing Shox

A lot cheaper than Ohlins, their basic shock has no external adjustments, but is re-valveable/re-buildable.

Looks like the Ohlins prices have gone up from when I was involved in road racing, nearly ten years ago. The standard mono-tube Ohlins was A$1750 each, and the then new twin tube TT44 triple or quadruple adjustable was @ A$2600, and didn't I get lost using those a couple of times...

[JST]

i have run procomps for about a year now and rate them highly (mainly offroad)

also run Monroe shocks on the td5 for 70k odd miles and still going strong

so would recommend either.

[Log]

Ive had De-Carbon shocks on my 110 for the last 80 K miles. They transformed the handling and are still like new. Would fit them again without hesitation.

Log

[simonr]

Trying to get the damping coeff's out of the manufacturers is.....well good luck!

My experience:

Rancho 9000 - fairly good adjustable, but the rings are barely welded at all and come off too easily

Rancho 3000 (non adjustable) - Use these on SV and am quite impressed for on-road use

Koni - much better made than Rancho (see further down for general problem with adjustables though)

DeCarbon - not bad in terms of damping. Have had one ring fall off and one rod snap (puncturing an air bag). However, they have lasted 3 years of abuse.

ProComp - very well made. Damping better than DeCarbon and much better than expected

OME - Have some to fit on front (pro-comp +4 on back), but not tried yet. V.good by all accounts though.

Variable Damping:

I initially thought this was a good idea, but have reservations now. Trouble is, adjustables only have one valve whereas non adjustables have several (up to about 16). While the adjustables give a wider total range of damping, a given setting has a narrow bandwidth of conditions in which it works well.

A good quality non-adjustable will adapt itself to many different combinations of springs, speed & terrain while adjustables need adjusting for each. They work OK if you have the in-cab remote adjust kit, but it's just another thing to play with and they rarely end up set optimally for the conditions.

The bottom line. I'd go (and have gone) for ProComp for length with good all round performance and OME for good handling (including hill climbing) with less travel though.

Another thing to watch out for is deCarbon (and I dare say others) quoted as +2" have a 2" longer body, but only actually +1/8" extra travel!

Si

[Mark]

Thanks for all the advice people.

A lot more seems to have come out of this thread than just the answer to mi initial question!

Anyway, I have been offered a set of koni adjustables, which I like (I have konis on the IIa) so I am going to go for those.

Cheers for the advice all

Mark

[jules]

Jules, have you thought of Fox for the challenge truck ?? Fox Racing Shox

A lot cheaper than Ohlins, their basic shock has no external adjustments, but is re-valveable/re-buildable.

Looks like the Ohlins prices have gone up from when I was involved in road racing, nearly ten years ago. The standard mono-tube Ohlins was A$1750 each, and the then new twin tube TT44 triple or quadruple adjustable was @ A$2600, and didn't I get lost using those a couple of times...

Could have done I run Mcphursan strut.

I got the reigers cheap as direct they were another £250 each extra but M-sport had spares for sale.

I did not by the Ohlins they were fitted when I got the truck but thay have just cost me £900 to have the from pair seviced as they were a little neglected on the Dakar.

mormal coilovers are much cheaper but the regs would not allow them at the time.

Fox are good and the Milner and Tomcat technoligy is making them very competative in the BORC.

Pro comp have released a 2.5" shock with coolers which are half the price of shocks Richard Truman is running them in the BORC in his 3m/QT 88" racer and was raving about then at the end of last season

[white90]

Had OME for a fair while now

one of the rear shocks broke the mounting eye off, D44 replaced under 2yr warranty

so I replaced the other rear at the same time so I now have a used spare.

I have replaced the rear springs with a different poundage to suit the 90

the orig 764s I removed had not sagged at all in approx 18months of use.

James gets more travel on his set up than mine I noticed when we were out at christmas.

the OME set up drives fine and I will buy the same when the need arises.

[Michele]

My challage truck runs Pro-comps as part of my sposership which I wanted for rock crawling ability where they excel but she is a bit wollowy on the road but there +4's and at the time it was what I wanted.

Jules,

would you put a spec-list together as reference?

I'm interested,and others may be as well.

Other than that,I'd like to try these:

ProComp MX-6

Monotube gas, with six position externally adjustable damping, supplied with urethane bushes and a black shock boot. Available for standard and lifted Jeep models, many other US market vehicles plus 8", 10" & 12" travel versions for special applications. The latter are only supplied with mounting eyes at both ends.

[VeryDisco]

Hmmn, food for thought on this thread. I think I need to visualise some of the points better though.

Anyone got any pics?

No - not of shocks - of men in the shower!

[jules]

Mcphursan strut.

Coil over Fox

(coil spring not shown)

[rick]

<snip>

Variable Damping:

I initially thought this was a good idea, but have reservations now. Trouble is, adjustables only have one valve whereas non adjustables have several (up to about 16). While the adjustables give a wider total range of damping, a given setting has a narrow bandwidth of conditions in which it works well.

A good quality non-adjustable will adapt itself to many different combinations of springs, speed & terrain while adjustables need adjusting for each. They work OK if you have the in-cab remote adjust kit, but it's just another thing to play with and they rarely end up set optimally for the conditions.

<snip>

Si

Ummm, not true !

Koni mono tube gas have a buildup of deflective shims on the piston, the adjuster is changing the bleed size. All the adjustable mono tube race shocks I've ever worked with use multiple shim stacks. Low speed adjustments alter the bleed size, high speed the pre load on the stack.

Koni twin tube road style (eg Koni Heavy Track) alter the bleed size, and also alter the pre-load on the rebound valve, the difference here is that they use a coil spring for rebound valve control, and it can be argued that this provides superior, more consistent control in extremes (they supposedly fatigue less than a deflective shim. Donerre, for example, who are famous Off Road/Raid style dampers only use coil spring loaded valves)

Multiple shim stacks really only work well in a narrow range of spring rates/conditions. Don't buy into the marketin BS. eg. A stock B46-whatever Bilstein for the rear of a RRC/Disco needs to be re-valved to suit a 130. It will not control the130 spring in rebound properly, there is far to great a difference in spring rate.

Ever wondered why shocks are revalved so often at races/rallies ?