Everyone I have spoken to has adjustable rate shock absorbers but most say that they run them on the softest setting and in fact 90% of the range is too hard and never used. Is that the same for others or does it depend whether you are racing or fast road. A suspension that is adjustable ride but with a fixed rate would reduce the cost and complexity considerably.Others comments welcome.

With adjustable you can set it harder as the damper ages to compensate for wear.
You can get 3 or more lives worth.
Darren

[Edited on 6/12/09 by turbodisplay]

it depends on how any non adjustable ones perform once fitted to the car.

You might be lucky and they might be within a workable range for your car.

If you think about it, each non adjustable damper is designed for a particular car which has a known weight and suspension design. So if your non adjustable dampers are designed for your car for the use which you want to use it for then fine but if you want to use your car for road and track then you will probably want different settings for road than you will want on the track so adjustable is better.

Whilst it might save you a few quid, if you are any where near to being a driver then you will be able feel how the car handles and find the best set up for the dampers quite easily.

Cheers

Mark

people set them for different things, road and track. If like me and a few others who go camping and carry extra weight the suspension can always be stiffened up to compensate for the additional weight

changing damper rates will also alter the cars handling in many ways.....on my drag subaru i would set the rear to as soft as possible and as high as possible, to let the car squat under weight transfer on acceleration. when on a sprint i would set the front softer and slightly higher than the rear to help counter under steer and nose dive....

adjustable shocks really are great if you are driving a vechicle seriously.....

quote:

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Originally posted by ghostrain
Everyone I have spoken to has adjustable rate shock absorbers but most say that they run them on the softest setting and in fact 90% of the range is too hard and never used. Is that the same for others or does it depend whether you are racing or fast road. A suspension that is adjustable ride but with a fixed rate would reduce the cost and complexity considerably.Others comments welcome.

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quote:

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Originally posted by turbodisplay
With adjustable you can set it harder as the damper ages to compensate for wear.
You can get 3 or more lives worth.
Darren

[Edited on 6/12/09 by turbodisplay]

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quote:

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Originally posted by austin man
people set them for different things, road and track. If like me and a few others who go camping and carry extra weight the suspension can always be stiffened up to compensate for the additional weight

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There are some awful non adjustable ones out there, mini dampers with spring seats welded on etc.

For £250 you get set of Gaz dampers, the question you really need to ask is what poundage of springs are people using with which engine.

You also need to factor in the distance along the bones or axle that they attach to, as in half way along the bones effectively halves the working weight as it acts as a lever.

For myself light BEC ~425kg I have 250lb front springs acting on the ball joint but at quite an angle so equivilent of say 200lb, for the rears 220lb on IRS, 3/4 along the bone but upright so equivilent of 170lb.

For the road 6 clicks front, 3 rear to keep it comfy, on the track 10 front 8 rear to make me fast.

Corner weighted with me in it pretty much 50/50 front to rear.

Worth paying the extra, especially need adjustable spring mounts so you can set up correctly to get the most from your car.

Regards Mark

i mean is there a way of calculating the shocks that u need in the same way the stiffness of springs can be calculated for a given weight and use?

i know nothing about shocks whatsoever
how are they rated ?

any information greatfully received
as are links to programs to work out what i need

aitch

Erm.....I was always under the impression that adjustable shocks are there so you can tailor the damping to the springs NOT to your driving style. IE they are not damping your driving style they are damping your springs so you should only be changing the damping if you put stiffer rate springs in. Surely those who say 'I turn up the damping for track' are actually going to wear out their shocks faster as the damping is too much for the spring and therefore puts the damper assembly under more stress. When I built my own shocks the only time I changed the damping settings was when I swapped out the springs for different rate ones.

Hmmmmm.

John