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Shock Tuning 101

.........DAYUUM SON.........if yo girl ain,t MASHIN THE BUMPSTOPS.............then you need to put her on a .....GRAVY & RED BEANS DIET.... :dblthumb:
 
alright, well my turn to ask some q's

Bout to start tuning on my air shocks this weekend..
Gna go with the Beaty method.
Drain all 5wt, add 7wt to almost max capacity and bump n2 to ride height
add sway bar...

This is my plan at the moment, any other comments or suggestions for the simple minded.
and yes, im pretty faniliar with the effect of less vs more oil and the oil weight differences affecting valving...
 
zukiscott said:
.........DAYUUM SON.........if yo girl ain,t MASHIN THE BUMPSTOPS.............then you need to put her on a .....GRAVY & RED BEANS DIET.... :dblthumb:
Click to expand...


Hah, you aint right son, but that aint the first time you've been told that, is it? Gonna de flate her big ass this weekend and get er right. To much rodeo in her for my old wornout carcass. :driving:
 
CheapJ7 said:
and yes, im pretty faniliar with the effect of less vs more oil and the oil weight differences affecting valving...
Click to expand...

Oil changes spring rate, not valving. Air shocks have valving stacks just like coilovers do. I think your plan is fine, I might stay with 5wt oil first as I think 7wt at max fill may be a little much for your truck. Air shocks can be goofy, make sure you have your rig as loaded as you think it will be on the trail, tools, coolers, etc. Because one you add those they will drop your ride height a bunch. Also know that once you drive it around and cycle the ride height will settle out some. Lots of trail and error with airs, get a pen and paper and right down volums and pressures so you can get it dialed.
 
thanks matt, and yea my bad, I am familiar with the adjustable valving stacks, but had seen where the oil weights acts like somewhat of a valving change, not that it actually changes the valving..
ie.. thinker oil. harder to push through...

Another thing im slightly worried about it the angle in whick my fronts are mounts..
Due to packaging i'd say they are tilted back 10degrees whick is fines, but are almost verticle side to side... ie... mounted straight up an down..
I've heard this can cause weird effects when side hilling???
 
Yeah I noticed that in your pics, with a full bodied rig you have to make some comprimises. Ideally you don't want the shock to cam over on itself. EX: As the shock travels you want the top of the shock to be further inboard than the bottom of the shock and as it cycles the two become vertical. Things get funky with the bottom of the shock is further inboard than the top through the travel. That said, my buggy does it somewhat in the front and it is only an issue on occasion. On steep sidehill climbs the rig jacks or teetrs off the front shocks some.
 
yea, gna get it dialed in then if it is a big issue i'll have to hack on the frame a bit.. I believe by just using the lower shock tabs that conform to the C's i'll be able to get them out far enough...
 
Most use 5wt Shock Oil, but you can stiffen them up some with 7wt oil. I would stay away from 10wt oil.

[/quote]

Why not change the oil to 10wt? It would slow the shock down right?
 
They are not designed to used that weight oil. I think it will be tough on internals and you will probably have to rebuild them more often. I have always heard to run 7wt max in them
 
Yeah I believe you can depends on brand I believe. Pretty sure Travis converted his SAW coilovers to remote ressy
 
Yeah shock parts ain't cheap. I think it comes down to if you have a threaded port at the top that you attach the hose and ressy too. I have never had emulsion shocks so not sure if they came with the threaded port or not. Think it varies by brand
 
A lot of great information... I have a question though... At RBD I noticed my ride height going down as the weekend progressed. I believe I may need to change the valve cores in my air shocks. Are there any better valve cores that I can get other than the cheesy ones used for tires? I am sure they are not designed for the pressures that we run in them. I have had to replace them just about every month. Everytime I take the cap off to fill them I can hear a small amount of residual pressure escape. Does anyone build a high performance core good up to 500 psi?? Thanks again for the great info! COLT
 
how much pressure are you running in them??? If its that much, maybe you need to add some oil and get rid of some of that pressure...
 
Oil soak's up nitrogen, so if its new oil in your air shocks then you may have to refill them with nitrogen a couple times until it stops dropping.
 
Thanks for the info guys. I got some more oil on the way. Def think I need to run more oil. I called ballistic today and they told me to take the shocks apart to add the oil??? I haven't heard of that before. I was just going to drain it and get with MattO on how much I should put in each. I run 2.5s on the front and 2.25s on the rear. 16"s ballistics. I'm happy with them but I know with some changes they could be much better. They were great with the SB but when I went to a BBC they were hurtin!
 
I am not familiar with Ballistic shocks. You need to call them back and ask what the max oil volume is on the shocks you have and also how much oil they ship the shocks with. That way you know how much to add. I would then add enough oil to get you to max volume or close to it
 
Thanks Matt, I will also add to the thread by letting everyone know that they told me they use 10 wt oil when shipped. From my reading in this thread I am going to replace all the oil with 7 wt! Thanks again for the help.
 

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