Shock Selection

[Bad Bob]

In setting up the rear suspension on my pan, it's time to buy some shocks. The car will be used for street and mountain driving. Looking online, we have cheap (KYB GR-2), or a bit more pricey (Bilstien B-6, Koni Special D red ) in the $80-90 range. Any opinions?

[84im]

I have Konis on my 356 Porsche replica and like them a lot.

[Bruce.m]

With stock suspension and sprung / un-sprung weights... Koni is very good vfm

[Jadewombat]

I put Bilsteins on my bug. They are well worth the money and yes, you do get what you pay for. KYBs are just that, slightly better than stock. Anyone who says KYBs handle better than Bilsteins is either confused or never driven the two in a comparison. I have driven on both on the same car and no, the Bilsteins were not too stiff either.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

^^^

Bad Bob: the word used here in the states: shock absorber is really a misnomer, they are; as the rest of the world calls them... dampeners. They dampen the springs/torsion bars want to load and unload stored energy in the springs giving you a smoother ride. They also have valving that controls how and how much loading that goes into the suspension. For example: I took a 10+ foot drop off a sand dune when the crest of the dune gave way. during the drop I was able to get more or less perpendicular to the face of the dune. With the white KYBs pm the rear my rear suspension bottomed out hard on the snubbers and I had a sore back ache for several months.

Fast forward to a bit later in the year: with some addition upgrades (other than the shocks; the other upgrades most likely did not affect much, if any of what happened) including the Bilstein shocks I talked about. A very similar thing happened; e.g., (the face of the dune collapsing and the drop being very similar) in almost the same spot on the dunes but this time the superior valving in the shocks controlled the fluid exchange from within the shock and I came down much more gentle... and did not bottom out via the snubbers.

I have driven with both silver and white KYBs and for the street and average driving they are better than OEM shocks with the white KYB shocks being superior to than their silver ones. I have also used better than OEM Monroe/NAPA shocks and they are as good, if not superior to the white KYBs... in my opinion.

The Bilstein 6100 I am running (albeit on the sand) are very smooth based on small amount of street/asphault driving I do but off-road, they are so superior to the white KYBs (no offence meant to them) that there is no real comparison. For street and unpaved alley driving the KYBs s/b OK but I think you could do better but you would also have to spend some more money.

For the street the Konis' have long had a good rep and I think they may make an off-road series dampener too.

Since I am not sure what mountain driving means unless it is light off-road then I would suggest that you invest in a shock made for off-road.

The Bilsteins I am using were a bit over $100 per corner. a few years ago. I think they are now pushing the 7100s but I have not tried them so no comment.

[Bad Bob]

Koni's ordered! Lee, my mountain driving is twisty asphalt with an occasional football sized rock that rolled onto the road. That's one reason I'm keeping the stock ride height.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

For what you are using them for I am sure the Koni shocks will be a great choice. I gave that additional info for those who may not understand just what shock do.

KYBs are good choices for some things but what you are doing would probably not delight you like the Koni shocks and that would be wasted money.

[Bruce.m]

When you fit them set the dampers to a lower setting. The dampers have adjustable rebound (bounce is fixed). Once fitted, you can adjust them to tune the turn in transition and trim the over/under steer bias during that phase.

[PhillipM]

^^^

Bad Bob: the word used here in the states: shock absorber is really a misnomer, they are; as the rest of the world calls them... dampeners.

Dampers

Dampen is what ladies underwear does when your rail/baja goes past

[Ol'fogasaurus]

No... its long skid marks.

[84im]

When you fit them set the dampers to a lower setting. The dampers have adjustable rebound (bounce is fixed). Once fitted, you can adjust them to tune the turn in transition and trim the over/under steer bias during that phase.

I have my Konis set on 1/4 in the front (fairly soft) and 3/4 in the rear (fairly hard) because my fiberglass 356 replica is very light in the front.
With the rears set at 3/4 hard and an installed kafer bar, my rear suspension is very 'planted'.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

^^^

Bad Bob: the word used here in the states: shock absorber is really a misnomer, they are; as the rest of the world calls them... dampeners.

Dampers

Dampen is what ladies underwear does when your rail/baja goes past

Sorry Phil, I've only seen the "en" used... right or wrong. They dampen the action of spring when the loads are relesed suddenly; like when you have ruler sitting over the end of a table and you lift up on one end and listen to it go whackety, whackety until all the energy is released. Like when you are "pit" high in the water with your arm out then spin around. Drop your arm in the water and feel the change as you try to spin around.

[PhillipM]

Yeah, for some reason it gets used a lot, I've even seen it in some textbooks a while ago
But dampen means 'to wet', where as 'damp' is a controlling or restraining force. Well, in this context at least

But yes, you are right, dampers restrain and control the spring for their main effect, so they should be tied to the spring frequency, heavier springs require stronger damping, so dampers should be matched to the spring rates you're going to run. And the sprung/unpsrung weights, and the spring rate of the tyres, as they're a spring too.
However, like yourself, I'm a big fan of Bilstien - their standard valving tends to work well across a broad spead of terrain, and they run cool - in fact, I like some bits so much I've modified my Foxes to use Bilstien pistons and cases as adjusters/canisters on the rear...

[Ol'fogasaurus]

As a verb: "to dampen" meaning is smother or surppress plus many other similar including definitions including "making moist" (definition per an English dictionary). In this case your follow on description is allied to smother, supress or control.

I will try to use the "damper" term in the future but I can't guarentee it though as I am getting pretty old. Pis Aller! (French - "Last resort" or as used in literature: I have done the best I can)

[PhillipM]

I think it's probably one of those things where enough people are using it that it's been adopted instead of 'damp' - good old english language fun again, but most audio/waveform or damper guys will use 'damp'.

Alternatively, we could all go back to calling them shock absorbers and see how long it takes before I go purple in the face...