ShOzz

i am building an SS savage at the moment and i have a quick question.

on 4 shocks i used the stock fluid which the instructions claim it to be about 10 weight.

i then used 37.5 weight in the other 4.

i had planned on putting the stock weight ones as the front shocks and the thicker as the rear.

was told this would be a better set up for jumps and landing but am not 100% sure why this is?

anyone know?

or should i reverse this set up?

thanks for any input .

nodolarsnosense

as far as i know
the higher number indicates thicker oil
damper works by forcing oil through tiny holes in ring on shock shaft as it compresses.
the thicker the oil is, the more energy required to force it through holes in ring.so the shock will absorb more energy for the same amount of travel as that of a shock with thinner oil.
if your just driving around you use soft oil to absorb bumps on the rough terrain(ie maintain tire/ground contact0
if you are jumping trucks(as you should) you want thick oil to absorb the large landing forces. you put the thicker oil in the back shocks because your meant to land on them first, so they will need to absorb the most energy.

you could always put one of each oil weight on each corner. then the overall shock absorbtion for each corner of the truck would be the same, so your balance is better for when your not jumping(and cos 1/2 the time you dont land on the back shocks anyway)

you can tell i like jumping my truck

ShOzz

thanks that does make sense.

i was also told that when taking off a jump that the thicker in rear would help the truck level out by having thinner in front.

sorta work together.
i guess i will try it that way and if nothing else make then 2 and 2 on each set up.

thanks again for the quick response.

nodolarsnosense

IF your going to jump heaps (as you should) id look at stiffer springs too

you know your dampers are working good if you truck doesnt bounce when it lands
your much better having stiffer shocks on the back than the front

8000ft

I think your going to run into big time handeling problems (actualy i know fro experience). whats going to happen is that the back will be to stiff compaired to the front. when you hit a small bump with only one front tire it will absorb the impact very quickly however when the back tire hits the same bump it will react moer slowly thus kicking the truck sideways. try it, set a rock or a stick (something about an inch and a half will do) out in the road then hit it at moderate speed with one front tire and watch what happens when the back tire hits it. with the stuff that i run on (mostly rough, bumpy ground, hey i live in the rocky mountains what do you expect) i have found that a good set up is 25w in the front and 32.5 in the back (2 back shocks filled with 25w and the other 2 filled with 40w). this makes the back a bit stiffer but not to much.

nodolarsnosense

whats your truck going sidways got to do with front back oil weights. perhaps your shocks are bottoming out

yeh your race handling wont be there but if instead your doing some jumping and limited to the two weights 10 n 37.5 it wont exactly be impossible to control.


i run 30 front and back(cos its what i got), plus have 2 setts of springs in series per damper at the back, plus sway bar.
the shock oil plays a minor part in handling if your on rough terrain and not a die hard racer.
there so many other settings you could change first to improve your handling and still keep that thicker oil for its jumping(landing) benifit

i was just giving quite sensible advice for the relevent situation.

ShOzz

i am actually hoping to get into racing local.

so maybe i should invest in redoingthe front shocks to 25 or 30 as well and leave the back?

or should i mix and match you think.

or just use as is and see how it feels? lol

8000ft

im not into racing much, only once every couple of weeks when i drive the 103 miles to denver. im just talking about general bash handeling. no the shocks arn't bottoming, but when the front end can absorb the bump very quickly (thin oil) and the back absorbs it slower (thick oil) this will cause the back end to lift therefor kicking it side ways. equal shoch oil weights with soft springs in front and firm springs in back would do the same thing. its a big ballancing act to find what combonation work best for the type of surface your're running on. the great thing about the shocks is that they ary easy to get to, and oil is cheap. so pick up a few different weights end experiment.

nodolarsnosense

buy diff weights then and test different settings on the surface you will be running on

miserynitro

My Feedback: (8)

hey guys, i have 3 savages, and i used 30 Wt in all of them, i race, and i jump, and it isn't that bad... you have to get used to it..... i have adjustable camber arms, so it doesn't push threw the corners. all i do is loosen the springs for racing, which drops my truck by 2" to 3" and when i am jumping... i compress those springs to give me the lift and the stiffness.

flatlander_14

here is how i see dampening helping:

if you have a little more dampening(rebounds slower, through use of thinner/less holes in the shock pistons or heavier shock oil) in the back, then when it hits a lip of a jump, the front end tends to spring up a bit more since there is less resistance, and the back shocks with a heavier dampening doesnt have as much time to spring as far down and back as fast as the front shocks, thus creating a nose up attitude of the truck. i know most of you are savage guys, but on my maxx i run AE shocks with the stock springs all around, 45wt oil all around, BUT, i make the back end only a LITTLE bit heavier at dampening by using the shock pistons with slightly smaller holes. i think i have #2s in the front and #3s in the back. the heavier one is in the back.

that is what my take is on it.

Justintoxicated

the stock oil just plain sux don't use it, that is if the SS oil is not silicon shock oil...

Im runnign the HB race shocks with 25 weight in all 8 and I just put an extra shock spacer on the very back shock. works good for me, although its not prefectly dialed in, peoples opinions will vary, some told me to do 25-30 otehr said 20 all around so i went with 25 weight ...