Shock Brands

[r.paradise06]

Based on quality and longevity, what brand double adjustable shocks with remote canisters gave you the least amount of problems on your dirt late model?

[hucktyson]

There is NOTHING anyone does that Penske can’t do better. That’s not to say bolting Penske shocks on your car will
Make it faster. You always hear those story’s “ I bolted on XYZ and got a 1/2 second faster. That’s just because what you bolted on was correcting a handling issue your car had at the time on that specific condition. The fact that people PAY for penskes who could get the other stuff free tells you everything you need to know ...

[Kromulous]

A lot of people like Integra, and we have a couple and there nice to deal with.

Although i tend to agree with Huck, Penske has the best valves, they but a lot engineering into them. Thou the next question would be what valves do you need to be running in a SLM application? they have a lot of options, but that can be a a bad thing sometimes. Working with a shock got who knows Penskes would be the best route, maybe RE or somebody.

I do like the craftsmanship of a Penske shock too.

[fastford]

you have to have a knowledgeable shock builder that you can communicate with , ill take any of the ones listed , as long as jerry link is working on them...jmo....

[grt74]

the trick is knowing what you need, I'm sure if you buy the top end of any of the manufacturers above, they will all get the job done, if your running 100 laps or more very weekend then you'll want to check for fade, I've only worked with bilstiens,ohlins,afco, and jri,

[fastford]

hey GRT74 , would you believe i have a afco shock with a penske valve in it?

[grt74]

hey GRT74 , would you believe i have a afco shock with a penske valve in it?

I'm sure if it will fit, or if you can machine it to fit, yup

[MBR Performance]

It's not uncommon to see mixed parts. There are plenty of Afco shocks with Ohlins pistons out there.

[CageFaraday]

I'm partial to Genesis because I worked together with those guys at Carrera. JRI is good too. I did a lot of R&D and testing of other brands during my Carrera time and I firmly believe if your a sharp guy you can make any brand mimic another, even without knowing what parts are inside. I've had guys try and argue that with me, but I did it alot. Sometimes a guy wanted to switch to us but wanted something similar to what he had as a baseline. I'd throw them on the dyno, do a few tests and I knew what parts I needed to put in ours to match up without ever cracking them open. Sometimes it even meant I had to modify something or make something custom, but I knew our shocks inside and out.

[hucktyson]

Cage that hard part about that is if you take 2 shocks and run them @6” and get the graphs to overlap the graphs can still be completely different if you run it at 1” or 3” or 10”. I have made hundreds of attempts on ohlins to get them how I wanted but something was always off where I actually wanted it and the range of adjustment was always very limited. I finally got an ohlins to have a large zero point rebound adjustment and got it to blow off pretty much where I wanted but their compression adjustments are basically non existent. I’ve had other guys build me still also but no one was able to make exactly what I asked for like Penske. Part of that could be the other guys didn’t care enough to even try . I’m sure the other brands can be modified if someone is willing to take the time but there comes a point where it’s much cheaper for me to go build a deck and just buy a Penske instead of sitting there all day changing shims and pistons and dyno again just to be disappointed again lol

[hucktyson]

Autocorrect !!! I hate autocorrect

[CageFaraday]

I had the advantage of building 100 shocks a day from scratch with my team, on top of repairs and custom work. Just like your analogy on traveling guys seeing more laps in Florida than you see all year, I saw that many shocks in February/March. D1ck Anderson made us a functional spreadsheet back then we used at times to change parts around, then we could see what the curves would look like before we built the shocks. It usually got pretty close, but just like anything you do a lot, you eventually can just instinctively pick the right part combinations to get you where you wanted to go. Talking about all this makes me miss my shock building days. Good times.

You know if your gonna be cutting up your own car and re-engineering the entire car, you may want to leave shocks to someone who does them specifically. No human alive could tackle what you're wanting to do, especially not part time. JMO

[hucktyson]

I attempted to call the “ shock gurus “ but they are too important to build me shocks , they want to sell you 20 and charge you to go test with data acquisition. Penske got me what I wanted, it’s just more getting the coreect combination of $hit on the car at the correct time AND the very important variable most people forget .... getting WAY up on the d@mn wheel !!

[fastford]

I had the advantage of building 100 shocks a day from scratch with my team, on top of repairs and custom work. Just like your analogy on traveling guys seeing more laps in Florida than you see all year, I saw that many shocks in February/March. D1ck Anderson made us a functional spreadsheet back then we used at times to change parts around, then we could see what the curves would look like before we built the shocks. It usually got pretty close, but just like anything you do a lot, you eventually can just instinctively pick the right part combinations to get you where you wanted to go. Talking about all this makes me miss my shock building days. Good times.

You know if your gonna be cutting up your own car and re-engineering the entire car, you may want to leave shocks to someone who does them specifically. No human alive could tackle what you're wanting to do, especially not part time. JMO

i guess its kind of like deck building , i,m sure huck can pick better 2x4,s than me , so thats why i never bothered to spend money on a shock dyno , i just found some one that has one and knows how to use it.......

[Jking24]

While i will agree with what others have said here in regards to getting the results you want with pretty much any shock brand. From my experience penskes have been far more durable and trouble free for us. And second to them would be afco and then ohlins. Integras were great from a perfomance standpoint but seemed like we could hardly make it through a couple of nights of racing without something being wrong.

[CageFaraday]

While i will agree with what others have said here in regards to getting the results you want with pretty much any shock brand. From my experience penskes have been far more durable and trouble free for us. And second to them would be afco and then ohlins. Integras were great from a perfomance standpoint but seemed like we could hardly make it through a couple of nights of racing without something being wrong.

I didnt get any time with Integras, they came along as we were selling out to QA1. Your right, if the shocks won't hold up then it doesn't matter if they were perfect on the dyno.

[Matt49]

I voted but as long as we're adding commentary, I'll add mine.
We started on Afco stuff years ago and they were just fine. We didn't know what we were doing anyway so...
When we upgraded to Ohlins we were very happy with feel of the car and we had a shock guy that could really help us out.
As mentioned a million times, having a relationship with a shock guy is pretty important.
Our shock guy went to work for a team in our area and was somewhat monopolized by them so we went to Genesis. Loved the shocks' range of adjustability and the service was always great but I just never got the "feel" I wanted out of them. We went back to the Ohlins and felt better with what we had even though we lacked support.
Been on Penske the last two seasons (limited schedules in both) and can't complain at all. They called several times while they were building to get specifics on our setup, travels, etc. They are the best I've ever felt when the track has some holes on entry. It just never seems to upset the car. In the slick, also very good but we struggled personally with side bite but not the shocks' fault. Since the RR shock doesn't have as much range on the compression adjustment (something we went to quite a bit on the Ohlins) we've simply had to find different ways to get side bite in the slick that we used to find unnecessary.

[ZERO25]

you have to have a knowledgeable shock builder that you can communicate with , ill take any of the ones listed , as long as jerry link is working on them...jmo....

True story about Jerry. He built us a special lr so we wouldn't need a lrf. It worked very well and we had very good luck with it. The next year we dropped down a class and had to run a conventional shock with no external adjusters. Because we had bought a Rocket and he was a Genesis dealer, he made us a very good deal to use Genesis. So I sent them my lr from jerry and told them to copy it. Mike from Genesis called me and asked where I got the shock from because he said he had NEVER seen anything like it. Of course, I didn't tell him, but it just goes to show ya that, some people are just a little smarter than the others!

[Krooser]

You guys are going to have a big laugh but I bought 11 shocks from a guy on FB for $80.00... ten afco's and one Pro... all twin tube.

I took them to one of the local guys that builds A mod chassis and manufacturers a bunch of suspension parts for dirt mods and pavement late models. They have a young guy that does their shocks and he seems pretty knowledgeable.

I had him go thru what I had... three were the older style Afcos that he couldn't get parts for so he set those aside. He rebuilt and revalved all the rest to suit my needs and even did a "special" setup for the single adjustable lrf shock.

I brought him a couple QA1's to redo, too.

So I have about $320 invested in 10 shocks. I must have gotten the senior discount. Anyway I figure they will be a good place to start and will help put one more car on the track... yuk it up kids.

[Jking24]

You guys are going to have a big laugh but I bought 11 shocks from a guy on FB for $80.00... ten afco's and one Pro... all twin tube. I took them to one of the local guys that builds A mod chassis and manufacturers a bunch of suspension parts for dirt mods and pavement late models. They have a young guy that does their shocks and he seems pretty knowledgeable. I had him go thru what I had... three were the older style Afcos that he couldn't get parts for so he set those aside. He rebuilt and revalved all the rest to suit my needs and even did a "special" setup for the single adjustable lrf shock. I brought him a couple QA1's to redo, too.So I have about $320 invested in 10 shocks. I must have gotten the senior discount. Anyway I figure they will be a good place to start and will help put one more car on the track... yuk it up kids.Nothing wrong with a good twin tube and as far as feel the best stuff I've ever been on was twin tubes. The gas shocks clearly have their advantages but nothing beats the feel you get from twin tubes

[fastford]

True story about Jerry. He built us a special lr so we wouldn't need a lrf. It worked very well and we had very good luck with it. The next year we dropped down a class and had to run a conventional shock with no external adjusters. Because we had bought a Rocket and he was a Genesis dealer, he made us a very good deal to use Genesis. So I sent them my lr from jerry and told them to copy it. Mike from Genesis called me and asked where I got the shock from because he said he had NEVER seen anything like it. Of course, I didn't tell him, but it just goes to show ya that, some people are just a little smarter than the others!

thing about jerry is , he is very soft spoken , if you approach him as a know it all , he want help you very much , which im the same way , but if you are knowledgeable to accurately give him the info he needs , then IMO , he is the best on any shock.........also im glad he made it to a company big as afco , down side is he is harder to get in touch with , but that is to be expected.......

[ZERO25]

You guys are going to have a big laugh but I bought 11 shocks from a guy on FB for $80.00... ten afco's and one Pro... all twin tube.

I took them to one of the local guys that builds A mod chassis and manufacturers a bunch of suspension parts for dirt mods and pavement late models. They have a young guy that does their shocks and he seems pretty knowledgeable.

I had him go thru what I had... three were the older style Afcos that he couldn't get parts for so he set those aside. He rebuilt and revalved all the rest to suit my needs and even did a "special" setup for the single adjustable lrf shock.

I brought him a couple QA1's to redo, too.

So I have about $320 invested in 10 shocks. I must have gotten the senior discount. Anyway I figure they will be a good place to start and will help put one more car on the track... yuk it up kids.

You old buzzard.....wont be going fast enough to know the difference!.......jk,jk :)

[Krooser]

You old buzzard.....wont be going fast enough to know the difference!.......jk,jk :)

As long as it's faster than my mobility scooter I'll be ok....

[r.paradise06]

Thanks everyone for the responses and opinions. Sounds pretty clear that my first step is to get a shock guy!

[hucktyson]

Beware there are a lot of snake oil salesman out there. There is no magic, the only way a shock guy is going to make you faster is if your car is currently doing something wrong that can be corrected with shocks. And just because it corrects that issue on that track in that condition doesn’t mean the car won’t be worse on other tracks in other conditions ...

[Matt49]

Some truth to what huck says BUT...about 9 out of 10 "shock guys" have a very good understanding of general vehicle dynamics. So there is a wealth of knowledge there that goes way beyond just the shocks.

[grt74]

jerry is top notch

[powerslide]

Matt mentioned trying genesis but never getting a feel he liked. Who is the best for genesis stuff? I've got a LR thats leaking need to send off. Looked on the website and dealers aren't listed.