switch from bilstein to QA1 twin tube shock ?

[sirleafalot]

Hi wanting to move to the 50 series QA1 from the Bilsteins we run now, want to get away from the gas psi, realize there is down side to this but anyway has anyone made this conversion before ? Is there are chart somewhere that can tell you for example what QA1 would swap out for a 55/55 ? thanks

[MM90]

Unless you have the dyno sheets from both shocks, there is no way to know for sure that a Bilstein 50/50 is the same as a QA1 50/50. I am thinking about making the same switch as well, but I will go through a QA1 rebuilder to get shocks set for my car.

[sirleafalot]

thanks, at the moment I run the off the shelf bilsteins that my chassis builder says to run and I am hoping to get to the equivilant of what those would be in a QA1 50 series. Dont want to deal with gas psi stuff anymore and even though the twin tubes fade when they get hot, really needing the feel without the gas psi to see if that helps us with handling and feel etc

[7uptruckracer]

A good monotube with a good piston should give you the same feel as a twin tube if built and valved right but you can get your current shocks dynoed and compare to your new shocks dyno sheets.

[roundboy]

I started out years ago in a sportsman with twin tube shocks(afco,s) and made the switch to bilsteins, it was night and day differance!!! The bilsteins made my car handle 110% better and ride like a cadallac, and these are off the shelf shocks, some of which i still have and are now on my b-mod or in the trailor and still work like they were new... thats my experience with the two...

[LM14]

Why not go to the 26 series QA1 and get them modified to suit your tastes. We lowered the pressures in our 26 series shocks to get a shock that felt more like a twin tube but acted like a mono tube. Get the best of both worlds.

SPark

[JR. MECHANIC]

One thing to watch out for when lowering gas pressure in a monotube shock without a base valve is cavitation....