Anyone else have these QA1 shocks?

[CAMAROBOY69]

Im about to purchase the Stocker Star QA1 shocks for the rear of my car. They have 12 adjustment settings.
If you have these what do you think of them? THey are a little pricey so I want to make sure its a good purchase.
Part #TC2501P

[vanzuuk1]

I have them and so far they are nice, mostly street driving but the adjustments work well.

[CAMAROBOY69]

T/Y I should have them any day now.

[Valiant100SM]

Agreed, they work well so far. I've got them on my Valiant, and they're very effective on the street. I've got plenty of adjustment left to fine tune for autoX, too. They do compression/rebound equally, and have made a pretty decent driver out of my fairly tight springs. Some day, when I grow up, I'll get a set of their double-adjustables, but that doesn't really make sense for me now (minimal seat time). It's nice being able to get one overnighted from Jegs/Summit, too.

Clair

[CAMAROBOY69]

I guess I forgot to post pics of my shocks. I thought I did but I guess not. They look very nice in person. I like the aluminum a lot. :)
They are the top 4 pics on my suspension page. http://www.adfabdesign.com/Illusion/Suspension/Suspension.html
Here is a sneak peak.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[CAMAROBOY69]

I got these installed over the weekend and set them to 4. Drove for about 2 miles so I havent beeen able to test them much. My only concern is this. With the car setting by itself and 1/2 tank of gas, I only have 2" of shaft showing. Meaning if I put several people in the car or really put some weight on the car I think they might bottom out. These are supposed to be the right shocks so do you think 2" is enough??? How much shaft do you have showing from your shocks?

[Rick Dorion]

Perhaps they're correct for a stock suspension height car. Your's is lowered a bit. I would call and check. You don't want to pound the valving out of them.

[DonQuehotey]

is this 2" in front or rear?

[CAMAROBOY69]

is this 2" in front or rear?
Rear.

[vanzuuk1]

Adam , I just went out and measured, I have about three inches showing. The last inch of shaft is dirty , as if it rarely sees that much travel.

[CAMAROBOY69]

Thanks for the reply. I called and gave QA1 my measurement from the lower eyelet on the shock to the bottom of the floor where the shock goes thru and the measurement was 15" THe guy at QA1 said the shocks should be fine. We put about 400# on the passenger side of the Camaro yesterday and bounced the car up and down. The shock did not bottom out. It was close but never hit. I am suer these shocks will be fine. Actualy my exhaust will hit on the rear axle before the shocks ever bottom out. So with that said, I should be all set.
I currently have the shocks set at 4 and it rides nice. I might set them to 5 at the track if I have passengers or if I see any body roll.

[Jagarang]

I don't know where you came by 400 lbs Adam, but I promise not to tell Heather!!! How many were there and what did it cost you! WHY WASN"T I INVITED! I WANT PICTURES!

[wendell]

before you take it to the track you might want to put a zip tie around the shaft and drive around a bit(or a lot) to make sure that you aren't close to bottoming out. Another option is to tune your bump stops to make usre you don't bottom out. It would be a shame to punch the valving out of your new shocks.

[DonQuehotey]

If that car is driven on the street I would think that you are going to want around at least 3" of sompression stroke. The car will hardley ever get into that stroke but it sure beats bottoming out which will end up shearing shock mounts and ride bad. I simply would not go with only 2" of compression stroke on the shock in a 1:1 ratio

[slck6t9]

I have the adjustable coil-over set up on the front of my 69 camaro and was wondering what some of you guys set the shock setting to. I have it on 5 right now.

Scott

[vanzuuk1]

Adam , I am at four clicks and it rides nice. I am going to experiment with the settings when I get a chance. Six was brutal on the street, it followed every dip in the highway and made us seasick.My guess would be 4 to 6 is the range to start with.

[CAMAROBOY69]

I started at 7 and like you said it felt brutal. I felt comfortable running 4. The max I would even consider setting them at would be 5 or 6. Any higher than that and it just seems rediculous. You better be towing a trailer before you even consider going any higher than 6 or 7.

[Marcus SC&C]

The settings depend a LOT on spring rate. Our G-5 `87 Cutlass is running 705lb/in front springs. With the QA1s set at 4 it feels almost like there`s no shocks on the car! 5 is the luxo setting. 6 is street performance and 7 is hardcore street or track. After about 3 years we`re getting some leakage on 2 of the shocks and we beat the bushings out of the bottom of the front shocks. I suspect if you run softer springs and matching softer shock settings the bushings would last much longer. They`re good shocks for the money but I think they`ve suffered since QA1 bought HAL and moved production "overseas".
We`re swapping them for Alston Vari Shocks. Chris was heavily involved,back in the day in designing the HAL shocks that are now QA1s. The Vari shocks are about $40ea. more but after seeing their features,internals,shock dyno sheets and overall quality I think they`re more than worth it. More usable settings,more consistant valving,more repeatable settings,350% thicker bushings (so they don`t pound out in 13,000 miles like ours did) and they`re made 100% in the USA. That doesn`t mean anything to some folks but it does to me. The QA1s are still a good shock for the money but I think you can get a lot more shock for a little more money. If our testing turns out well we may start carrying them. Mark SC&C