Ridetech coilover vs air help

[JRouche]

Ill comment. I have the "older" shockwaves (2009). They are double adjustable shocks up front and single on the back.

I have played with the shock adjustments some. The thing is they are prolly a lil "too" adjustable at first glance. Cause I can only use a very small range. But thinking about it they prolly HAVE to have that much "range". Mainly for ALL the various cars they will be used in.

My car is somewhat light, not sports car light but not full sized car heavy. And not even close to full framed Cadillac heavy. And thats the point. The shockwaves will work with sports car light AND Caddy heavy cars. Mine might be in the middle of the weight. So at first I was thinking WTF!! I have a massive amount of adjustability left, up or down and its a waste. I wanted more of a "detailed" tuning with the shocks for MY car.

And even though I am able to tune the shocks with plenty of room to spare I was thinking WTF! Then it clicked. Dummy ME! The system IS meant for a variety of cars. The guy with a heavy car WILL find his sweet spot (just like I did) and the guy with a light car can ALSO use the shocks. They have THAT much valving. So yeah, I may only get to use about three or four different "clicks" of the shock. The shock, yeah, even the old one will have pleanty of control for a wide range of cars out there.

Now talking about shocks. I think some folks (not this post but some other posts I have read) are missing the picture and trying to compensate for other areas of the suspension that are NOT set up and they try to use shocks or springs to fix the other areas.

The suspension system is just that. A system. Meaning not one component makes the system work correctly but ALL the components of the system have to be tuned. Its like a team. Baseball, football and some of the lesser sports LOL They are ALL components of the "system" or team. One or two alone dont control the overall performance. Ok, prolly a bad analogy.

But still. If you are getting too much body roll then its NOT the time to increase spring stiffness or increase shock valving. Unfortunately some guys do. Body roll is NOT controlled with the wheel planting components (springs and shocks). Springs and shocks should be a simple use to keep the tire on the ground and suspend the car. Thats ALL.



Put the spring under the car to support it at a given ride height AND take the additional force during a turn to keep it supported. Air springs do a great job for that task.

Shocks should be valved to absorb the crazy road conditions that the car might see. A race car that will see a very controlled road surface can prolly work well with a narrow valving. A street car will need more difference in compression and rebound.

But I dont think the shocks or springs should ever be used as a tuning aid for a poorly managed "system". Thats putting too much control on one component that wasnt really meant to deal with the problem at hand.

Personally I like a faster dropping shock and just enough compression to keep the tire planted for the city streets and the nasty freeways we have so at 70mph the shock can react and aid the spring.

My Nova feels like a go cart and a caddy It turns like its on rails, flat and predictable. But I also dont feel ANY of the BAD parts of the road. And I have metal bushed control arms up front and spherical bearing joints on the back.

What can I attribute the great ride to? The shockwaves. And Im not even sucking up to anyone. I dont have ANY interest in ANY one company. I just say it like I see it. JR