Single or Double adjustable shocks

[Jeremy]

I am running a VBP transverse leaf spring set up on my TA and am real pleased with it except for shocks. I started off with Edelbrocks and they were no where near correct. I am running Hotchkiss bilsteins and they are real close.

Here are the choices I am considering:

Have Bilstein or Hotchkiss revalve my current shocks as I think we can get close if they will work with me.

Buy new shocks, QA1 or Varishocks. I like the idea of adjustable shocks so that I can dial in the ride I am looking for. The system rides very well with the Hotchkiss shocks but under certain circumstances they are slightly under damped. How much will I give up going with the single adjustable shocks versus the doubles? My budget would prefer the singles as it leaves more money for a new dash. The VBP setup is pretty adjustable as to ride height and spring rate and I want to take full advantage of this with adjustable shocks. Am I going to be happy with the singles or will the doubles offer that much more?

This is a street car and I doubt it will ever see road course or autox. Once I get the shocks dialed in, I plan to leave them and enjoy driving the cars.

[1971novaSS]

Go double adjustable, I have 3-way adjustables on mine. Just helps with the launch and handleing of the car. Stiffer is more for handleing and cornering, Softer helps to disperse the weight for launching.

Its always better to have another adjustment rather then having them set to a certain ride.

But thats IMHO.

[darren@ridetech]

In this case double adjustable refers to having two adjustment knobs. One for compression and one for rebound. With single adjustable you are mostly just adjusting compression. With the Varishock you will have 16 positions per knob. That's a total of 256 available combonations. Very helpful for drag and road race cars.

[Jeremy]

It looks like I will be going with the varishocks as SC&C is having a good sale on them. If the SA only adjust the compression or mostly so then I will probably be better off with the DA. The hotchkiss bilsteins I am running feel pretty good on the compression side but are too soft on rebound hence the need to go to something adjustable.

[ProdigyCustoms]

I ran one of the first transverse leafs way back in the stone ages. Car handled OK, but rode horrible no matter what I did. I think partly because there is very limited travel to the spring, due to how far out the supports are. Also the spring seemed to be VERY progressive, which meant the deeper the bump, the more the arm moved, the more agressivily it rebounded making the car almost hop. I had many a teeth chattering moment in that car as it was a daily driver. I will be curious to see if 14 years corrects the problem.

[Jeremy]

Some things I found that I think contributed to the poor ride characteristics were that 2nd gen shocks are too long and bottom out. Since I switched to shorter shocks the rides is actually better than the ws6 springs and edelbrock shocks. I also changed the poly bushings for greasable solid and the arms rotate much freer by hand compared to the poly.

I am very pleased with the ride 90% of the time and I am hoping that adustable shocks will help me control the last 10%. I know what you are talking about on the hop. For me it occurrs when both wheels hit a bump or big dip. My theory is that since the sides are tied together and transfer energy from side to side due to the pivoting mounts, when both wheels compress the center of the spring has twice the energy and thus the hop.

I am very pleased with handling and the reduced unsprung weight the system offers. The lack of road noise compared to a coil spring has been very noticeable as well. The highway ride is as good as any factory car I have driven and better than our old 03 mustang and the 96 ws6 TA I drove.

The problem is I need to keep the low speed control similar to the hotchkiss shocks and stiffen up the rebound control on larger inputs.

I also have an aquantance with a c6 Vette and he has offered to let me drive it. I am going to have to take him up on it to see if they have any of the hop feel as they use the same style suspension. I would be curious of they have it all removed. My theory is that if Chevy can do there should be no reason I can't get close. Lofty goals, but I enjoy tuning my suspension the way some tune their motors.

If I never got it any better, I could be very happy with it if I stay on reasonable roads or slow down on the rougher roads.

I really think the Hotchkiss bilsteins are close. The control is much better as the temp gets warmer above 65. I can't figure that 15 degrees would stiffen the shocks that much.