RideTech Triple Adjustable Review

[weamdog]

Background
First of all, I have to apologize for not getting this out sooner for those who have been considering this upgrade. It’s been a busy and trying year for all of us I’m sure, but I did want to get this out no matter how incomplete it is because I know people are working on their Christmas list for their winter upgrades.

I had first installed a dual adjustable RideTech suspension in my ’69 camaro “Brandy” back in late 2010. Although the performance was light years above the stock suspension it didn’t quite meet the needs of the majority of the Brandy’s operating time which was more of weekends sitting on parking lots and not the track. One day I took my friend who had been recovering from a stroke to a show that was over 30 minutes away and he was not too impressed with the ride. So when one of my shocks developed a leak I thought this would be a good time to see what could be done to improve things since technology was advancing fairly quickly on new cars. Low and behold, RideTech was not getting left behind and had made several improvements in just a couple years time, however I was at a dilemma on whether to go triple adjustable or the select series. On one side the triple adjustable shockwaves seemed to be better performance and more tunable, but on the other hand the select series would provide the one-the-fly ride comfort control that we are all getting used to with new cars. I do admit, the magnetic selective ride control on my vette is nice, but very seldom do I use it unless the road really starts beating me up. In the end, I opted for the triple adjustable just for the fine tuning capability and the fact that Brandy will never see cross-country touring for lack of gas money and fear of a careless driver (not me) destroying what I’ve been working so hard to keep in great shape.
Installation
When I first received the new triple adjustable shocks I was wondering what in the world I was getting myself into. I had never seen so many parts for two pair of shocks! Although the parts were self explanatory it would have been nice to see some pics of how the many parts of the shims and spacers went together.
Upgrading from an existing RideTech system, I figured would be fairly simple and I would be able to keep all the existing hardware which I had upgraded to polished stainless steel. Well, that was not the case. These new ShockWaves are much beefier and the only mounts that were the same were the upper rears.
The front ShockWaves were the most difficult to install. The upper shafts are much larger than the old system and require a step bit to enlarge the holes in the shock towers. This was fairly simple after I realized that using a file was not getting me anywhere quick! I think I had to go up about three sizes for this. The upper mount has also changed to somewhat of a bushing system in order to relieve stress on the upper shaft. The lower mounts were the most difficult part of the install, unfortunately, the new ShockWaves do not fit with the older strong arms and need machined down some to accommodate mounting and free movement of the shock during suspension travel. This is basically due to the conversion over to the mono tube design which creates a shorter, stubbier mounting area at the bottom of the ShockWave. This change in construction required the lower strong arms to be removed in my case, but after completion it was obvious that a grinder could have gotten in there to make the needed changes without pulling the arms off. But without being able to mount the shock to the lower strong arm with it being on the car it is difficult to judge how much would need to be taken off because of suspension travel. The new strong arms have been redesigned so that this modification is not needed. It took a few attempts to get all the spacers to where I thought they would work the best, hopefully I got it the way they were designed to work. This might also be a good place to mention the new pivoting mounting points which is another improvement to relieve stress on shock by allowing it to twist within the mount.
The rear ShockWaves were nowhere near as complex to upgrade. All that was needed was to replace the mounting stud with a new, slightly larger one. These ShockWaves also have the floating-type mount at the bottom to allow for slight twisting.
Mounting of the reservoirs for high-speed control has left me a little baffled at the moment so I have just temporarily mounted them until I can come up with a more permanent mounting position for them. The fronts have multiple mounting areas available while keeping adjustments easy. The rears on the other hand are more of a problem, but then again they have always been a little cumbersome to get to. What I would eventually like to do is mount the reservoirs in the trunk, but that would require disassembly of the unit which may not be wise. While I’m on adjustments, I do like the fact that the front ShockWave valve adjustment has been relocated to the top of the shock making adjustments easy.
Support
Support from RideTech was just as Frank (Prodigy) stated, some of the best in the industry. Bret and Danny stood with me at every step of the upgrade going out of their way to ensure that the install was as painless for me as possible. My thanks to them for their awesome support.
Performance
For purposes of this review, opinions here are not based on any actual track/course tests. I’m lucky if I burnt three tanks of gas this year and one of those was on the dyno which is a story onto itself. But anyways, it is what it is and I hope that somebody can find this of use. Hopefully once I get settled into the new house (no more doing all this work in a mini storage for me) I will have more time to put the suspension through the test, as I sure a few have already done.

[Vegas69]

I see your thoughts on your old shockwaves and the ride, not the triples?

[bret]

Mark...I understand that you havent gotten any track time on the car this summer, but can you give us a "seat of the pants" driving opinion?

[weamdog]

sorry, i haven't had any opportunity to actually play with any adjustments yet so I can't give a complete review, i left everything at the factory settings for the time being. what i can tell you keeping in mind that i have 43 year old stock seats in my car is that the new ride is less bouncy. the old ride reminded me of a ricer that knows nothing about suspension and cuts their springs to lower the car. ever see one of them bouncing across a bridge? thats kinda like the way i felt with the old shocks at times, very air-baggy/bouncy feeling. the new shocks are much improved when it comes to this. i'm pretty sure the remaining bounce could be fixed with some real seating and maybe dialing in the adjustments. as for the overall feeling, nothing has been compromised from either my stock suspension which was really bad or from the old shockwaves. most of the summer the fuel injection system was broke and the number 1 cylinder was dead so i was driving with 100hp still not happy with the hp, but there is monster torque and i have gotten into a corner or two without breaking free. i really have to get used to my newly found power in the open so i know what the limits are. right now i haven't hit the limits.
mark

[bret]

Heard that.
Keep in mind that the "factory settings" are strictly arbitrary. They have a wide range of adjustment and can accommodate a wide variety of cars. As a result we typically set the knobs at full soft and instruct the customer to start with the setting for compression and rebound in the middle of the range and tune from there.
In addition...ride quality is very subjective...good to you may be terrible to me, and so forth.
You've got a powerful tool there...have fun using them!