A Discussion About Front Strut/Shock Valving

What is everyone running? Are you happy with it? If you could change it, what would you try?
I know that spring rate has been beat to death but, what about valving and travel...how the front relates to the rear with respect to total set-up.
I know that "what should work" isn't always "what will work."
Input based "theory" is good but...I'm thinking more towards "been there, done that" info...tendancies you have noticed with different set-ups.
Not really looking for the "Secret Recipe"...just thought it might be interesting to compare notes.
Thanks,
JB

I just got an old set of struts from a buick filled with wd40...............works ok i guess lol.

Strange Struts and Shocks.. The little knobbie deals are cool!

8^)

I don't think there is any "best" setup for adjusting front extension valving, especially when it comes to a new race car's first time at the track. Some say start from a "full loose" setting, some say start from "full tight", and some say start in the middle. All 3 have their good & bad points. I guess the common sense thing to do depends on the car's power & if it has wheelie bars or not. So a front strut "full loose" extension setting on a car without wheelie bars that has some power probably isn't a good starting point.


But with a drag car that has anything resembling a stock/factory amount of front suspension travel (as in a bunch) it is worth thinking about using both adjustable valving shocks/struts together with travel limiters. Both can work together better than one or the other by them selves a lot of the times. True, adjustable front shocks/struts and travel limiters do in effect try to do much the same "wheel stand control" job. But they both do it in different ways which gives you more adjustability to work with when using both together.

Say you have a car prone to big wheel stands that has adjustable struts, but no limiters. So you keep tightening & tightening the extension valving trying to bring the wheel stands under control. And lets say that you didn't see good results until the front extension valving finally reached "full tight". At which point the wheel stands started to get lower & the 60 ft's got better........but at the same time the stiff struts made the car handle worse on the top end making it a scary bitch to drive. What you might have gained on the starting line could be lost on the top end.

Or the opposite. Say you have a similar big wheel stand prone car, and it has limiters, but it also has junk, or worn out, or non adjustable struts. In this situation the struts would be of little help in controlling the wheel stands, and in effect might make the problem worse if they are real "loose" on extension (from being either factory gas-charged, or just plain worn-out). So you try to control the wheel stands by shortening the limiters more & more. But the loose struts can give so much of an inertia building "running start" at the limiters that the limiters can sometimes be ineffective until a bunch of travel is removed. And having a "loose" front end tied down real short on travel can also make for a scary top end ride too. Not to mention the possible rear suspension unloading during the launch as the inertia building loose strut front suspension hits the limiters.

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:But with a drag car that has anything resembling a stock/factory amount of front suspension travel (as in a bunch) it is worth thinking about using both adjustable valving shocks/struts together with travel limiters. Both can work together better than one or the other by them selves a lot of the times. True, adjustable front shocks/struts and travel limiters do in effect try to do much the same "wheel stand control" job. But they both do it in different ways which gives you more adjustability to work with when using both together.

Thanks for a detailed reply Dave...
I'm thinking that I may need to swap my struts for a set with a little more travel. It seems somewhere around 60/40 is good for my set-up...just lacking travel.
I'm more at the point of....not enough wheelstand....looking for a little more transfer without the big wheelie.
I figured every racer on here would have an opinion on this one.....

Treeyasoon wrote:

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:But with a drag car that has anything resembling a stock/factory amount of front suspension travel (as in a bunch) it is worth thinking about using both adjustable valving shocks/struts together with travel limiters. Both can work together better than one or the other by them selves a lot of the times. True, adjustable front shocks/struts and travel limiters do in effect try to do much the same "wheel stand control" job. But they both do it in different ways which gives you more adjustability to work with when using both together.

Thanks for a detailed reply Dave...
I'm thinking that I may need to swap my struts for a set with a little more travel. It seems somewhere around 60/40 is good for my set-up...just lacking travel.
I'm more at the point of....not enough wheelstand....looking for a little more transfer without the big wheelie.
I figured every racer on here would have an opinion on this one.....

Although struts can control the rate of extension, the spring can also be a useful tool........a lighter spring will allow the front rise "quicker" and thus raising the nose farther......and vice/versa......to tame a wheel standish car, you can run a "stiffer" front coil to "lessen" the rate of rise.

If you say 60/40 setting is good, what happens with 90/10?? Just wondering.......

OOOOOOOOOOOOOH Treeeeee What does it scale at? front to back? You better get it right cus you know who's going to be there LOL

feetfirst wrote:If you say 60/40 setting is good, what happens with 90/10?? Just wondering.......

I mostly noticed the difference on 1/4 mile passes...the front end seemed like it wanted to "float" more...didn't have a firm feel.
I would sometimes get the same feeling in the 1/8 on a rougher track.

BIGDOG466 wrote:What does it scale at? front to back?

That is on the list of "scheduled events" for this winter, lol. That, and perhaps some spring changes if need be.
I was just wondering what valving everyone else was running.

90% of the time it not the spring or the strut on the big end it the bumpsteer the car is trying to plow down the track that a fact