Ride comfort

[Chris & Ranae Procyk <procyk19@domain.elided>]

A piece of knowledge gleaned from the water-cooled VW crowd:
On a short-wheelbase vehicle with a heavy front weight distribution,
put the softest shocks you can get in the REAR.

The banging/crashing noises come from the front suspension.
But in a front-heavy vehicle they aren't what bounces you around.
Think about it, you have a 750lb engine up there, compared
to just some empty beer cans and Fritos bags in the back.
That big weight is not going
to change direction very easily.  In fact, it's resistance to
movement is what makes all the banging noise.

But the rear is what bounces the riders.  And this is really
pronounced in SUV's because the rear shocks usually
are valved for p/up applications (check the numbers).
If you look up CJ rear shocks, they're the same as
1/2 ton p/ups!!!  So they're valved to at least be
reasonable with 1500lbs in the bed.

Maybe if you haul your mother-in-law around a lot
this makes sense, but when she isn't there it's
just annoying.

Will doubling the shocks really halve their damping
effect?  Seems counter-intuitive to me.  That means
that if you have an infinite number of shocks you get
no damping.  I know that works for resistors, but
dampers??  I'll have to dig up my old textbooks.
It seems to me that you double the orifice size, but
you also double the amount of fluid that you're trying
to push through it.  I thought the purpose of dual shocks
was only to minimize the heating effect of the fluid.
by having twice as much fluid.


'67 1000B step-side p/up  BG241 + 4spd
'70 1200D 4x4 Travelette 392 4spd
'71 1010 Travelall  392 auto
'73 1210 Wagonmaster, 392 auto