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Thread: Rancho shocks troubleshooting...

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  1. #1
    Member Since
    Dec 2004
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    Former owner of Supercharged #0604, now in withdrawal
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    Ultimate, suspensions work like this:

    Most of the vehicle's weight rests on the springs, but springs are really bouncy. Shocks (or struts on other vehicles) dampen the bouncy motion of the springs, ideally giving you a compliant but well-controlled ride when the springs and shocks are well-matched. A "soft" ride isn't necessarily a "smooth" ride, as you've figured out.

    VX springs are super-duper-sports-car-strong and require a very stiff shock to match their spring action, but not too stiff, because then you get a really hard ride. That said, it is not necessarily possible to give a vehicle like the VX a perfectly smooth ride - the weight, dimensions, and suspension design of the VX limit what can be accomplished. The shocks can be appropriately balanced against the spring stiffness, but that balance may not yield the ride you might want. It is a real challenge to find an appropriate shock for such strong springs without taking the engineer's approach to the problem by calculating spring rates and shock force and unsprung weight.

    Anyway, to answer your question, if your shocks are set on their lowest (softest) setting, then you will avoid getting sharp jolts over bumps, but you will get a lot of bounciness from the springs. If you have them set at their highest setting, you will max out their stiffness, and control the bounciness of the springs better, but at the expense of getting sharp jots/vibrations over bumps.

    Somewhere there is a sweet spot between stiffness of the springs and shocks. Hopefully that sweet spot is within the adjustment range of the Ranchos. :-)

    Hope that helped! Good luck!

  2. #2
    Member Since
    Jun 2002
    Location
    2001 Ebony S/C #1304
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    3,647
    Thanked: 10
    Gotta agree, if you want a comfy vehicle, the VX is NOT THE ONE. I personally love feeling the road, and unfortunately, I found the Ranchos take much of that away. They were too bouncy for me, no matter what the setting. I have had them on for about 20k miles I guess and am ready to roll back to the stockers. One may be blown however, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is not....
    Gary Noonan
    '01 S/C VX / '18 Forester XT

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