2nd ride air shock

[charlie]

Hey guys started a new thread. Took the buggy out again with the new rear air shocks! Ride was great!!! I really thought it was gonna be to stiff but I was surprised don't get me wrong tonite was just an easy night out mostly fire roads cranberry bog roads and yes some whoops! I was able to bring all the stuff I like to bring and my friends small cooler still had 14" under rear diff loaded. I have the rears set at on my gauge 350psi SwayAway said they were charged at 500 but my gauge said 424 when I got them no big deal. I drove at speeds from 10-40 mph tonite felt pretty good there is some body roll at the higher speeds! Now that the back is set up better I will be stiffing the front to about 400 psi ! Hope to get out on the tougher trails in the next few days see how it feels on the rocky trails with roots and hills and mud! I'll keep updating all of you as of now I am pretty dam happy just wanna stiffn the front up little rides so much better than stock and to think when I got the t2 I thought it had a great suspension lol

[Guest Lenny]

Good news, glad to hear it.

Lenny

[nocturnalsixer]

Charlie,

Lol! I thought the same thing when I got the t2 that it ride real good and nice suspension but since everyone complained i decided to take it out for a test and yikes it's really stiff! That was last year.

Do your rear still flex as much as it did when it had fox shocks on rear?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[charlie]

The rear feels pretty good not quite at soft as the fox but the rear fox shocks were not strong enough. Im gonna get it out on the harder trails the I like to ride and see how it feels be fore I adjust anymore. Like I said kinda took it easy over the weekend just to get a feel for it and no matter what I wanna keep the rear diff 13-13.5 inches off the ground hope this helps

[charlie]

All right another tide report. Left the rear shocks alone charged front to 400psi ride hieght is really good now! Got out on the trails I love today rocks hills mud so on and some open areas. In some situations the front shocks seems a big stiff like loose rocks or heavily rooted trails at 2-3gear but in drop offs and slow off camber riding seemed pretty good! So I think what I might do is shoot for 350-370 in the front and couple more cc oil . After I get my nitrogen set up wich will be a while lol. I'm leaving the rear alone I feel like its close to perfect takes all my wait and gear. If any one has a nitro regulator laying around let me know need it to have 450 on the outgoing side

[charlie]

Sorry about type errors

[nocturnalsixer]

Sounds good, by wait u mean wife i assume?

Sounds like I'm gong to have to save up for 4 sway away shocks after i buy the turbo kit.

do you ever try to feel the shock body after it been working hard to see if it's even warming up?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[charlie]

nocturnalsixer

Yes I have felt the shock bodies the rears wich are the sway away 2.5 dont really get warm at all so far. Last weekend when i went out on the cranberry bogs and powerlines were there was a ton of whoops like dirt bike style whoops the front 2.0 fox felt a little warm not hot but warm checked with fox and they said that is normal if it was uncomfortable for you to hold the shock body then thats bad that hasnt happend yet. all in all Im really happy with it just gonna continue to tune the fronts lol if I can help or you got questions just ask

charlie

[nocturnalsixer]

nocturnalsixer

Yes I have felt the shock bodies the rears wich are the sway away 2.5 dont really get warm at all so far. Last weekend when i went out on the cranberry bogs and powerlines were there was a ton of whoops like dirt bike style whoops the front 2.0 fox felt a little warm not hot but warm checked with fox and they said that is normal if it was uncomfortable for you to hold the shock body then thats bad that hasnt happend yet. all in all Im really happy with it just gonna continue to tune the fronts lol if I can help or you got questions just ask

charlie

I was thinking because rear is more bigger so more surface area for heat to dissipate where fox could be thinner and hard working with less surface area to dissipate the heat.

I think ill save up for four sway away, the front sway away are thicker than fox correct?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[charlie]

Hey no I havnt felt any real heat on the rear and I have a lot more wieght in back the from we all know this is true with the t2. If your gonna do all sway away you need the 2.5 that's what I wish I had done fox is good bug I just feel like the sway away is a good fit for the t2. Don't get me wrong I think I will be perfect in a couple weeks when I finish tuning even with the fox in front. Another company you can check out is radflo there air shocks are very nice friend of mine is using them on there rock rig very nice I think they are about 230 ea if I remember for the 2.0 and 330 for 2.5 hold this helps

[Guest Lenny]

I like what Charlie is doing. If I were to do shocks again, I would go with air shocks too. I think they have a lot of potential. I thought about it alot and here is the way I would look at it. However, what Charlie is doing could very well turnout to be perfect. Springs shocks have a linear rate. In other words, if its a 300 pound spring rate, it pushes back 300 pounds for each inch it is compressed. A 300# spring compressed 5", will push back withf 1500 pounds. If you need more you can just go to a heavier rated spring. The thing with air shocks is that their rate increases inversely porportionate to how much its compressed. Thus if you compress it to 1/2 its air volume, you double its push back force. If this air shock say pushes back with 300# when fully extended will push back at 600# when compressed 5". So while the spring pushes back at 5" with 1500#, the air shock pushes back with 600# at 5". Here is where the personality of the two approaches are different. With air, if you want this rate to increase at a lesser rate, you would need to lower the initial pressure or increase the initial air volume. Not the pressure but its volume.This could be accomplished by adding an air reservoir. If you needed this rate to be higher you would need to increase the initial air pressure or decrease the initial air volume. Volume decrease could be acheived by putting an internal sleeve in the shock to take up some of the air volume. With the availablity to do either of these, you would be able to set the initial firmness or softness to what you preferred and still be able to have control over the increase of rate so it firms up or stays soft where you need it to and by how much. I would think that the already existing air charge fitting on the air shock would provide a place to add a reservior. I guess after thinking about this out loud above, what I'm saying is that if you do need more adjustment flexibility, there are further things you can do to tune your suspension.

Lenny

[charlie]

thanx for the support lenny

[charlie]

I agree with you Lenny reading ot again they do have external resivors you can add to them. Im gonna play around with the oil volume as well once I have my own Nitro set -up. I believe the rear is now close to perfect and I just wanna fine tune the front lol.

[nocturnalsixer]

I gotta agree with Lenny also since it makes sense..

Id do fox front but i think sway away will be stronger and matches the rear in looks. Since Charlie is very close on front i don't think he will need to get sway away fronts..i plan on comparing those two for front and try to decide which one i would want to scoop up.

I think if we ate going to put more weight on front end eventually (bigger winch etc) maybe sway away would work easier than fox would?

Also radflo i have no idea i never even heard of sway away before Charlie mentioned those too

But thanks Charlie for being our Guinea pig.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[Guest Lenny]

Adding oil would take the place of adding an interior sleeve to take up space.

Lenny

[charlie]

Hey guys in my new color album I posted 2 pics of the t2 flexing with the fox air shocks in front and the sway away shocks in rear ill post a few more later there's a side shot and front

[charlie]

I failed to mention the pics that I posted thats not at full travel still another 2-3 inches to go just couldnt find anything to make it flex anymore lol

[bigdan120]

Hey guys I am going to do shocks in 2 stages a set this year and a set next year......So knowing that which set would you change out first in your own opinion?

[charlie]

Personally I would do rear first that's hot the most wieght and that changes the handling drastic once I had the right set up in back I was blown away