Compression Adjuster (CDC/DSC/CD/Clickers) Experience/Reviews?

I'm looking for people's experience with compression adjusters on shocks, like CDC from ICON or CD and DSC from Fox or the Adjuster from King. I'm trying to figure out if I want to go this route or not. Would love to hear from anyone that owns them or has tried them.

Biggest questions:

• Do you personally find them useful?
• Do you adjust them routinely (e.g. based on terrain) or did you just dial them in once?
• If you dialed them once did you just end up at hardest, softest or the default position? Or did you actually fine tune?
• Do you find a noticeable difference between the softest and hardest settings?
• What is your application (i.e. what kind of driving do you do)?

I understand these effectively change the compression stroke and are velocity rather than position dependent and thus not the same as a bypass shock.

As is typical I've done a lot of searching and now seem more confused than when I started This seems to be because in posts the application is not really specified and so one person's "useless" is another person's "critical" and the discussions degrade from there. So if anyone has specific advice for me, here is my application:

My Application

• "Expedition" type vehicle with a shell, will be at GVWR nearly all times.
• 2-2.5" Lift
• 235/85/16 tires
• Rear leaf spring designed for heavy load
• Desert driving in southwest, dirt roads but some very rough
• Like to drive washboard at 45 mph max
• Do end up on rocky roads that I'd be concerned running too fast on as far as tire damage
• Do end up on slow very rough roads that seem to make truck wobble side to side a lot even at very low speeds.
• Rarely do sand unless it happens to be a road on the edge of dunes
• Don't try to race or fly through whoops
• I use my truck to get from point A to point B to go camping, ideally without having to crawl at 5 mph the whole way. I don't race, I don't intentionally chose awful routes just for the challenge.
• I prefer to do things "right" once rather than iterate, even if that means a bit more money up front.

I'm not set on ICON, Fox or King. But just picking ICON as a start at the minimum I'd do 2.5" Coilovers in the front and 2.0" RR in the back. If I went with CDC I'd have to bump up to 2.5" RR in the back and add RRs to the front. About $1500 difference. Again, cost not a huge factor but would rather not throw money away or add features I wouldn't use that might break. On the flip side, don't want to pay a bunch of money for something I'm not happy with and keep having rebuilt to try to get the ride "right".

 

I personally don't have a pair on my truck yet, but we (Radflo) recently (about 4-5 months ago) started selling our newly redesigned compression adjusters. They were instantly a hit and now most our shocks we sell are going out the door with them. Most of our customers describe them as a necessity and others as a luxury.

From softest to hardest, they can increase from 10-15% stiffness which is equivalent to a small valving change on a non adjuster shock.

The washboard that you will be driving, ultimately that will come down the actual valving of the shock.

Feel free to give us a call and discuss any other questions you have, the guys in the offce have years of suspension experience. If we somehow don't make something for your truck, we can custom make it to your application.

 

@olsin6 - Thanks, that is useful feedback! I'll be doing the suspension in about 6 months time so I may be giving you guys a call then.

Beyond that response - deafening silence...

Doesn't look like anyone who has bought one has anything to say about them!

Maybe I'll give adjusters a skip and use the saved money to revalve if necessary. Sounds like valving is the more important thing to get right and the clicker adjust is pretty minor.

Sort of surprised how little real world experience I've been able to find with adjusters!

 

If money wasn't the deciding factor if deff go with the icons. The 2.5's in the rear will make the biggest difference as the rear tends to take the most abuse. I have AP's Fox resi with adjusters and they do make a difference in rough terrain/whoops. For DD I keep them at 3 and when I hit the dirt I'll crank them to 8 as I like to drive fast and the rear doesn't bottom out. When I had 5100s in the rear (prob = to #1 setting) I bottomed out on EVERYTHING and that's with AP standard springs.

Icon makes such a quality product and i will upgrade my front end (currently non resi Icons) to CDC in the future. I think the FOX DSC looks cool too but I don't see a huge need for adjusting both slow and high speed as I either drive fast (90% in AZ desert) or I'm crawling at slow/moderate speeds......a single adjuster works good enough.

 

@DVexile what suspension set up did you end up selecting? Currently trying to get my front suspension sorted out.

 

Ive been interested in the Fox DSC adjusters as well and you are right, there is shockingly little information out there about them!

 

I am actually still selecting, I had planned on doing install back in September but life has interfered and so it will probably be January instead now.

Current plan is to skip the CDCs and just go with standard ICON 2.5 fronts and ICON 2.0 w/RR in the back. All Pro Expedition rear leafs. Not 100% sure on UCAs, but probably Total Chaos though I've been eyeing the JBAs which have been having some early adoption issues.

 

Reviving this thread to prevent stating new redundant threads. (Proof of doing research lol)

Doing some research about this and surprisingly there is still not that much conclusive reviews on this topic.

I'm particularly interested in the King adjusters for anyone that has experience with it. Is there a significant difference in ride characteristics on road?

 

Haven't felt a huge difference on the pavement with my King adjusters, but they are overall stiffer than stock shocks/suspension

 

So it would be a waste on pavement? How worth is it if only on road purpose? I'm asking because I've been searching for over a month but not much info.

 

If it's strictly a pavement pounder/mall crawler/just for looks, save $ and go without. Most guys that run the adjusters have purpose built/off-roaded often trucks

 

Last question- do you think I should be good with 2.5" without resi? (pavement pounder). I know I could do 5100, but I want more and I don't want to ask sellers while searching. I like one with resi but no point to get one if not needed and pay for.

 

You can even get by with 2.0's non-resi. Seems like you're willing to pay a lot for something you really don't have a use for other than looking good in the parking lot.

 

Thanks for your input. Not really for look but emphasis on "more comfortable ride" on pavement. And I figure that 2.5" lasts longer than 2".

 

It'll feel the same on pavement. The shocks aren't doing much work on flat ground. Going offroad you'll feel the difference between the 2.0s and 2.5s. You'll probably be happy with the Bilstein replacements too if you aren't taking it off the highway

 

I have icon 2.5 with reservoirs both front and back. Icon alum UCA and 700# coils in front and all-pro expos in the rear. I'm glad I got the CDC. I run them set to "S" (softest setting) on road. I turn them up to "4" (equal to the default non-CDC shock setting) when wheeling. The default or "4" setting is noticeably stiffer when run on road. I find a definite value in the CDC feature.

Edit: I rock crawl and do higher speed desert runs. Love my icons.

 

I have fox dsc rear 2.5s and i really like the dsc. I can notice one click in the ride so its like having a bunch of different valved shocks at your finger tips.

 

I think I'm going with Fox or King with r/r + adjuster. Icon spring at 650# might be too much for pavement. Suggestion?

 

My 6112 are about that rate and if i flex my truck the front barely moves. Drives great on the road though.

 

Running king 2.5 with king 650lb springs and adjusters on all corners, best thing ever! Adjust for any type of terrain. Ive had 5100's and icons previously so Ive experienced a little bit of everything.