Shocking question

Shocking question for the group. Okay, multi part question. I think the next thing I’d like to do to my truck before I tear I to the rear end is valving on the front. I’m running a Camburg LT with King 2.5 coilovers, no secondary bypasses but hydro bumps. They do fairly well considering, but I know there’s more/better damping in them. The high speed/sharp edge hits (like cracks in the road or a small 2” sharper ledge/rock) absolutely sucks on these kings. It’s horrid. Slow speed hits are pretty good but they do blow through their travel quick. Adding bumps was a HUGE improvement but I’d like to at least get the most/best possible damping form these little 2.5s as possible. Seeing how high speed/small/sharpe bumps sensitivity is already shit, maybe I can go pretty aggressive on compression valving to help not blow through travel so quickly and resist bottoming so bad. Maybe a flutter set up with a pretty form main stack? The main issue I see so far (and please don’t take this the wrong way) is getting good valving specs to do them myself. I ran the one and only RaceTech suspension center here in New Mexico, I went to school in Corona for suspension tuning/set up/rebuilding. But valving (well, good not generic) seems to be very well guarded in the off-road world. And for good reason, I know. But I’d like to valve them myself. We used to have a pretty good data base/knowledge base we would all share in the MX community with valving specs.

 

I think this is due to most people not actually doing the valving themselves. My opinion is it is a general lack of knowledge.

What is in your coil overs and bumps now?

Usually the high shaft speed/sharp edges can be softened by adding additional free bleed. Some free bleed and more compression/doubling up the bigger shims is probably in your future, but totally dependent on what is already there. I would try to only do one major change per re-valve to keep track of how the front end reacts.

 

Imma agree and say my first step is to take a Saturday morning and measure the stacks in them now. I’m going to assume by the way the feel it’s a very basic stack.

 

Shock tuning is like cooking a steak, everyone prefers something different.

Like mentioned above, pop them open and see what you are starting with. Tuning just a coilover is easier than with bypass. You will probably end up with a flutter stack. Depends on front end weight (V6 or I4, bumper, winch, ect).
Rebound is probably fine.
1st 2 large compression shims should be 0.010" or 0.012" for heavier truck, then pop in a small shim, then jump back up the large size shim and build a normal pyramid stack on top (below) that. 0.010" on lighter truck, 0.012" on heavier truck. Maybe 0.015" for the last 3 smallest comp shims if you are gonna jump it.

 

Kinda want to build a firm compression stack, with flutter shim, bleed holes and a rate plate.

 

Sounds like you know just what to do then,

When tuning off a single coilover shock, messing with the shim stacks fulcrum height and width to use the rate plate to limit full port flow on big hits changed everything for me.

If you know what you are manipulating its possible to valve it to better free bleed enough to be plush on the little stuff
Flow enough oil with shim flex for mid shaft speed to soak up and drop into the medium terrain features
Limit full piston port flow for big hits / high shaft speed

Little changes make huge differences when messing with the fulcrum height and width and how you do your free bleed/flutter so start conservatively.

I've tried going back to traditional full shims stacks and they feel awful.

 

That’s what I’m thinking. I guess what I’m trying to do is get a feeler or see if people who have done this will share their stack specs. I’m not trying to be lazy, but this isnt a race truck, I don’t really ant to spend a ton of time tearing the stacks down over and over. In the MX and DH MTB world, it’s pretty common to get what you wanted from the first stack revalve. There’s pretty common and documented recipes for most set ups.