Hey Guys, I have recently acquired a used DBXL. I was originally going to go with the Rovan SC or King Motor X2 as it is the same as the 5ive, but when this came across my path, I took it, as it was cheaper by a long way. I paid $500 for a DBXL with 29cc Zenoah and a few add on goodies, including uprated shock springs. I knew about the problem with the shocks, and thought that one with uprated springs might help.
After all the discussions on the forums, the shocks are the weakpoint of this buggy, along with drive pin failures. I am not going to be racing this, and most of its exploits will be bashing in soft sand, with very minor jumps, so the drive shafts shouldn't be subjected to too much stress...I hope.
As for the shocks, its very clear that there is very little damping happening, and the truck is like a pogo-stick with the uprated springs. So, I need to do something about it. I have ordered some shock rebuild kits, some 35wt oil and original springs, then I will do some experimenting. From what i can gather, the stock shock pistons have 4 holes that are too big, which means you have to use VERY thick oil to create damping, there is also no bladder for fluid movement and fluid displacement for the space the shock shaft fills when it compressed. This means that this is more an 'aeration' shock than a true sealed unit, and rebounds is always a problem with no bladder. It seems there will need to be some air in them. This then causes the 4-hole system to be even more inefficient. So, the rebuild kits seems to have 6 smaller holes, and this might be the answer. Before doing this, I will close off two of the existing 4 holes, and see if that creates a better effect. I don't think only 2 holes will work well enough and see myself working to the 6 hole system, and maybe close one of those off. Lots of messing about. I also want to try the stock springs as I don't know where this guy got the springs he put on it, but the are constantly under pre-load, even with the shock adjusters all the way at the top. This is not how a shock should work!. The length of the spring should allow that the adjusters determine ride-height, you shouldn't use pre-load to adjust ride height and in this case there is no ride height adjustment, the adjusters would only result in spring tension/pre-load.
Another thing I noticed, is that the rear suspension arms never reach the droop stops on the chassis! This means that the shock itself is acting as a droop stop!! This is NOT meant to happen. the shock should ONLY provide damping and not end point stopping. Either this thing was badly designed, or the shocks are on back to front.....I don't know if they are different lengths, will have to check. I see that they are sold in pairs for (front and rear). If there is no difference, then I will need to get some way to make the shock longer, and that is usually only capable through longer ball links on the bottom.
I have read a lot about these shocks, and hope I can make them an acceptable use before I go out an buy 5ive shocks. I see there is a guy on THE auction site that sells some alternative pistons, might lay my hands on some of those too.
I know I could just get 5ive shocks, but whats the fun in that?
