Spring pre-load
- Thread starter codeman11
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owen_primalrc
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It all depends on the surface you're running on and what you want to do. A common upgrade some people try is adding thicker oil and drilling the piston holes. This works best with a 4 shock setup, if you go to 8 total the dampening is too much. The thought is thicker oil and drilling the piston holes should give smoother dampening as the oil doesn't slosh around as much and the aerated oil doesn't have as much of an effect (its basically impossible to perfectly bleed these shocks). With stock shocks you can hear the air bubbles moving through the piston, it sounds like squeezing a wet sponge. This is not necessarily bad, just something to understand and consider.
As for pre load, unless you have limiting straps, the adjustable collars on the shocks are used to adjust ride height. I prefer as low as possible for more control but still gives full droop for handling jumps. This includes mounting the shock as high as possible and leaving the collar all the way up for the lowest ride height possible.
You can also adjust the sway bars by moving the link mount in and out along the sway bar. Think of it like a lever, further out is easier to move (softer sway bar -> more roll) and further in would be the opposite, stiffer. A stiffer bar will give more twitchy steering and also make it easier to get the truck up on 2 wheels, maybe good to some maybe bad lol. And softer sway bars make the truck sway more which looks cool but also makes the truck handling more lazy feeling.
Basically, try some things out and see what you like!
As for pre load, unless you have limiting straps, the adjustable collars on the shocks are used to adjust ride height. I prefer as low as possible for more control but still gives full droop for handling jumps. This includes mounting the shock as high as possible and leaving the collar all the way up for the lowest ride height possible.
You can also adjust the sway bars by moving the link mount in and out along the sway bar. Think of it like a lever, further out is easier to move (softer sway bar -> more roll) and further in would be the opposite, stiffer. A stiffer bar will give more twitchy steering and also make it easier to get the truck up on 2 wheels, maybe good to some maybe bad lol. And softer sway bars make the truck sway more which looks cool but also makes the truck handling more lazy feeling.
Basically, try some things out and see what you like!
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks Owen, appreciated. I did notice it was next to impossible to bleed these; I spent a lot of time making them as even as possible as well which was a bit of a challenge but the negative pressure caps definitely help with fine tuning rebound between the shocks it seems. I have the 8 shock setup on the Grave Digger, so I'll leave it as-is. Thanks for that information. Exactly what I was wondering whether anyone had played with shock oil weight, and piston hole size in combination with the collar height.
Is that something that could be upgraded with these shocks (inability to really bleed them well) or is that mostly due to such low viscosity shock oil? I do notice the shock shafts seem to have a bit too much play; they seem to move around in all directions versus the intended straight up/down (in/out) motion more than I'm used to. Maybe need a bit of a shock bottom-end upgrade to secure the shock shafts a bit better?
I know if you run it off large jumps, running the shock collars too low doesn't give enough time it seems to fully-extend and can limit travel for dampening, so I played with mine to give just enough ride height that it seems like the shocks go through the full range of motion a bit more. I guess it's just play and see here as you said.
Is that something that could be upgraded with these shocks (inability to really bleed them well) or is that mostly due to such low viscosity shock oil? I do notice the shock shafts seem to have a bit too much play; they seem to move around in all directions versus the intended straight up/down (in/out) motion more than I'm used to. Maybe need a bit of a shock bottom-end upgrade to secure the shock shafts a bit better?
I know if you run it off large jumps, running the shock collars too low doesn't give enough time it seems to fully-extend and can limit travel for dampening, so I played with mine to give just enough ride height that it seems like the shocks go through the full range of motion a bit more. I guess it's just play and see here as you said.
owen_primalrc
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Yep that's exactly right! I have also tried flipping the piston so the chamfered side is on the bottom, this allows the shock to extend faster than compress. This let the shocks fully extend on jumps before the landing, and harder to compress on landings so the truck would not bottom out as easily. It wasn't a huge change but was notable. Changing the sway bar stiffness I think has the largest effect for handling and is often overlooked.
We are always testing and tuning here at Primal
Enjoy your truck!- Thread starter
- #5
Good idea on flipping the piston, wouldn't have thought of that one myself Cool. Something else fun to tweak.
Agreed on the sway bar, especially with solid axle front and rear. Maybe softer front, stiffer rear depending on what you're going for (i.e front-wheel steer, less tendency to lift a wheel, but keep the rear a bit more solid / planted etc.)
P.S - would love to see you guys move to something like the CY460 HO as your stock engine option, a bit of an upgrade on the shocks as mentioned and an option to purchase something like the AGFRC servos for steering etc. when checking out just my 2 cents
Cool. Something else fun to tweak. Agreed on the sway bar, especially with solid axle front and rear. Maybe softer front, stiffer rear depending on what you're going for (i.e front-wheel steer, less tendency to lift a wheel, but keep the rear a bit more solid / planted etc.)
P.S - would love to see you guys move to something like the CY460 HO as your stock engine option, a bit of an upgrade on the shocks as mentioned and an option to purchase something like the AGFRC servos for steering etc. when checking out
just my 2 cents- Thread starter
- #6
FYI - installed the latest shock cap upgrade with the new seal. You really need to design the bottom cap with 2 white plastic bushings. It needs a bottom one to protect the seal from being hit and dirt accumulating inside there. Bad design, sorry to say. Also, you can’t rely on just the piston and a single bushing to provide lateral support and keep the shock shaft straight. You need to do most of the guiding in the bottom cap, and this also prevents the cases you see where the entire shock shaft is bent halfway down the length. It’s much stronger to have the pivot point within the exposed length of shock shaft, and not halfway up because you’re using the piston as a guide.
This is an expensive truck and I hate to say it but the amount of poor design decisions and quality of the electronics is sub par for the price in a few ways. 1 or 2 little things sure, but poorly designed shocks, diffs, and glitchy electronics, and 4 link bars that are too short out of the box is pretty bad.
This is an expensive truck and I hate to say it but the amount of poor design decisions and quality of the electronics is sub par for the price in a few ways. 1 or 2 little things sure, but poorly designed shocks, diffs, and glitchy electronics, and 4 link bars that are too short out of the box is pretty bad.