I think the list I posted a while back, may be a sticky by now, about Bilsteins says which modles are user rebuildable.

 

I've never rebuilt one, or known anyone that has. We just don't have the terrain where I live to warrant my putting any money into the suspension. There are some Cali guys that run the deserts who have all kinds of neato shocks.

It seems to me, that if the shock is made and designed properly, that you wouldn't want or need it to be adjustable. I could tell that my old 9000's were on different settings, it was just that 5, full stiff, was the only one I liked. The bushings on those were garbage though. I hoped they've changed that, or your bushings will wear out way before your shock does.

 

That is true for a single-use vehicle. Surely for a street driven vehicle, a single shock absorber can be properly tuned to give the best performance over a wide variety of conditions. But what happens when the actual conditions fall outside of that range?? Offroad driving usually falls outside of the scope of shock absorbers provided as OEM on vehicles. This is why there are so many companies that make offroad shocks.

The demands on shocks on an offroad vehicle are extremely different than those of street vehicles so with a single non-adjustable shock absorber, you absolutely MUST make a compromise between offroad performance and on-road safety. With an adjustable shock absorber, you can have both offroad performance and on-road safety (and performance) all in one package. That is, of course, assuming that the range of adjustability of the shock covers the range of conditions in which you will use the vehicle. Honestly, other than putting them on the truck, there is no way for me to say whether or not the Rancho RS9000x will do that but with 9 available settings, I am fairly confident that I will be able to achieve both safe and predictable on-road behavior and better than OEM offroad performance without having to make a compromise.

 

That's the reason I got the RSX. Not a total solution, but I'm satisfied with the compromise of "self adjustability" in both road and off-road as I use them. It's a "good enough" type of solution, as opposed to a "best" solution -- which I was unwilling to spend the money for. I got the four RSX's on sale for "buy one get one free" and paid about $160 for all four.

 

This is true. I'd quote whoever said that they need them for all differant terranes, but I dont know how to do it. It's done with variable valving. Differant shim's, valve controll's and such. I'll find the diagram I had before. Like the high end Bilsteins are very soft at low speeds and hard a stable at high speed. This is done with the variable valving.

This has nothing to do with any specific shock or brand or anything. I have no bias, just letting you guys know how shock valving works.

 

I'm quite aware of how shock valving works but I also understand that it does have it's limits. There are variable valved offroad shocks as well as variable valved street shocks made by the same manufacturers which should illustrate quite clearly the need for both. If it were possible to build the perfect shock, then every manufacturer would make only one type and there would be no distinction between offroad shocks and street shocks.

Define low speed or even high speed for that matter. Consider in your definition what the shock knows. The shock only knows the input from the shaft thus the difference between a low speed sweeping corner and crawling up the face of a large boulder can appear to be similar. When on the street, a set of rumble strips may call for a firmer shock to keep all tires on the ground however a softer and more pliable suspension would be preferable when driving over a series of small rocks or roots. Variable valved shocks don't know the difference whereas I do. This is the advantage of adjustability. Variable valved shocks are great for those who don't care to have input into the handling of their vehicle, but since I know the difference between a dirt road and a poorly paved highway, I prefer to have a choice.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying that adjustable shocks are perfect either, simply that given my application I feel that they will give me the best overall shock with minimal compromises.

 

Looks like your going to find out first hand. The only way to know how well those shocks are going to work for you is to try them.

 

I used HAL QA1 on my Lightning. Adjustable. I am going for the Rancho RS9000X for the adjustment capabilities. I will start out at 5 on the front, 2 on the rear and go from there. Rancho has many types as everyone knows. I can not find enough info on search engines, etc to simply rule out the Rancho brand.

 

Hey Tom so what do you think of this set up did you ever get them in ? I saw this same set up advertised recently. What do you think ?

 

I have had the shocks on the truck for a couple months now and I really like them. I'm not too thrilled about having to touch each shock to adjust them but now that the remote arrived, that will change soon. When I have made adjustments to them, I have noticed significant differences. I can go from go-kart like handling on the street to a plush ride over the washboard surface on some of Wharton's trails by simply turning a ****. Very nice.

As for the remote, while I have not installed it yet, I'm not sure that I like the way it works. Basically, you push one button to run the compressor and stiffen all 4 shocks and then use buttons on the panel to bleed air from either the front or rear shocks to make them softer. There are gages to show what setting you're at for front vs rear but I would rather be able to air up the front shocks without affecting the rears and vice versa. I'm sure I'll get used to it and it won't even bother me after a while but it's not what I had expected.

I'm trying to come up with a way to connect a small tank to it and use a separate regulator for the front and rear. That way, I could turn the **** on the regulator to change the setting in either the front or rear without affecting the other. I'm going to at least try it out the way it is before modifying it tho.

 

Rancho, current special. Buy 4 get 1 free. Time for Ranchos and some adjustment.