Upright front shock Q

[rcflyer40plus1]

Hello, I put a vertical shock kit on my TH, with some 85mm G-Made aeration shocks. I was wondering how "soft/hard" should the front be for typical trailing? I also put some 60 wt oil in the back shocks to firm them up a little. I wanted the front to be soft, but I was doing some adjustment tonight and made an observation that concerns me a bit. If I push the front end all the way down, the shocks will not push it back up. Similarly, if I lift it all the way up and then put the TH down, the nose will not sink down on it's own. It seems to ride OK, but I guess I'd expect some sort of effort to return to neutral? Possibly it has nothing to do with shocks, but the suspension needs some lubrication? Dunno - newbie here. Thanks for your input, really enjoy each new hammer build that pops up.

[MeanTT]

Originally Posted by rcflyer40plus1

Hello, I put a vertical shock kit on my TH, with some 85mm G-Made aeration shocks. I was wondering how "soft/hard" should the front be for typical trailing? I also put some 60 wt oil in the back shocks to firm them up a little. I wanted the front to be soft, but I was doing some adjustment tonight and made an observation that concerns me a bit. If I push the front end all the way down, the shocks will not push it back up. Similarly, if I lift it all the way up and then put the TH down, the nose will not sink down on it's own. It seems to ride OK, but I guess I'd expect some sort of effort to return to neutral? Possibly it has nothing to do with shocks, but the suspension needs some lubrication? Dunno - newbie here. Thanks for your input, really enjoy each new hammer build that pops up.

Your answers depends on many variables, so the answer below is a generality. I have the G-made shocks with a GCM front mount set up. I can't remember the springs I used (I do remember I replaced them and believe i used the SUPER SOFT for the front), but I can tell you that I used 3 hole pistons (instead of the stock 2 hole) in the front and back. I found that the vertical setup I was using didn't have much travel when I was running it because the oil was too thick. On a trail rig I wanted the tires to be in contact with the ground as much as possible. I have the medium sway bars on the front and back.

Since I am using aftermarket rear shocks, I can't compare directly. I use a 2200 Mah batter in the rear that is pretty light and use the stock springs form the g-made piggyback 103MM shocks. At the end of the day, the rear runs about 1/2 compressed but will follow the terrain nicely.

Remember that the front will not touch if your shocks bottom out, but it will be hard on the shock mount. One of the weaknesses of the TH is the limited front travel.

Your problem is a result of mismatched springs and oil. The oil is too thick for those springs, hence your suspension will not move quickly enough (or at all) to follow the terrain. Generally you want the lightest springs and oils you can get away with to maintain a contact patch with the ground. If you jump a lot, you would want thicker oil to dampen those landings. Given the limited front travel jumping your TH is not the best idea. Your problem is that the springs do not have the strength to move the piston through the oil. Your options are to (i) use lighter oil; (ii) get firmer springs; (iii) move the collars down the shocks; or (iv) use shock pistons with more/larger holes to counteract the effect of thicker oil.

60 weight oil is most likely far too heavy. I would suspect you want 20 weight. I found that with the thicker oil all suspension movement came from the rear. With the lighter springs, lighter oil and sway bars (which act like extra springs in most cases) I was able to get the handling I wanted on the front. The rear geometry is compromised and will never work perfectly, especially at high speeds. With my current set up, I do have a fair amount of nose dive when I brake, but it is realistic and works fine. That said, my set up would be a disaster for large jumps since the front would bottom out each time. The most I can get is about 18 inches in the air without full compression.

Here is my build thread. Looks like I used the 4 hole pistons:

Nearly finished TH build with EVERYTHING

[rcflyer40plus1]

That's really helpful - thanks. Sounds like I need to do some rebuilding on the shocks to get it balanced out properly. Always looking to improve.