Another shock question...i know i know...

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72Duster440

72Duster440

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72 Duster, steel headed 440, PST 1.03 bars, QA1 uppers, lowers and strut rods, Hellwig sway bar, B Body SS springs and mini tubbed.

I currently have RCD Bilsteins front and rear, but they seem pretty stiff. Even when I sit on the front of the car, it barely moves. Car sits pretty low, so I don't want to get softer bars if I can avoid it. I'm not sure if it's shocks or the t bars, but I'd like to soften it up a little. Over good roads, it rides amazing, but the potholes riddles ones will rattle my fillings out. Would QA1 or Fox or something adjustable be the way to go? The rear doesn't seem to be too stiff, just the front.
 
an adjustable shock would probably be a move in the right direction. have you checked to see that you're not riding on the bumpstops?

also, i had an instance where somebody had installed an aftermarket swaybar and managed to get bunch of pre-load on it and made it ride terrible on patchwork road. so just another consideration in that it might not just be shocks but the culmination of several factors.
 
1.03’s and Bilsteins shouldn’t be that stiff. They’ll ride firmer than stock, but that combo shouldn’t rattle your fillings.

The SS springs, on the other hand, will. They’re stiff as hell. Beyond that, I would make sure that you’re not riding on the bump stops and that none of the suspension is binding up (ie, adjustable strut rods set to the right length)

I ran my Challenger with SS springs in the back for awhile. Even with 1.12” bars up front the SS springs were too stiff. I replaced them with XHD’s and the ride quality and handling improved
 
It sure feels like it's the front that is stiff when going over bumps, but maybe it is the rear. I was going to rebuild my leafs this winter, but I have been debating on getting a set of Hotchkis leafs for it. Maybe it's worth replacing them to see what it improves, then look at shocks if needed.

It does not sit on the bump stops, there's room for travel. I'll have to mess with it a little and see where it's at. Most of our roads here are horrible, and those you really feel, on the smoother roads, it rides amazing.
 
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72Duster440 said:
It sure feels like it's the front that is stiff when going over bumps, but maybe it is the rear. I was going to rebuild my leafs this winter, but I have been debating on getting a set of Hotchkis leafs for it. Maybe it's worth replacing them to see what it improves, then look at shocks if needed.

It does not sit on the bump stops, there's room for travel. I'll have to mess with it a little and see where it's at. Most of our roads here are horrible, and those ypu really feel, on the smoother roads, it rides amazing.
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The whole car will feel stiff if the rear springs are stiff enough.

With 1.03’s you’ll still need about an inch between the bump stops and the frame rails, otherwise you’ll be using those bump stops a lot on lousy roads. If you’ve got QA1 LCA’s the bump stops that come with those are polyurethane, and a lot stiffer than the stock rubber bump stops. They’re not progressive like the rubber bump stops, you don’t want to be hitting them all the time
 
I'll unhook the shock and cycle the suspension to make sure there is no binding, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't when I installed it. I found a pic on my phone that shows bumpstop clearance at static ride height, is there a rubber bumpstop I could install instead? Everything was torqued at ride height with weight on the suspension, so there shouldn't be an issue there.

My daily is a Ram, and it's bumpy too, our roads just suck, maybe I am over thinking it.

20220902_192517.jpg
 
Your clearance there looks pretty good actually. You can test it though if you want, a small dab of grease on the bump stop and a drive on your usual roads, if there’s grease all over the frame stop you’re bottoming out. Occasionally bottoming is fine, that’s why there’s bump stops, but if you’re hitting them all the time the ride quality will suck.

You could swap them out with rubber bump stops, they’re generally taller though. So they’re more progressive, but you’ll be using them more. Bit of a trade off. I run poly and just stay off of them, but I run 1.12” bars and less clearance than that too.
 
I'll take another look at everything, make sure the strut rods aren't binding, and loosen and retorque all of the mounting bolts while it's on the ground to make sure nothing is bound up there either.

I'd like to get a new set of leafs, but I don't want to change my ride height at all. Based on the numbers RacerJoe posted a while ago, I think the Hotchkiss ones would put me at about the same height I am currently at and I would assume would improve my ride characteristics over the B Body SS springs. My oil pan and headers are already too low, so I can't afford to go any lower, in fact, I'd like to go a little taller next time I buy tires, just to increase ground clearance.
 
The Hotchkis springs without their lower front hangers are fairly close to a stock ride height. I would imagine that would still be lower than B-body SS springs. My general inclination would be to recommend you to go with ESPO xhd’s, and then decide if you wanted the stock height or the +1”. But I don’t know where your car sits in the back for ride height.
 
That's a 315/35r17 out back, it sits lower than stock. I believe it's just under 26" from ground to fender lip.

I'm thinking the current spring packs have either had a leaf removed or some mixed and matched to build the pack. They were in the car when I got it. The main leaf is stamped with the part number for a B body spring, that's all I know about them.

20230820_150837.jpg
 
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