Shock Question

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71DodgeDemon340

71DodgeDemon340

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Anybody running the bilstein shocks by pst? If so what dis you replace them with and can you tell a difference?
 
Bought my first set in 1974.... if you have never run shocks of that level of performance, you are in for a treat.
 
71DodgeDemon340 said:
Anybody running the bilstein shocks by pst? If so what dis you replace them with and can you tell a difference?
Click to expand...

Bought the Bilsteins for my 65 Barracuda from PST and put them on my stock worn out suspension and yes it was a very noticeable difference. Car now not only absorbs road conditions very well but also handles and steers better, I'm very happy with the big buck purchase and look forward to in the works front end rebuild along with bigger tires and sway bars. Hell Yeah, my 1st Mopar that ain't a back half and can actually corner.

55-R082 Front and 55-R092 Rear for a 65 but not sure if the same for yours. These shocks are modified by RCD to fit and be sure to mention FABO for a 10% discount.
 
Thanks for the info im in debate of to buy the bilseins or the hotchkis tuned fox shocks. All ball joints tie rods, bushings are new, have front sway bar and lower control arm braces and welded in sub frame connectors and she rides good with the kyb, will i be able to tell the diff between the kyb and bilsteins or fox shocks even considering all suspension and steering components are new?
 
My expereince with Bilsetin vs KYB is that yes, you will tell a very definite difference. The rough road stabilty was better and they control small bumps and jumps better. This was not on a Mopar but was on 2 other seprate model cars (both of them live rear axle RWD cars) and the + difference was the same both times. I cannot comment on the others; never used them.
 
71DodgeDemon340 said:
Thanks for the info im in debate of to buy the bilseins or the hotchkis tuned fox shocks. All ball joints tie rods, bushings are new, have front sway bar and lower control arm braces and welded in sub frame connectors and she rides good with the kyb, will i be able to tell the diff between the kyb and bilsteins or fox shocks even considering all suspension and steering components are new?
Click to expand...


Just something to think about. If you are willing to consider the Hotchkis Fox Tuned shocks at $550 a set. What are about the Viking Smooth Bodied Aluminum Double Adjustable shocks? They have 19 positions of adjustability (rebound and return). They are an amazing shock and the adjustability is very noticeable. I can go from a nice soft comfortable ride to a firm just by a few clicks. Now I know that they are more at $689 for the set but with the discount they would be $620.10. So they would be $70 more than fox shocks but you would have the adjuatability.

My opinion is if you are not going with an adjustable shock I would save the money and go with the Bilstein.

Thanks
James
 
Thats what i was leaning more towards the bilstein. I dont think i like the idea of the adjustables
Having to adjust them. My demon only sees street use maybe drag strip one day, but all of my driving is street driving and an occasional mountain road, but the roads around here arent the greatest. I dont want to go crazy with the adjustable shocks just like the simplicity of non adjustables. I mean the kyb shocks are good but i feel that there could be some improvement in that area. The kyb feel a little to soft for my liking but the ride good, might order a set of the bilsteins from pst and try em
 
The non adjustable Hotchkis shocks come tuned for the chassis and offer much better chassis control that the Bilstiens. We swapped all of our cars for the Foxs and don't even bother offering the Bilstiens to customers anymore.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3q5RCsWwYw"]Development of the New Hotchkis Tuned APS Adjustable Monotube Shocks - YouTube[/ame]
 
Wow thanks just ordered the front and rear kit, will the hotchkis fox shocks affect my launch? Also noticed that hotchkis says better used with a car slightly lower than stock. But summit says their good from stock height to 1-1.5 inches lower, im running stock springs in the back so theoretically the ride height would be stock. Any input?
 
Does anyone have complete dimensions on the Hotchkis shock vs. stock and vs. Bilstein. My 1st thought when looking on the site is the note about being best for lowered car height that makes me wonder if the full extension is a bit short for the full travel of the suspension droop. If so, then I would not want to use them in any sort of hilly or mountain driving or any rougher roads; you need full shock travel or you may blow out the tops seals.

If derived from the Fox shocks, they were short and had short travel when I looked at Fox shocks some years ago for competition; I did not use them because of racing in a venue that uses full suspension travel.

The note on their site reads "These shocks are better suited for cars that have been lowered or sit slightly lower than stock. "
 
To be honest, I don't think anyone drives their cars any where near stock height anymore, but during before/after testing, Hotchkis sets the cars at factory specs for the before testing. As long as you aren't playing dues of hazzard, you should be fine, but I'll post the specs shortly.
 
Yeah but if you think about it your either running a 4 link stock springs or ss springs as long as you dont have the axle raised or lowered with blocks you should be pretty close to stock height tire diameter will change your ride height but not your axle height proportioned to the shock mounts. Ex: a car with the same suspension runing a 30 inch diameter tire and you change the diameter on the same car to 28 the shock length will remain the same, rake and ride height will change. And on a torsion bar front there is some adjustment on ride height but i dont think theres enough adjustment to severely affect shock length
 
Lol sorry but i ordered the hotchkis fox shocks today and gonna compare collapsed extended and ride height length compared to the kyb shocks. Cant wait
 
Here are the dimensions for the Fox's

Front - 9.05-14.3”
Rear - 14.15-22.5”
 
Low number compressed
high number extended right?
Also what application were those measurements for?
Also is that eye to eye centered on rear
And bottom of cup on top and center to eye on front?
 
DTMRacing said:
To be honest, I don't think anyone drives their cars any where near stock height anymore, but during before/after testing, Hotchkis sets the cars at factory specs for the before testing. As long as you aren't playing dues of hazzard, you should be fine, but I'll post the specs shortly.
Click to expand...
Being at standard settings (of what settings?) does not necessarily mean that the 'test' works the suspension to the limits of travel. And the ride height comment is just not true for everyone.....With spirited driving on rough/curvy mountain roads around here, you will most certainly extend your suspension to the stock stops on occasion, and limiting travel can mean loss of traction at critical times in rough cornering and other conditions. I have taken out top seals in some Bilsteins before that had juuust too short of a stroke.

So everyone should be aware of any case of limited suspension travel (shock or otherwise). Changing bump stop heights to limit travel would be a good idea for short shocks, IMO, to preserve short travel shocks, but rough road contact may be compromised to some extent depending on your driving and local road conditions.
 
Well according to kyb
Kyb shocks
Front ext 14.72 coll 9.53
Rear. ext 21.57 coll 13.39

Sitting on level ground my rears measure 17 5/8" from center of top eyelet to center of bottom of eyelet.

Fronts measure 11 1/2" from the face of the bottom cup to center of lower bushing

My bump stops are 3.5-4" away from the axle tube so bottomed to the bump stop with the kyb on the rear there will still be 3/8" left before the shock bottoms out.
But with the fox shocks with a collapsed length of 14 1/8" after 3.5" of the suspension compressed the shocks will bottom out before the axle tube hits the bump stop but also considering the pinion snubber bump stop is about 2-2.5" from bottoming out i doubt the rear suspension will compress 3.5-4" on either side around the corner on the rear and the front kyb and fox shocks have nearly the same ext and coll lengths so i should be good. Ill know in a day or two
 
nm9stheham said:
With spirited driving on rough/curvy mountain roads around here, you will most certainly extend your suspension to the stock stops on occasion
Click to expand...

Hotchkis sells sway bars that could probably help you with that problem too....
 
DTMRacing said:
The non adjustable Hotchkis shocks come tuned for the chassis and offer much better chassis control that the Bilstiens. We swapped all of our cars for the Foxs and don't even bother offering the Bilstiens to customers anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3q5RCsWwYw
Click to expand...


Just from a curiosity stand point how do they come tuned to the chassis? They use the same part number for the A, B, & E body which does make sense from a physical fit stand point(As bilstein does the same) but the A B & E bodies are all different wheel bases, weight distribution and can have multiple different drivetrain options.

This is just food for thought and I feel would be good for discussion
 
The shocks are valved for a best fit scenario on each specific chassis. the non-adjustable shocks are built off of a codex that was developed using this testing that allows us to calculate wheel frequency and control based off of corner weights and spring rates. These rates and weights are averaged across the body styles B&E share one tune while the A's have their own. There is not a lot of difference in the wheel rates and weights with B and E bodies, and with engine and interior combinations it varies even further. Since each shock is hand built and tuned at Hotchkis, if a customer provides their information, a custom tune can be made. A lot of shocks go out the door with someones last name on them, not a part number. More importantly if you buy an adjustable shock from Hotchkis you are starting with a shock that is tuned for that car but can be softened or stiffened to the end users needs and driving conditions; unlike something like a QA-1 or Viking (same design / company) where you will get the same shock whether you are buying it for your truck or your race car. And the level of adjustability sweeps between those two mediums and is a lot more than the average consumer needs. Most folks like Ridetech will spend more time trying to talk you out of a 3 way adjustable than trying to upsell you. They would rather you use something tuned for your chassis than playing wheel of fortune with shock knobs for two years while the user tries to figure it out.
 
DTMRacing said:
The shocks are valved for a best fit scenario on each specific chassis. the non-adjustable shocks are built off of a codex that was developed using this testing that allows us to calculate wheel frequency and control based off of corner weights and spring rates. These rates and weights are averaged across the body styles B&E share one tune while the A's have their own. There is not a lot of difference in the wheel rates and weights with B and E bodies, and with engine and interior combinations it varies even further. Since each shock is hand built and tuned at Hotchkis, if a customer provides their information, a custom tune can be made. A lot of shocks go out the door with someones last name on them, not a part number. More importantly if you buy an adjustable shock from Hotchkis you are starting with a shock that is tuned for that car but can be softened or stiffened to the end users needs and driving conditions; unlike something like a QA-1 or Viking (same design / company) where you will get the same shock whether you are buying it for your truck or your race car. And the level of adjustability sweeps between those two mediums and is a lot more than the average consumer needs. Most folks like Ridetech will spend more time trying to talk you out of a 3 way adjustable than trying to upsell you. They would rather you use something tuned for your chassis than playing wheel of fortune with shock knobs for two years while the user tries to figure it out.
Click to expand...

Well i ordered the hotchkis fox shocks from summit and summit says that the same shock that fits the 67-76 dart 71-72 demon also fits 70-74 challenger.
 
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