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As some of you know we had, apart of this new rear shock project, an exacerbating near 3-month calamity with the folks at King. That's what led me to Glenn and Radflo. DesertRun provided a great reference for me and that provided the impetus to change! It also helped to hear of Glenn's second to none approach to customer service before and after the sale! And his promise, even though my shock order was custom and involved a special request high misalignment lower bearing he had not devised a mount heretofore, of 3-week turn-around was spot on as well as his price quote! Impressive!
The new suspension tweaks, so far anyway and with only 600-miles on them to date, have proven to be worth the effort! As most of you know I mounted Fox shocks long before Fox, King, Radflo or anyone else besides OME, had an OEM type/bolt on fit. However the #8 spherical bearings and a heavy rig were a mismatch from day one and I got tired of replacing them up to 2X per year. So the impetus for the new rear shocks was mainly to get to #12 spherical bearing mounts for hopefully improved bearing life and decreased service intervals.
Another one of our goals was to eventually eliminate the air bags. Now there have been numerous threads where I have provided my "thumbs up" opinion about air bags being the shnitz for variable load carrying ability. And for a cheap easy adjustable suspension for varying loads they work very well, all things in considered, on pavement. But left me wanting for more shock control when off-pavement.
Like most things there are plusses and minuses to the airbags. They do limit articulation somewhat although I could live with that negative. But with the required 25lbs psi or so in the bags the Fox 2.0 just ran short of damping ability especially noticeable off-highway where the terrain changes are not as "engineered". Of course with slow enough speed this shortcoming is easily managed. And therein lies the challenge: Slowing down
.
So the theory is to, when the KK is connected to the SpressoWagon, increase the nitrogen psi to 350-425psi to provide two things: Increased effective rear suspension lift/load carrying capacity and a corresponding increase in compression valving. Based on last weekend's relatively short test I was amazed and pleasantly surprised at the results.
I wanted to get a baseline for comparison so I didn't alter the Radflo's nitrogen charge; I left it at 200psi. But with Glenn's tune and the larger 2.5" shock bodies the shocks did just fine without an increase in psi. To be fair I didn't get to do the type of testing I wanted...those of you with
in tow know what I mean...and last weekend's foray was no different 
. But even with the lower friendly speeds I could easily feel the new Radflos made a significant improvement in control with the KK in tow even with "0" pressure in the Airlift bags. Quite impressive actually.
Glenn valved my Radflos with nothing more than a quick discussion about GVW, the Kimberley Kamper's overall weight and tongue weight, my driving style and my overall expectations to him. On road I couldn't ask for anything more or better. Overall ride quality has been noticeably improved; especially over expansion joints and rough pavement. But damping has also been improved with the Radflos. So the result has been win-win: Better ride quality AND better damping.
Apart of the Radflo install Sam needed to redesign both upper and lower rear shock mounts to accommodate 1" longer shock travel as well as about 1.5" longer compressed shock length. With my new 1" body lift in place he was able to raise the lower and upper shock mounts and provide better cycling angles for the new shocks. He was also able to net approximately 1.5-2" more droop out with the new set-up while retaining maximum compression! Compressed travel remains about the same as before.
Along with the Radflos I decided to follow DesertRun's lead with the Timbren compression bump stops. I actually mounted the rear Timbrens while the Fox shocks were on the rig; they made a considerable improvement in compression control! Originally I was going to have Sam graft Light Racing jounce shocks up front for better overall suspension control but with his time constraints and my impatience (the rig had already been in his shop for almost a month...) I pulled the plug on that idea and opted for the soft Timbrens up front too.
The front Timbrens certainly offer a smoother bottom out of the front suspension but certainly aren't active like the Light Racing units would have provided. So the Light Racing project has been back burner-ed but not eliminated from "the list".
I hope the relatively huge #12 spherical bearings provide increased durability...but only time will tell! But so far I am very impressed with the Radflo shocks.
The new suspension tweaks, so far anyway and with only 600-miles on them to date, have proven to be worth the effort! As most of you know I mounted Fox shocks long before Fox, King, Radflo or anyone else besides OME, had an OEM type/bolt on fit. However the #8 spherical bearings and a heavy rig were a mismatch from day one and I got tired of replacing them up to 2X per year. So the impetus for the new rear shocks was mainly to get to #12 spherical bearing mounts for hopefully improved bearing life and decreased service intervals.
Another one of our goals was to eventually eliminate the air bags. Now there have been numerous threads where I have provided my "thumbs up" opinion about air bags being the shnitz for variable load carrying ability. And for a cheap easy adjustable suspension for varying loads they work very well, all things in considered, on pavement. But left me wanting for more shock control when off-pavement.
Like most things there are plusses and minuses to the airbags. They do limit articulation somewhat although I could live with that negative. But with the required 25lbs psi or so in the bags the Fox 2.0 just ran short of damping ability especially noticeable off-highway where the terrain changes are not as "engineered". Of course with slow enough speed this shortcoming is easily managed. And therein lies the challenge: Slowing down
.So the theory is to, when the KK is connected to the SpressoWagon, increase the nitrogen psi to 350-425psi to provide two things: Increased effective rear suspension lift/load carrying capacity and a corresponding increase in compression valving. Based on last weekend's relatively short test I was amazed and pleasantly surprised at the results.
I wanted to get a baseline for comparison so I didn't alter the Radflo's nitrogen charge; I left it at 200psi. But with Glenn's tune and the larger 2.5" shock bodies the shocks did just fine without an increase in psi. To be fair I didn't get to do the type of testing I wanted...those of you with
in tow know what I mean...and last weekend's foray was no different . But even with the lower friendly speeds I could easily feel the new Radflos made a significant improvement in control with the KK in tow even with "0" pressure in the Airlift bags. Quite impressive actually.Glenn valved my Radflos with nothing more than a quick discussion about GVW, the Kimberley Kamper's overall weight and tongue weight, my driving style and my overall expectations to him. On road I couldn't ask for anything more or better. Overall ride quality has been noticeably improved; especially over expansion joints and rough pavement. But damping has also been improved with the Radflos. So the result has been win-win: Better ride quality AND better damping.
Apart of the Radflo install Sam needed to redesign both upper and lower rear shock mounts to accommodate 1" longer shock travel as well as about 1.5" longer compressed shock length. With my new 1" body lift in place he was able to raise the lower and upper shock mounts and provide better cycling angles for the new shocks. He was also able to net approximately 1.5-2" more droop out with the new set-up while retaining maximum compression! Compressed travel remains about the same as before.
Along with the Radflos I decided to follow DesertRun's lead with the Timbren compression bump stops. I actually mounted the rear Timbrens while the Fox shocks were on the rig; they made a considerable improvement in compression control! Originally I was going to have Sam graft Light Racing jounce shocks up front for better overall suspension control but with his time constraints and my impatience (the rig had already been in his shop for almost a month...) I pulled the plug on that idea and opted for the soft Timbrens up front too.
The front Timbrens certainly offer a smoother bottom out of the front suspension but certainly aren't active like the Light Racing units would have provided. So the Light Racing project has been back burner-ed but not eliminated from "the list".
I hope the relatively huge #12 spherical bearings provide increased durability...but only time will tell! But so far I am very impressed with the Radflo shocks.
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