Over the past couple of months we have been testing and designing our new suspension range. This is not a process of say, hey this shock fits and this spring is about the length we want etc…. It has been a ground development up, using engineering and science to determine the best balance of spring rate, valving, bumpstop rate and shock valving. Most of our development has centred around the Edelbrock shock range with matching Eibach (we choose this brand for many reason I will list later) and Lovell springs.
More recently we have been in the process of developing a off the shelf set up for Patrols using Firestone Airbag setup with our Remote canister Edelbrock shocks. I thought there maybe some of you who are interested in our progress.
NOTE I WILL PROVIDE DYNO GRAPHS FOR THE SHOCKS AND THE SPRING SO KEEP AND EYE OUT. I will also explain what the graphs and movements in the graph mean and how they affect performance.
As I get the time I will post up pics and explanations as we go. Heres the start:
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Designing Suspension Kit & Airbags
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Designing Suspension Kit & Airbags
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Last edited by Mczook on Fri Nov 04, 2005 10:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
We chose a GQ patrol as our test vehicle for several reasons:
• There are extremely robust and reliable
• They are cheap to buy
• Generally they are rough to ride in
• And I happen to own one.
We started by getting all the original suspension spec from Nissan which was more difficult than anticipated. Once we did this we striped the 8in lift out of my Patrol and got down to measuring up everything with a standard setup in it. We put in the standard spring and shock to start with. Next we jack up the front to complete droop supported it with stands under the chassis, then we jack the diff until the springs just start to take load. This gave us our first measurement of what the extended length of the shock needed to be. We then jack the diff up until the bumpstop was engaged, this gave us another measurement of a possible clasped length of the shocks.
These measurements were then also done with the springs. The spring measurements with the amount of spring raps, wire diameter and spring rap diameter was used in conjunction with testing on the spring dyno to determine a proposed spring and spring rate.
More coming soon
• There are extremely robust and reliable
• They are cheap to buy
• Generally they are rough to ride in
• And I happen to own one.
We started by getting all the original suspension spec from Nissan which was more difficult than anticipated. Once we did this we striped the 8in lift out of my Patrol and got down to measuring up everything with a standard setup in it. We put in the standard spring and shock to start with. Next we jack up the front to complete droop supported it with stands under the chassis, then we jack the diff until the springs just start to take load. This gave us our first measurement of what the extended length of the shock needed to be. We then jack the diff up until the bumpstop was engaged, this gave us another measurement of a possible clasped length of the shocks.
These measurements were then also done with the springs. The spring measurements with the amount of spring raps, wire diameter and spring rap diameter was used in conjunction with testing on the spring dyno to determine a proposed spring and spring rate.
More coming soon
estimated $$.
i will probably run those shocks, which i have to posepone till i get my tyres from ryano
I am looking at dropping my ride height to around 5" to suit the 3rds arms and lower the cog. what are these bags worth assuming i build my own pneumatic control setup which will have to be basic due to obc constraints. I will fab my own mounts etc too.
cheer bru
i will probably run those shocks, which i have to posepone till i get my tyres from ryano
I am looking at dropping my ride height to around 5" to suit the 3rds arms and lower the cog. what are these bags worth assuming i build my own pneumatic control setup which will have to be basic due to obc constraints. I will fab my own mounts etc too.
cheer bru
ADHD Racing would like to thank
Mrs Bru @ Sunshine Coast Developmental Physiotherapy - www.scdphysio.com.au , Ryano @ Fourbys www.generaltire.com.au Blitzkrieg Motorsport
Mrs Bru @ Sunshine Coast Developmental Physiotherapy - www.scdphysio.com.au , Ryano @ Fourbys www.generaltire.com.au Blitzkrieg Motorsport
These measurements were then also done with the springs. The spring measurements with the amount of spring raps, wire diameter and spring rap diameter was used in conjunction with testing on the spring dyno to determine a proposed spring and spring rate. This process was duplicated for the rear measurements.
Some of you would think these measurements are obvious/basic, however many aftermarket systems don’t take these measurements into account when they are designing their shocks
, springs and bumpstop package. Most groups totally ignore the bumpstops 
and the importance of them in the suspension system. They are an integral component of the suspension not only for ride quality but they also protect the other components from exploding ie shocks under full compression…….!! 
We have found many groups build their shocks & springs to have more travel (at least they try to) however they don’t take into account when the coils are at full compression (spring block) that the shock is too long and causes the inner shaft & piston to smash into the top of the shock creating damage and failure 
. The reverse can also be the case ie the shock is too short and therefore travel is severely limited and you end up using the shock as limiting strap all the time which is shit during high velocity oscillation!!!
The measurements are important for many reasons as noted above, but it helps us determine the shock-wheel MOTION RATIO. This ratio tells us how far the shock moves in travel relative to the wheel. This is important for couple reasons:
• If the diff travels further in an arc than the shock the shock actually works harder and therefore you have to have greater damping forces to control the suspension;
• You now know how far your shock will travel for any given wheel travel, if this is not taken into account you can mistakenly fit shocks to the wheel travel (which should be relative travel) which is a recipe for disaster. ie wheel moves 30mm and shock travels 22mm
Once measurements are done we striped everything out including the bumpstops. We then used the dyno to determine the bumpstop characteristics. I will post up the graphs for these and explain the results once I have figured how to put them up.
We had shocks that Edelbrock in the US had developed for standard GQ & GU patrols and now since we had the springs and other measurement we could determine if this shock had compatible valving (which is not normally the case with US made shocks). We dynoed the shock and felt its results were consistent enough to use it with the standard spring rate and 2in lifted lovells. However we ran into a issue with the 2in setup where the shock was going to be too short to take advantage of the full travel!!!. Now this problem could only be fixed by fitting a remote reservoir to the shock.
This was done because if we just installed a longer shaft into the shock this would cause the piston to smash into the top of the shock which we know spells disaster. But by fitting a reservoir we move the internal floating piston and nitrogen from the shock cylinder to a remote reservoir. Once removed we now had 50mm of more space inside the shock which in turn enabled us to fit a 50mm longer shaft to take up this space. In addition to more travel from the same length shock we can put in more oil in the cylinder which prolongs shock fade under extreme use.
More soon:
We fitted special remote canisters and I will explain why soon but check out the pics of the standard remotes and the special JRZ units
Some of you would think these measurements are obvious/basic, however many aftermarket systems don’t take these measurements into account when they are designing their shocks
, springs and bumpstop package. Most groups totally ignore the bumpstops and the importance of them in the suspension system. They are an integral component of the suspension not only for ride quality but they also protect the other components from exploding ie shocks under full compression…….!! We have found many groups build their shocks & springs to have more travel (at least they try to) however they don’t take into account when the coils are at full compression (spring block) that the shock is too long and causes the inner shaft & piston to smash into the top of the shock creating damage and failure . The reverse can also be the case ie the shock is too short and therefore travel is severely limited and you end up using the shock as limiting strap all the time which is shit during high velocity oscillation!!! The measurements are important for many reasons as noted above, but it helps us determine the shock-wheel MOTION RATIO. This ratio tells us how far the shock moves in travel relative to the wheel. This is important for couple reasons:
• If the diff travels further in an arc than the shock the shock actually works harder and therefore you have to have greater damping forces to control the suspension;
• You now know how far your shock will travel for any given wheel travel, if this is not taken into account you can mistakenly fit shocks to the wheel travel (which should be relative travel) which is a recipe for disaster. ie wheel moves 30mm and shock travels 22mm
Once measurements are done we striped everything out including the bumpstops. We then used the dyno to determine the bumpstop characteristics. I will post up the graphs for these and explain the results once I have figured how to put them up.
We had shocks that Edelbrock in the US had developed for standard GQ & GU patrols and now since we had the springs and other measurement we could determine if this shock had compatible valving (which is not normally the case with US made shocks). We dynoed the shock and felt its results were consistent enough to use it with the standard spring rate and 2in lifted lovells. However we ran into a issue with the 2in setup where the shock was going to be too short to take advantage of the full travel!!!. Now this problem could only be fixed by fitting a remote reservoir to the shock.
This was done because if we just installed a longer shaft into the shock this would cause the piston to smash into the top of the shock which we know spells disaster. But by fitting a reservoir we move the internal floating piston and nitrogen from the shock cylinder to a remote reservoir. Once removed we now had 50mm of more space inside the shock which in turn enabled us to fit a 50mm longer shaft to take up this space. In addition to more travel from the same length shock we can put in more oil in the cylinder which prolongs shock fade under extreme use.
More soon:
We fitted special remote canisters and I will explain why soon but check out the pics of the standard remotes and the special JRZ units
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
These are pics of the standard remotes, the 'TRUELY ADJUSTABLE' remote JRZ canisters and the conversion line we put into the standard Edelbrock shock 
I gotta go but will answer replies soon but in short, we are doing it for a 0-4in travel but aimed at 2in, they are registerable in all states and will be available in future for more models but we have to do the reaseach first.
Note others have tried to develop such setups but because of their shock make up and design they can not get a true enough diegressive curve like we can with the Edelbrock IAS piston (explain later)
I gotta go but will answer replies soon but in short, we are doing it for a 0-4in travel but aimed at 2in, they are registerable in all states and will be available in future for more models but we have to do the reaseach first.
Note others have tried to develop such setups but because of their shock make up and design they can not get a true enough diegressive curve like we can with the Edelbrock IAS piston (explain later)
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Should this thread be in "General Tech"???
Would be good if you could design a tunable suspension to cater for different "emty" weights ie tourer with drawers/fridge, etc., to daily drivers, down to stripped out fun machines.
Would be good if you could design a tunable suspension to cater for different "emty" weights ie tourer with drawers/fridge, etc., to daily drivers, down to stripped out fun machines.
George Carlin, an American Comedian said; "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realise that half of them are stupider than that".
Hi
I am doing same here, not for sale though. I used Goodyear 1R8-009 bags for the front and 1T14-C7 for the back. Combined it with Rancho Pro's. Still need to put the rear bags in. I didn't do any spring rate math, just did all the height calcs. So I'd like to see what you ended up using for the bags front and rear. The Goodyear bags seem to be a helluva lot cheaper than the Firestone bags, but Firestone have the 1T14-c7 that goes from 6.8" to 22.7". Fantastic range for adjustment and articulation.
Please keep us posted, my airbags in front really improved my onroad performance and high speed offroad performance on the GQ.
I think the cost is going to escalate when you start working on the control system. The US guys can sell systems for airbag control but they are like US$800 and up. Will do my own manual setup for now.
I am doing same here, not for sale though. I used Goodyear 1R8-009 bags for the front and 1T14-C7 for the back. Combined it with Rancho Pro's. Still need to put the rear bags in. I didn't do any spring rate math, just did all the height calcs. So I'd like to see what you ended up using for the bags front and rear. The Goodyear bags seem to be a helluva lot cheaper than the Firestone bags, but Firestone have the 1T14-c7 that goes from 6.8" to 22.7". Fantastic range for adjustment and articulation.
Please keep us posted, my airbags in front really improved my onroad performance and high speed offroad performance on the GQ.
I think the cost is going to escalate when you start working on the control system. The US guys can sell systems for airbag control but they are like US$800 and up. Will do my own manual setup for now.
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