Ask The Editors: Shock Stiffening
The answer lies within.
You would experience the same problem even if you switch to 250R shocks. The reason? Stock suspension is set up for the average rider weight, the weight of the machine in question and for the widest variety of conditions from the factory.
When you change any of these factors, you’ll quickly reach the limitations of the spec. What you’re going to want to do is keep he shocks you’re running but change their specifications to cope with the additional weight of a buggy. This can be accomplished in one of two ways – ideally both if you can afford them. First, the shocks can be revalved by a good tuner to accept the increased weight. This is when the internal valve stack is swapped out to greater reduce the rate of oil flow. If you do some smart searching, you can occasionally come across a shock rebuild kit online if you trust your mechanical abilities enough to tackle such a project yourself.
The other modification, and again we always recommend both in an instance like this, but if you’re low on funds, this one alone will improve your situation greatly – get a set of beefier shock springs. The additional weight of the car is surely forcing the shocks to ride lower in their travel than they were ever intended. A stiffer spring (you’ll probably want to go with the stiffest you can find) should help hold the shocks up so that much more of the available travel remains usable with the added chassis weight placed upon them.
The last option, though the priciest by far, would be to order custom built aftermarket units (there are many, many companies offering these) that can be custom valved and sprung for the specifications of your buggy.
