Lets say that someone has front shocks (stock) on their quad. Lets say it has 5 way adjustable things at the bottom that you twist. What is the purpose of these? I know that it adjusts the tension of the spring and at that point changes the ride characteristics, but if it is on the first setting, does the quad bottom out over a large jump any different than if it was on setting 5? I would assume that it would bottom out easier because of less tension, but maybe not since travel stays the same?
I know it changes the ride height a little and makes the small bumps and jumps easier or harder, but I am mainly concerned about large jumps. I don't want to buy Works shocks if I don't have to.

 

Hakmazter,

The preload collars on the shocks (the thingies that you turn at the bottom) controls how much sack you can put on your suspension. Sack occurs when you sit on your machine and the suspension collapses slightly under your weight. What you want is to change the stiffness of either your springs or the compression dampening of your shocks to prevent bottoming off of big jumps. Bumping up the preload of your shocks will help to some extent, but the handling will start to stink. The best of both worlds is to get triple rate springs. These are costly and generally come with aftermarket shocks like Works. The first spring (smallest) is for suspension sack. This will help keep your quads center of gravity lower to improve cornering. The second spring is for small bumps, and the third is generally for jumps, tabletops and the like. Then you have compressoin dampening. It actually acts in the manner of a spring to help absorb and slow down the hit that the wheel is taking.

Rebound dampening is another story all together. Rebound dampening is the dampening when the springs return to their normal state. Like when you leave a jump and your suspension is fully extended. Too slow rebound dampening won't allow the suspension to follow small stutter bumps and give you poor acceleration over them.

Basically it all comes down to what feels good to you. If you are going to hit some big jumps, ditch the stock shocks. They just won't take it for very long, no matter what springs you have on them or where the preload collar is. Hope this helps!

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Mike Chero 97 Polaris Sport 400L/ 97 Polaris Trailblazer 250ES

http://users.penn.com/~hal9000/mikeetta.html

 

hakmatzer,
I have works dual rate shocks,no cans. They
cost about 300 but they made a huge improvement.

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