Suspension dyno

[Pauly]

Found out something interesting. 

 

A performance shop (will not name) put some new shocks on a dyno and found out some interesting results

 

 

Bilstein Shock Absorbers adjuster for a Ferrari OE shock application showing full soft in green (a setting that the computer controlled dampening system never uses) and full hard for four shocks

 

 

 

Intrax "50-way" Shock adjuster, full range from soft to hard is 50 clicks and this dyno chart shows soft in blue and hard in green,

 

 

You'd think they would be tested as soon as they leave the manufacture..

[Tit]

I'm not experienced at reading suspension dyno graphs.  Can you decode for a novice? What are the units on the axes?

[Pauly]

I'm not sure what the middle bit is, But the left side of the graph is compression and rebound in Lbs. 

 

The top graph is showing you on that set of compression & rebound adjustable shocks are working properly. Soft is soft and hard is hard. 

Where on the 2nd chart, another brand is tested in the same way with one run on hard and another run on soft with not much change what so ever. 

[Mike]

It is amazing how ineffective some shockers are and how good others can be!

The other thing that has to be taken into consideration when looking at these graphs is that not only do the shocker settings or valving change weather they are hard or soft but also the high and low speed adjustment settings which control the reaction time of the shocker.

the high and low speed settings and hard and soft settings are to some degree related,

They other thing is not all shocker dynos read quite the same as is the case with any dyno, the Koni graphs look greatly different to these!

So when you look at these you need to be familiar with them to make sense of them!

[Tit]

Thanks!