- Hello, guys.
(bat cracks)
I'm gonna hit a home run today
and explain to you about shock absorbers
on this episode of Sh*t I Never Knew.
The name of this episode's gonna be The Shocking Truth.
And this is gonna be about, you guessed it, shock absorbers.
Also known as dampeners.
There's three different main types of shocks.
And when it comes to lift kits,
they usually have options to choose different shocks.
And the first one that a lot of kids come with,
the hydro or hydraulic shocks, and those are gonna be
the lower end, the cheaper shocks,
they're cheaper to produce.
And that's why they're always usually included
in the base kits.
Well, first of all, how a shock works
is you have a tube here, or a cylinder,
and the cylinder has a fluid in it, an oil, hydraulic,
that's where the hydro comes from, the name.
And basically, attached to this rod there's a piston
and when the piston goes down or when the rod goes down,
it's pushing the piston through that hydraulic fluid
and basically that's where you get your dampening from.
And the way shocks change their dampening,
there's a lot of ways to do it,
but it basically has to do with how fast the fluid
can move past the piston that's attached to your rod here.
And that's what gives you different
dampening rates and so forth.
And if we're valving, there's also valves
inside of the shock absorber itself
that bypass fluid and all that kinda stuff.
So like I said, there's hydraulic shocks
which would be like this one here.
This is an old BDS shock that we took out of our dumpster,
but it's for an example.
This would be a hydraulic shock,
and the way you can tell usually right away
is a hydraulic shock, you'll be able to extend or compress.
You'll be able to compress it and it won't spring back up.
The ones that do spring back up
are gonna be a nitrogen charged shock, or a nitro shock,
which like this Rancho here...
So when you push this down, obviously it comes back up
on its own and that's because of the nitrogen charge
that's in the shock.
It's basically pressurized gas in the shock
which will force the piston back up.
And that's where you get that from.
So sometimes people think that just because the rod
doesn't come back up on their shocks
that their shocks are bad, but not necessarily.
They could just be hydraulic shocks
and don't have nitrogen in them.
The differences between them.
Hydraulic shocks typically offer a smoother ride.
Older cars and trucks back in the day, in the 70s and 60s,
nitrogen shocks were only really in racing
and most of the stuff on the road was all hydraulic shocks.
And so everything back then pretty much had hydraulic shocks
and that's why everything kind of rode so floaty back then,
almost like a boat, 'cause the shock technology
wasn't as complex as it is today for everyday cars.
So hydraulic shocks, like I said,
tend to offer a softer, smoother ride,
but the one big drawback to a hydraulic shock
is the fluid aeration.
Basically what happens is once the shock starts cycling,
meaning compressing, when a piston starts moving
up and down, the hydraulic fluid inside the shock
will actually aerate or fill with air bubbles,
and that causes total loss of control of the dampening.
And then the shocks basically become even less effective
and your dampening rates change,
and then soon enough, if you keep cycling,
then the fluid also heats up.
It's kinda like a brake fade sorta deal.
You know if you use your breaks over and over
and they heat up, they fade?
This kinda happens with hydraulic shocks
because of the aeration that goes on.
When compressing 'em up and down many times,
the fluid heats up and aerates
and you lose your dampening characteristics
that your shocks started out with as.
So that's why they came out with nitrogen shocks,
and that's where nitrogen shocks come into play.
'Cause what a nitrogen shock does
is it'd be nice if you could--
I can't really show you an example,
'cause you'd have to have a cutaway,
but so basically you have your hydraulic chamber
with the oil in it, and then on the other side
you have a nitrogen chamber
which pressurizes and because it's pressurized,
it doesn't allow the hydraulic fluid to aerate.
So no matter how much you compress your cycle,
your suspension, the fluid will not aerate
and therefore it keeps your dampening characteristics
the same as when it started, whereas it was cold.
So the point of a nitrogen shock, which are on most,
pretty much all modern vehicles today
are gonna have nitrogen-charged shocks,
simply because they perform much better
than a hydraulic shock.
Typically they do have a little stiffer ride,
but if your suspension or spring rate is set up
for a nitrogen shock, the ride will be fine.
A lot of times people will complain of a harshness in ride
and usually it's because they go to a nitrogen shock
on a vehicle that was originally equipped
with a hydraulic shock.
And so a nitrogen shock actually can increase spring rate
slightly, so it will cause a stiffer riding sensation,
if that makes sense.
But in a performance world,
nitrogen charged shocks are the only way to go.
Cost, well, like I said,
usually with lift kits, when it comes to lift kits,
usually the base shock is a hydraulic-style shock
'cause they're the cheapest to produce.
The next step up would usually be a nitrogen-charged shock,
which, like I said, performs better
'cause it doesn't fade, as I was saying,
or aerate the fluid,
causing the dampening characteristics to stay consistent.
So they're a little more expensive
'cause obviously they're more expensive to produce
'cause there's hydraulic fluid and there's nitrogen charge,
gas charge, inside the shock.
So those are gonna be a little more expensive.
Usually the next step up.
And then after that would be...
It's usually the same concept.
A nitrogen-charged shock would be like a coilover shock,
which we have here, as you can see.
This is gonna be a Fox coilover.
And the coilover, if some of you don't know,
a coilover is a shock absorber basically,
or a dampener with a coil spring around it.
It's a self-contained unit.
Rather than having a coil spring and a shock,
it's a coil spring and a shock combined as one piece
and usually a coilover signifies
that it has adjustable ride height capabilities
or spring rate capabilities.
So you can adjust spring rate or ride height,
just like these fox coilovers do.
And this one, as you can see, has a big reservoir up here.
This is what that's called, it's called the reservoir.
And it's an external reservoir.
And what that is is the external reservoir
is an additional, basically, chamber
to allow or increase the capacity
of the shock's cooling capabilities.
So like I said, heat, like most things, isn't good
and same thing in shocks.
Heat will cause a lot of problems
or cause you to lose your dampening characteristics
of the dampener.
So what an external reservoir does,
it allows increased capacity
so you can work the shocks harder and longer
without having that shock absorber fade, as I said.
And so that's something that you'll see
on like race cars or trucks.
A lot of them will have external reservoir shocks
because they're being cycled so much
and it allows you to dissipate the heat better
and keep the shock working properly.
So that's what that is.
And this also has a normal Fox 2.0
nitrogen-charged shock as well for added dampening.
What shock to choose all depends on what you're looking for.
Whether you're looking for comfort
or whether you're looking for performance.
That's something you gotta decide
and will help you choose what shock you wanna get.
Durability and longevity of a shock
doesn't necessarily have to do with the style of the shock
but moreso how the shock is made itself
and the materials involved.
So you can have a nitrogen gas-charged shock
that is going to blow out or wear out in a year,
and you could have a cheap hydraulic shock
that lasts five years.
And it's usually just because of the materials involved
and how the shock is made that contributes to longevity.
Like I said, hydraulic shocks are more for a comfort ride.
If you expect any sort of performance out of your shocks,
you shouldn't probably go with hydraulic shocks.
And then also like I said, for coilovers,
they typically are derived from the racing application.
And they're for all-out performance.
Whereas the nitrogen-charged shock like this here
would be for anything in between that for your daily driver.
Why to upgrade?
Well one of the biggest reasons to upgrade your shocks
is shock absorbers are probably the biggest factor
in ride quality.
And so people will complain sometimes that their truck--
(burps)
(crew laughs)
Rides very stiff, or is very loose,
and that's usually directly related
to the shocks on the truck.
So shocks have a huge impact on how the truck handles
and performs, so that's why I always suggest people
to maybe spend a little bit more money
and upgrade your shocks,
because you will definitely benefit from it in the long run.
You may save a couple of dollars initially,
and you know, that's fine.
If you wanna go with the cheap shocks
and then eventually upgrade, that's perfectly fine.
That's probably what I would do, honestly.
But just know that shocks do have a major factor
in ride quality.
And another thing that we get a lot
is which way the shocks mount.
And that depends on the manufacturer, really,
'cause I've seen both.
This is a Rancho shock, will typically be mounted
with the body down,
and that's how they all come in the truck.
Whereas an aftermarket shock, like, well, that's a Bilstein
but that's a Toyota factory shock.
Fox shocks, I know for a fact that Fox shocks
allow you to install them either way,
body up or body down.
And it depends usually on what kind of clearance issues
you have and whatnot, but we usually install them
with the body facing up,
but like I said, it all depends on the manufacturer.
And usually when you get a shock it says in the instructions
which way it's supposed to be mounted,
whether it's body down or body up.
But yeah, we get that one a lot too,
which way do my shocks go,
and it depends, usually, on the manufacturer of the shock.
But like I said, Fox shocks can go either way.
All right, so I kinda ran through
the basics of shock absorbers because this is a discussion
that you could continue forever,
and there's so many combinations
and there's so many options out there.
But I kinda just wanted to touch on
the three major shocks that you see
when purchasing a lift kit,
or at least on trucks in general.
So I mean if you have any more questions
or you wanna learn about something else,
I guess reach out to us and let us know what you think
and for now, I'm gonna sign off
'cause I have to go back to work
and I gotta go order some pizza.
So I'll see you later.
- [Crew Member] They can see your feet.
(crew laughs)
(rock music)