Fitting Shock Absorbers

[Kody]

I called in to the trailer shop today and asked about fitting shock absorbers to my TD frame. The info the manager gave me was very interesting. He explained that the correct form of shocks to fit on a trailer or TD were not not shocks at all. They were more correctly called "Dampeners". They also worked in reverse to a standard shock absorber on a car. The trailer dampener worked by collapsing easily as the axle went upward and returning slowly as the dampener expanded out again. He said that the common leaf spring would break if the shock absorber resisted the upward thrust resulting from either the bump or the hole in the roadway. This pounding fatigued the spring where it was fitted to the axle and it was at this connection that the spring would eventually snap. Why this does not happen with a car fitted with leaf springs I don't know. It may have something to do with the short length of the spring and its stiffness, ie, its "spring rate". What he explained made sense to me so I will try out this form of dampener on my TD.
The next problem is how to mount the dampener as close to vertical as I can on the TD frame. The extended length of the dampener is 14.9 inches and the closed length is 9.8 inches. I might be able to lower the attachment point on the spring shackle by dropping the attachment point 2 inches by fabricating a "dropper" but this comes at an expense I don't want. It decreases the ground/road clearance and the attachment bracket is an easy target for extreme damage on rough roads, (read - Australian roads off the bitumen). I can mount the dampener at almost 45 degrees but this severely reduces its efficiency towards the point of being useless. I could raise the frame by adding a 3 foot length of 2"x2"x1/8" RHS under the frame and fit the spring to the RHS but this also raises the height of the "A" frame on the car and the height of the door from the ground. Does anyone have any ideas to fit the dampeners at less than 45 degrees?
Hmmmm, decisions - decisions.

Kody

[goldcoop]

Kody-

For some interesting reading:

http://www.shockwarehouse.com/site/mon_retrokit.cfm

Also download the pdf on this page.

Cheers,

Coop

[Kody]

Thanks Slow, I'm working on it, will show you what I have done when I mount them. I had another good look at the drawings and I can fit them in with not too much head scratching and banging on the wall. I have gained an extra 1 1/2" in height where I am going to mount them. All looking good. BTW, I'm still very interested in my previous post about hinging the doors from the top like the gull wing doors on the new sports cars. I will definitely investigate this door hinge and hope to use it.

Kody

[angib]

He explained that the correct form of shocks to fit on a trailer or TD were not not shocks at all. They were more correctly called "Dampeners". They also worked in reverse to a standard shock absorber on a car. The trailer dampener worked by collapsing easily as the axle went upward and returning slowly as the dampener expanded out again.

You were fed a line of an undiluted product from a bull. Shocks and dampers are just different names for exactly the same thing and all dampers work mainly on the rebound stroke - damping on the rebound stroke is typically many times as much as the damping on the compression stroke.

His advice is so inaccurate, and just plain wrong, that you should ignore everything he said - there might be a grain of truth in there, but it's well hidden.

[Lgboro]