Best shocks for a smooth ride?

Interesting article. Kinda says the same thing...Doesn't it?

https://www.torquingcars.com/tech-talk/tech-talk-understanding-ride-comfort/
That is (while better worded) what I have been saying, except for the roads in my area you can't just see a bump and slow down for it. You will get rear ended before too long. On some roads (main roads) you'd be slowing down more than speeding up. So a softer spring will better absorb a sharp impact. And, I'm sure everyone agrees that any vehicle that has shitty shocks installed will ride, at best, poorly, at worst, dangerously. But the point is that every piece of the suspension is important. On a truck or Jeep tires are much more important than that article would have you believe. Could be due to the author spelling 'tYres" not 'tIres'.
And my last post clearly, CLEARLY, shows that springs matter. Three different springs. All made for the same machine. Able to be swapped out in under a minute. All eliminate any other variable. A control arm, a shock, and a spring. Nothing else. No body mounts. No seat foam. No two days later. And on every machine I tried they each made the ride feel different. With a bad (or blown) shock the lightest was just bouncing wildly out of control, but with a decent working shock it provided (easily) the best comfort and control. Now, does everyone actually want the softest ride? No. And for some uses it would be a very poor choice. For them a harder spring or a tighter valved shock would be a better choice. But that isn't the question here.
 
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That is (while better worded) what I have been saying, except for the roads in my area you can't just see a bump and slow down for it. You will get rear ended before too long. On some roads (main roads) you'd be slowing down more than speeding up. So a softer spring will better absorb a sharp impact. And, I'm sure everyone agrees that any vehicle that has shitty shocks installed will ride, at best, poorly, at worst, dangerously. But the point is that every piece of the suspension is important. On a truck or Jeep tires are much more important than that article would have you believe. Could be due to the author spelling 'tYres" not 'tIres'.
And my last post clearly, CLEARLY, shows that springs matter. Three different springs. All made for the same machine. Able to be swapped out in under a minute. All eliminate any other variable. A control arm, a shock, and a spring. Nothing else. No body mounts. No seat foam. No two days later. And on every machine I tried they each made the ride feel different. With a bad (or blown) shock the lightest was just bouncing wildly out of control, but with a decent working shock it provided (easily) the best comfort and control. Now, does everyone actually want the softest ride? No. And for some uses it would be a very poor choice. For them a harder spring or a tighter valved shock would be a better choice. But that isn't the question here.
Do you even context bro?
 
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Being a total novice, and not educated enough on the topic- I don't have an opinion. I can see both views (to the limits of my knowledge).
That being said: When it comes to shocks, springs, control arms,...you are talking about a "Suspension System", not a singular component that makes a vehicle ride the way it rides. When taking a 2-dimensional designed product with its intent to serve the 3-dimensional world, you will always have components that provide more benefit than others; and others that you wonder why they were included. Like in Stick Framed construction, Doug Fir is far superior to Hem-Fir, but using it won't assure a quality end product if you use Tin Nails to hold it together-Just too many variables...Tomato...Tomahto! o_O
 
Essentially but where all of this breaks down is yet again, context. Given the time, funds, and effort, I could design and build springs that fit in the TJ at 4" of lift that would easily demonstrate the position of springs affecting ride quality in a detrimental and positive manner. It would take some doing, but it could be done. Outside of that large amount of effort, all TJ lift springs are close enough in spring rate.
This makes more sense. When I was making my point, I forgot to clarify that I am not aware and was not taking into account the availability of springs for the TJ. It makes sense that there would be a narrow window of spring rates after restricting your choices to what fits in a TJ, required ride height, etc.
 
...That is about the equivalent of saying that black lug nuts hold your rims on better. While that may be true for a specifically contrived scenario, at the end of the day, almost any lugnut of the proper taper and thread pitch will hold the rims on with no problems.
Black lug nuts absorb radiant heat which causes then to expand and grip the wheel stud more tightly, thereby increasing the break away torque, which holds the wheels on better than shiny lug nuts. Fight me!
 
Do springs matter if you are using off the shelf shocks? I believe springs can help. In my experience as well as others, noticed some difference. My rear springs were sagging and I decided to replace them. I don't suggest buying new springs to improve your ride, but if you are buying 4" springs look at RockJock. I understand that $1,100 shocks can smooth out any spring and will update when I get mine on.
 
Do springs matter if you are using off the shelf shocks? I believe springs can help. In my experience as well as others, noticed some difference. My rear springs were sagging and I decided to replace them. I don't suggest buying new springs to improve your ride, but if you are buying 4" springs look at RockJock. I understand that $1,100 shocks can smooth out any spring and will update when I get mine on.
Here is how I know a bunch of ya'll are full of crap. Had a guy contact us, all he wanted done was his rear spring perches relocated to flat. I told him that is a lot of work if you aren't in there doing something else like a shock outboard. NOPE, I just want it to ride better and flattening the perches will do that. Uh, no it won't and that is a lot of work for something you won't be able to notice.

Do it anyway.

Alright, it is your rig, have it however you like.

So, my helper and I took it for a drive on our ride quality test loop, he drove and I sat in the passenger seat and then we switched. At the end of it, we knew exactly how the vehicle drove and responded to road imperfections.

We flatten the perches taking great care to space them back down to the exact ride height it came in with. All done we go on the same test loop and repeat the same antics as before the work. All said and done, there was zero perceptible difference in how the rig rode, drove, handled or responded to road imperfections.

He picks the rig up and a few days later I see his posts come up about how much the ride quality improved with such a simple mod and he highly recommended that everyone with a lifted rig should go flatten out their rear spring perches. Nothing we could say or do would convince him that there was just no difference, nothing. He believed what he wanted to believe and nothing that would change that.

Sound familiar?
 
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This makes more sense. When I was making my point, I forgot to clarify that I am not aware and was not taking into account the availability of springs for the TJ. It makes sense that there would be a narrow window of spring rates after restricting your choices to what fits in a TJ, required ride height, etc.
Are we not on a TJ specific forum? If so, should our knowledge pertain very specifically to that platform?
 
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Are we not on a TJ specific forum? If so, should our knowledge pertain very specifically to that platform?
Yeah, it's a good idea to keep it TJ-related, but at the same time, a broader understanding of the science behind things helps. The TJ is not exempt from the laws of physics.
 
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Yeah, it's a good idea to keep it TJ-related, but at the same time, a broader understanding of the science behind things helps. The TJ is not exempt from the laws of physics.
So when are you going to test a set of coils from a Humvee on your rig so you can prove that the laws of physics do in fact apply to the TJ?
 
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Yeah, it's a good idea to keep it TJ-related, but at the same time, a broader understanding of the science behind things helps. The TJ is not exempt from the laws of physics.

The TJ is in no way exempt from the laws of physics, but it is limited by what is commonly available for it. Once the discussion ventures beyond it's reasonable limits then the "what if" scenarios meant to undermine the practical realities of the platform become unhelpful distractions.
 
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So when are you going to test a set of coils from a Humvee on your rig so you can prove that the laws of physics do in fact apply to the TJ?

They can test a block of wood or a Slinky, too.
 
Here is how I know a bunch of ya'll are full of crap. Had a guy contact us, all he wanted done was his rear spring perches relocated to flat. I told him that is a lot of work if you aren't in there doing something else like a shock outboard. NOPE, I just want it to ride better and flattening the perches will do that. Uh, no it won't and that is a lot of work for something you won't be able to notice.

Do it anyway.

Alright, it is your rig, have it however you like.

So, my helper and I took it for a drive on our ride quality test loop, he drove and I sat in the passenger seat and then we switched. At the end of it, we knew exactly how the vehicle drove and responded to road imperfections.

We flatten the perches taking great care to space them back down to the exact ride height it came in with. All done we go on the same test loop and repeat the same antics as before the work. All said and done, there was zero perceptible difference in how the rig rode, drove, handled or responded to road imperfections.

He picks the rig up and a few days later I see his posts come up about how much the ride quality improved with such a simple mod and he highly recommended that everyone with a lifted rig should go flatten out their rear spring perches. Nothing we could say or do would convince him that there was just no difference, nothing. He believed what he wanted to believe and nothing that would change that.

Sound familiar?

Not apples to apples. You did not change RC springs to Currie or even change the springs. You only changed the upper mount. I would not expect a perceptible difference with a reduction of progressive rate. I am not the only one claiming spring change on a Jeep made a perceptible difference. At least I am in good company. I am done with this thread and unsubscribing.
 
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Not apples to apples. You did not change RC springs to Currie or even change the springs. You only changed the upper mount. I would not expect a perceptible difference with a reduction of progressive rate. I am not the only one claiming spring change on a Jeep made a perceptible difference. At least I am in good company. I am done with this thread and unsubscribing.

The owner perceived a change that didn't occur.

I'll say again that I hope your tune is enough to give you a similar perspective that I received from mine.

And I also encourage you to go for a drive without shocks installed, even if it's just the rears.
 
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The TJ is in no way exempt from the laws of physics, but it is limited by what is commonly available for it. Once the discussion ventures beyond it's reasonable limits then the "what if" scenarios meant to undermine the practical realities of the platform become unhelpful distractions.
Agreed. This is what I was trying to get at in my second to last post #84
 
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Going back to rs5000x shocks, has anyone seen theirs fail prematurely? Mine have only 20,000ish miles on them and two are leaking oil and have completely lost their gas charge.