AMGRacer

OK I know that the regular advice is that the shocks on your car should be the same length and that they should rebound equally. But how important is this really?

On modern nitro sedans the total amount of travel is controlled by the droop screws and the shock collar/spring. Therefore if one shock is not the right length it really does not matter as they do not bottom out right?

Similarly I would say that the rebound amount dictated by the compression of the shock oil is such a small amount of force compared to the total spring force that a small difference in this already small force would be almost unnoticable?

Agree/disagree? I personally have never noticed any ill effects on my cars performance even when the shocks were not totally "perfect".

impalabob64

iTrader: (2)

Not to be rude ,but it will effect your droop settings ,an when you tweak the car you will notice the difference .Im pretty you hve been to a big race ,an you hve seen the pros strip there cars do to the chassie,gettin them calipers out checking eveything an most important there shocks.

Ted Flack

In my case I do not put me car on scales (1/8th scale) or use a tweak board so I use the location of the shock collars to set each side of the car equal.

I set droop with a droop gauge and then set each collar to the same location on each side, not front and back, to set ride height. If the shocks are not the same length this system won't work, so I always take the time to make the shocks the same length.

There are lots of ways to do this so I am sure a debate could start about things like lifting up the car to meaure tweak, etc.

I tend to agree with you about rebound but I still try to make rebound the same.

AMGRacer

Hey Ted, yeah I do my tweak and droop like you. I also ensure the collars are equal, so that is a good point about different lengths causing problems with that setup technique.

impalabob, I have seen the pros doing these things as has been said, I am more interested in what you guys do not the pros. Just cause they do it does not mean that it is really worth while for non-pros like me.

I know one guy who is obsessed with getting the rebound right, and he even claims to use rebound as a setup adjustment. But I cannot see how the minute difference that rebound makes would affect the car as the spring expansion forces have to be far greater, not to mention the swaybars.

Derby Bros Racing

iTrader: (7)

Getting equal (or close of course) rebound is to make sure you have the same amount of oil in both shocks to make sure they are consistent left and right. The lesser the oil, the less rebound and softer acting shocks (even with the same viscosity) and vice versa.

rmdhawaii

iTrader: (4)

I really didn't think of rebound as a tuning option until I read this post. I did some digging and found some very interesting info in the NT1 setup book (click here) on the bottom of page 38, Number 10. It talks about changing the rebound (high, medium or low) for varying degress of traction (low, standard or high). In doesn't get into the specifics as to why you do this, but at least it gives some credibility to rebound tuning.