Will firmer shocks be better or worse when going offroad. I know softer shocks give a better ride on road, but curious as to thier affect offroad.

 

Firmer shocks will only be beneficial offroad if you are moving at a faster rate. If you are simply crawling along, any shock will do. The smoother the shock, the better on road. Of course, too smooth and you loose some stability, but that's not for you to worry about since you are looking at firmer shocks.

 

I have the teraflex 3" lift and their shocks are great perfect ride for the jeep
no soft like the stock ones were
there fore less body lean.
going off road affords more speed for somethings with out hit bump stops so much.

 

There is rebound, and compression valving.

You use the compression stroke to cushion uptravel impacts, and to slow bounce up of the tire, etc.

You use the rebound stroke to re-extend the shock to follow dips in the terrain, and to stabilize the truck on droop, etc.

If compression valving is too stiff, on road, the truck get a jolt on a tire rise/bump, etc...as the resistance of the shock to being shortened takes too much force, and the impact is therefore transmitted to the frame, instead of absorbed. This can throw the truck upwards, losing tire contact/traction. On a smooth road, this can stiffen the handling, and reduce body roll, etc.

If too stiff off road, the truck will not remain level as a tire climbs an obstacle, and the truck will tip up on that corner, instead of the truck staying level, and the tire coming up by itself, etc...This is bad for stability...and can even encourage a roll over.

Off camber, the stiffness of the down hill side can help control some motion towards the downhill, which is good, but the stiffness on the uphill side can tilt you over towards the downhill side, not good.

(These situations involve more of hitting an obstacle that is unsettling, and getting pitched due to the transmittal of force to the frame...as opposed to a parallel set of scenarios due to SUSPENSION stiffness, like from coils, etc.)

If rebound is too soft, then the tire has trouble getting back to the road or terrain, either at speed, or crawling. If the rebound is too hard, the tire may come back too hard, and create an impact transmittal/bounce/loss of traction (hop, etc.).

The shock also has to modulate the oscillations of the coils and the associated weights of tires, axles, arms, etc...so if the spring rate of the suspension is higher, the shocks have to be more stiffly valved to handle it, etc.

For rock crawling, you want stability, and articulation. For stability, you do not want to be teeter tottering between control ranges...you want to be able to balance yourself, and count on holding your line if possible, etc.

For articulation, you want to be able to have tyour tires reach the ground.

Obviously, no coil exists that supports the entire weight of the truck on that corner at all degrees of uncoiling...it supports the entire weight at ride height at one length, and less at a longer length, and progressively more at its shorter coiled lengths.

Byt the time the axle is at full droop, the coils is exerting little to zero force upon the axle...its down force is from gravity, and, from the leverage of the raised end forcing down the drooped end....and, its stabilized by the shock.

If the shock can reach, and has the power to hold you at your posistion, the truck is less likely to rock.

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So, in answer to the question, do you want firmer or softer shocks off road...it all depends upon the above...softer or harder than WHAT? in essence.



A roughly 4,500 -5,000 lb rig with roughly 50/50 weight distribution, will probably need valving in the range of 255 - 280/70-90 for offroading, to have good control.

If firmer or softer works out to about that range, its probably about right.

 

I'm not even sure what this means.

No stiffness would be fine?

A zero rebound, and a zero compression valving rate would not affect off road performance?

That's not REALLY what you mean, is it?



Obviously, damping the motion of the truck is a good thing....and therefore, at least SOME stiffness would be good...not so llittle that the tires would hop under power, or be unable to maintain traction while climbing obstacles, or so that the truck would teeter at balance points...or be unable to droop quickly to take up space into a depression, etc.

...and not so much that the truck would have obstacle impact transmitted to the frame, tilting the truck rather than letting the tire ride up and the truck stay level, or to fight the coils, etc.

Obviously, you mean the RIGHT amount of stiffness is VERY important, not TOO stiff, and not TOO soft....so the truck stays level, and the tires go up and down all by themselves, etc.

Perhaps you have a rebound and compression valving number that you feel represents this concept...say the target YOU shoot for?