Shock Absorbers
26 Jun 2010
Shock absorbers are a very important component for preventing excess movement of the automobile and the suspension. If vehicles did not have shocks, they would bounce down the road uncontrollably. Because of the bouncing of the vehicle, tires would not make contact with the road and trying to negotiate a corner, or braking will be extremely dangerous.
To give you a notion of how shocks work, think of yourself driving down a road with speed humps. Should your vehicle only have springs and no shocks, once you go over the speed hump, the springs carry on moving to and fro until such time as they rid themselves of the momentum of compression. This causes the vehicle to sway and jump around as soon as it has crossed the speed hump.
Now, think of a vehicle that has springs as well as shocks going across the speed hump. The springs would still take in the hump, however, the difference between the two scenarios is that those shock absorbers would absorb the movement of the springs, changing the energy produced into heat and will stop the vehicle’s swaying.
A shock operates with two valves and that makes its effectiveness better. A valve is attached to a piston rod and that is attached to a piston. The piston is in a tube which is full of hydraulic fluid. As soon as the vehicle encounters a bump or any unevenness in the road, it causes the spring to open and close. This movement of the spring is sent to the shock absorber via the upper mount and down into the piston rod and then into the piston.
Little holes situated in the piston lets fluids through when the piston goes down and up inside the cylinder. As the holes are so small, it only allows a limited amount of oil to pass through. This fluid is placed under pressure because of the amount it lets through. This will slow down the action of the piston and thus slow down the spring. It will then allow the assimilation of the shock from the spring’s movement to go into the shock absorber.
Modern cars are fitted with speed sensitive shocks, so the more rapidly the suspension moves, the greater the forbearance the shock absorber gives. This will allow the shocks to adapt to the road conditions and regulate all the dangerous movements which can happen with a moving car. For example, brake deterioration, oscillation and bounce.
When a vehicle starts becoming unsteady on bumpy roads or it has difficulty cornering, it is time to check the shocks. These are signs that the shock absorbers may need replacing.
MY4BY OFF ROAD has the world’s largest selection of Rancho shocks available online. The myRIDE wireless remote is used with RS9000XL shocks for quick, easy control at the touch of a button.
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