Itinerant Air-Cooled

I know, this should go in the suspension thread, put it there if need be.

My question is: If you needed to buy shocks today and did not want to lay out $500 for Konis, what would you buy? I am leaning towards the KYB's; GR-2 for front and gas adjust for rear. You?

Also, do I need the mounting kit for the rear only?

I went Sachs/Boge and have been happy with them.

http://www.autohausaz.com/pn/701131
http://www.autohausaz.com/pn/794031

jimbear wrote:I know, this should go in the suspension thread, put it there if need be.

My question is: If you needed to buy shocks today and did not want to lay out $500 for Konis, what would you buy? I am leaning towards the KYB's; GR-2 for front and gas adjust for rear. You?

Also, do I need the mounting kit for the rear only?

KYBs are fine. Sachs are fine. Boge is fine. Konis are fine.
KYBs will be harsh for the first several hundred miles.
Sachs/Boges are fine for not terribly loaded buses. I have Sachs on Chloe, they have held up fine.
Konis do not cure cancer and save kittens, they just have a nice adjustability and an alleged lifetime warranty, that is why I am using them on the BobD.
Can't remember what the deal is with mounting kits, I think it depends on the shock set you buy.

Do not tighten your new shocks until the bus is on the ground.
Colin

I prefer to rough-install the shocks, especially the rears, with the axles off the ground. The new run of Monroe shocks can be up to an inch too short, depending on how your bus was put together. A few Samba members had issues with KYBs as well last year.

Make sure the shock is not the limiting factor in your suspension travel; that is the job of the stoppers. The shock absorber will rip the upper mounting bolt off the shock tower if it is too short.

Get the bolts in during this process, THEN tighten on the ground. Return them with a frisky call to the manufacturer if they are not long enough.

Robbie

I went with the Bus Depot boge versions as well. I like the ride just fine but I have had two pop off the bushings in 9,000 miles. One right front lower bushing and the left rear upper (I think the upper?).
I took them off and drove out the inner steel bushing the bolt goes through. Then with some WD40 and a vise, squished the rubber bushing back in the shock collar as best I could and then with some more WD40, drove the smaller steel liner back in. The front shock I backed up with a larger washer so it couldn't pop all the way off. The rear, I didn't. So far so good for both, maybe 500ish miles.
But for the record, when this happened, I took the front shock off and finished the trip. I really could barely tell any difference in the ride. Trip was only 70 miles but 20 of it was fairly rough forest service road, lightly loaded with 4 people.

Anyone else have this happen occasionally? I haven't on my other bus with kyb's that were on it when I got it and I've put a good 60k on them. They seem to ride just fine too comparatively.

71whitewesty wrote:I went with the Bus Depot boge versions as well. I like the ride just fine but I have had two pop off the bushings in 9,000 miles. One right front lower bushing and the left rear upper (I think the upper?).
I took them off and drove out the inner steel bushing the bolt goes through. Then with some WD40 and a vise, squished the rubber bushing back in the shock collar as best I could and then with some more WD40, drove the smaller steel liner back in. The front shock I backed up with a larger washer so it couldn't pop all the way off. The rear, I didn't. So far so good for both, maybe 500ish miles.
But for the record, when this happened, I took the front shock off and finished the trip. I really could barely tell any difference in the ride. Trip was only 70 miles but 20 of it was fairly rough forest service road, lightly loaded with 4 people.

Anyone else have this happen occasionally? I haven't on my other bus with kyb's that were on it when I got it and I've put a good 60k on them. They seem to ride just fine too comparatively.

I have never never never had shock bushings pop off.

I'd suggest looking carefully at vertical alignment. Sometimes you need a spacer to maintain verticality.
I cannot say if quality control may be part of your issue.
If you need a spacer to locate the shock, please use it on the *lower* mounting. Do not "shim out" the shock from the chassis mounting area. The less bending moment the better.
Colin

I put the washer on the outside of the lower front shock. No change in the alignment of it at all.
Basically I was wondering if this was a quality control issue. I've never had it happen either with any bus I've ever had.
When I reinstalled the rear shock, I rotated it so that if it has a tenacey to come off one way, it would come off now towards the shock mount vs failing the other way and coming off the mounting bolt.

Back in the 80's, I was doing front end, alignment work. I saw several shocks slip off the rubber bushing over the years. The owner would bring their car into the shop with a complaint of a noise under it. Usually, it was the most inexpensive brand shock that suffered that problem. We wouldn't recommend pressing the eye back over the rubber. We'd just replace the shock/shocks.

FWIW - Installed a set of Monroe's all four corners about 7 years, and would guess about 8k miles ago. So far so good; much better than the worn out Koni's they replaced (so much for lifetime warranty). If you DD your bus, or put 10's of thousands of miles a year on a bus being an ambassador / crusader / itinerant wanderer /philosopher, then I would spend good coin on shocks. For my purposes, the Monroe's have been fine.

Cheers,
Mike

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:If you DD your bus, or put 10's of thousands of miles a year on a bus being an ambassador / crusader / itinerant wanderer /philosopher, then I would spend good coin on shocks. For my purposes, the Monroe's have been fine.

Cheers,
Mike

Hey, I think I did, I must be a philosopher and a bit dense, because I do not know what "DD your bus" is.

Did your worn Konis have adjustability? That is what I was planning to do. I have never gone above full soft on the front or 1/2 turn out on the rear, I was expecting to ratchet them out slowly as they wore . . . if they ever will even after my terrible abuse off-road and especially Michican's interstates
Colin

DD = daily drive. IIRC, my Konis (Konii?) were not adjustable.

Cheers,
Mike

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:DD = daily drive. IIRC, my Konis (Konii?) were not adjustable.

Cheers,
Mike

DDD . . . daily driver, duUuh.
Colin

jimbear wrote:I know, this should go in the suspension thread, put it there if need be.

My question is: If you needed to buy shocks today and did not want to lay out $500 for Konis, what would you buy? I am leaning towards the KYB's; GR-2 for front and gas adjust for rear. You?

Also, do I need the mounting kit for the rear only?

FWIW, I put the GR-2/gas adjust combo on my (old) 78 Westy. Pretty firm ride with properly inflated load range D tires. Never had any issues with them.

Mr Blotto wrote:

jimbear wrote:I know, this should go in the suspension thread, put it there if need be.

My question is: If you needed to buy shocks today and did not want to lay out $500 for Konis, what would you buy? I am leaning towards the KYB's; GR-2 for front and gas adjust for rear. You?

Also, do I need the mounting kit for the rear only?

FWIW, I put the GR-2/gas adjust combo on my (old) 78 Westy. Pretty firm ride with properly inflated load range D tires. Never had any issues with them.

That is what the Road Warrior had from 1986 through 2004 or something. Very firm for the first couple of hundred miles, then they settled down to sort of acceptable.
Colin