Shock Technology and Setup

Over the last 10 years shock absorber technology has evolved so much that sandrail suspensions are leaps and bounds (pun intended) beyond what you could buy in the early 90's. The efficiency at soaking up the rough terrain found in the dunes and off-road trails are kids play today. Shock travel, variable damping, strength, and custom valving has allowed car-builders to custom tune shocks specific to their cars for incredible handling and ride. You no longer just buy shocks off the shelf and slap them on, it's much more involved than that. Once you get a shock with the correct travel and mounting for the application, the work has just begun. The additional flexibility and tuning capabilities of today's technology gives the builder full reign on shock characteristics, so many options that you really need to know what you're doing. This is not simple stuff, but the results of a properly tuned shock that's specific to the frame, weight, geometry and travel of your car can deliver simply amazing performance.

Shock valve tuning is not an overnight task. Since every car design has it's own weight distribution and handling characteristics, each car model takes many trips to the dunes to test and assess for the ultimate combination. And after weeks of work the right combination is found, out of an infinite number of possibilities. Once the recipe is found for production, the shock manufacturer can customize the valving for each of our car models. King Shocks has worked closely with Funco to provide shocks specific to our needs, pre-valved with the exact setup we specify for each of our models.

But even after we find the right combination, we still tweak and test new technology as it comes out. Funco's shock tuning department is a key part of our value-add to assure all our cars perform as advertised, to be the ultimate duning machine. And like most technologies, shocks are still evolving. Funco's R&D department is always working with new shock technologies to assure we're making the best handling cars on the market.

The latest rage is adjustable bypass tubes. Although Funco adjusts these shocks to the specification we believe works the best, you have the option to play with different dampening settings to your preference. The rear shocks can have up to 3 bypass tubes on each shock, the front shocks can get up to 2 bypass tubes (total of 10 bypass tubes). Each tubes costs $175/ea., so if you go for the full tilt setup with 10 bypass tubes it cost an extra $1750 over the standard shocks without bypass tubes.