I have heard different opinions on this. My car has ladder bar and single adjustable QA1 coilover shocks.
One of my shocks broke saturday.
Should i get new single adjustable or double adjustable.
some people say double would help others say with the way ladder bars work that they are a waste of money.

Unless you wanna sit around watching episodes of Captain Kangaroo all day long to get you're IQ back to normal, be careful who you listen to.

The same principles for any suspension system, apply for ladder bars. Shocks with adjusters both rebound and compression, have the capacity to time suspension events at TB release, through the use of the adjusters.

The most effective/durable D/A shock you can buy on a budget, is a Strange w/16 clicks of adjustment rebound and compression.

My opinion after having both is that you can never go wrong with being able to control compression and rebound. It made a large difference on my car after adding doubles and making some changes and adjustments.

No trans-brake
Footbrake car only

Double adjustable = money well spent. Buy the best ones you can or want to afford.

Footbrake won't be as sensitive but will still benefit greatly.

DA are expensive but worth every penny.

I agree get the double adjustable. I was told by someone who had done a lot of shock dyno testing that the AFCO shocks are the best for the money. This guy definitely knows what he is talking about. I ended up buying AFCO and have been pleased with them.

For the money which is a better choice QA1 or Strange

strange money well spent

quote:

Originally posted by Waylon:
For the money which is a better choice QA1 or Strange

Strange by a mile given those 2 choices based on my experience in the past. I have had both before and still use Strange. I can't say though if QA-1 has improved although I saw they have a new design canister shock but they are pretty pricey.

A double adjustable drag shock is always beneficial and the shock you want is Afco which are bolted to the rear of this footbrake car...

https://youtu.be/rbKYio6OvKM

quote:

Originally posted by Waylon:
For the money which is a better choice QA1 or Strange

Strange is made in USA

Afco is made in Indonesia

USA has always manufactured higher quality than Indonesia, and always will.

Buy MADE IN USA - Strange D/A

Ya definitely want everything on your hot rod made in western civilization.

It's the third world nations that put pressure on every American's wages. With third world wages you can't afford a hot rod.

I used to run a double roller timing chain set made in Australia on my BBC's because Australia is western civilization, they make as good or better wages than we do, so they're not putting pressure on our wages.

BUY MADE IN USA or at the very least western civilization.

to the original poster, something to consider, if you have not done so, the installation of an anti-roll bar will show good results. Some years ago the thought was that with a ladder bar the rear axle housing served as the anti-roll. As an experiment, I install one anyway, figgered it would not hurt anything.
Vola, it changed an already dead on package to a double 0 dead on package.
Now I have installed a number of anti-roll bar kits on both ladder bar and four-link builds and it is, without question, a good thing to do.
As a side note, I like the ART design that has needed bearings rather than bushings.

Call Randy Mans at fastshocks for a shock 101 lesson.

and I agree with Tyler about Randy Manns. He is an experienced racer and does good work with shock rebuilds/upgrades. He has done a number of sets for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Larry Woodfin:
and I agree with Tyler about Randy Manns. He is an experienced racer and does good work with shock rebuilds/upgrades. He has done a number of sets for me.

That's MADE IN USA. I called him we've been looking at a set of Koni's he had on FB. Super nice guy, informative, knowledgeable.

Those Koni's would've been a Super good deal for the OP.

And I agree with Larry about the ARB. In fact, I would like to experiment with them on our leaf spring cars.

I think an ARB with leaf springs is a good idea because the ARB helps both rear tires carry the same weight.

So this is a crude rudimentary example drawing.

If you're talking high hp (1100 hp plus) this car goes left at the leave.

If you're talking low hp it goes right.

You can adjust this out of a low hp car no ARB, but you can't a high hp car no ARB, unless you install a low hp engine in the frame rails.

I would suggest that you never get advise from whom ever told you it wouldn't help.