My advise:

Protect your investments as you see fit as its your money, blood, sweat and tears.

I personally over tie everything and air bladder as well. Something to consider is most of the trailers used today in racing are NOT air ride and the roads/trailers beat the living crap out of our race cars. Torsion axles are brutal on rough road...RIDE in the trailer and see whats going on when possible. Promise you will secure things better afterwards.

FAR MORE abuse in trailer than on race track IMO. I have had the car TS car come off the lift after breaking welded hoops off of chassis amd land on my golf cart. I have had the struts broken off of chassis on a TS car from trailer. All happened in aluminum trailers without air ride...nothing so far since going to air ride trailers. STILL OVERTIE and airbag everything possible.

Factory door cars vs tube chassis cars are seriously different by design and tying down can be done differently IMO.

I cross tie front and back of door cars...have for years.

HAPPY towing out there...its a rough road my friends!

quote:

Originally posted by TORQIN:
My advise:

Protect your investments as you see fit as its your money, blood, sweat and tears.

I agree

quote:

Factory door cars vs tube chassis cars are seriously different by design and tying down can be done differently IMO.

I agree

quote:

I cross tie front and back of door cars...have for years.

me too

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Rietow:


The tires act as the damper, towing rigid frame.

Big tires big damper, let some air out to loosen bump/compression.

Common sense

If you strap the car down tight, you are compressing the tires and limiting their ability to dampen, just as you are compressing the springs and shocks.

EXACTLY!

quote:

Originally posted by SlyFox:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Rietow:


The tires act as the damper, towing rigid frame.

Big tires big damper, let some air out to loosen bump/compression.

Common sense

If you strap the car down tight, you are compressing the tires and limiting their ability to dampen, just as you are compressing the springs and shocks.

What damages shocks towing is a high frequency vibration. When you tie the car down tight, the tire dampens the high frequency vibration.

Al Alguire didn't hit a bump or two or ten bumps to wear out his shocks on a long trip from the West coast. It was a high frequency vibration that had the shaft moving in and out of the main body at high frequency, that blew out the shock. It probably vaporized the oil.

The tires, no matter how much weight you add on them, is always a damper.

Preload the spring is the correct answer.

Al's car in question is not a bracket car, not the OP's car, not mine and not the car most that post here race nor are the shocks he uses on this 2300 lb. PS/TS type door car, the shocks that the OP, myself and most bracket racers are using.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 1320racer,

I can tell you first hand, not internet myth, that on a trip from mid Michigan to Norwalk Ohio, the first thing I did was open the trailer and put my hand on the rear shocks. They were noticeably hot, but not burning up. I still tie my cars down this way and don't believe I've had any shock issues from it.

Temp gun before and after or it’s just guessing.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Nitzsche:
I can tell you first hand, not internet myth, that on a trip from mid Michigan to Norwalk Ohio, the first thing I did was open the trailer and put my hand on the rear shocks. They were noticeably hot, but not burning up. I still tie my cars down this way and don't believe I've had any shock issues from it.

It's an interesting topic, one it would behoove racers be alerted to. If you have a high frequency vibration oscillating the shaft in and out of the main body lets say hypothetically .075 20 times per second riding down the road for 15 hours, it'll vaporize the oil. I've never seen it but I've heard of it. That would be the shaft moving over an inch a second for 15 hours .075 twenty times a second.

The way I always look at it is, you wanna have the same equipment from one race to the next, to not mis-interpret results on the track. This is why I'd imagine Pro Stock teams remove their race ready dampers when towing.

When I first started thinking about dampers, just about everyone said they didn't matter. I promptly bought a set of high dollar at the time Koni's valved by Jerry Bickle, for an easy performance advantage.

quote:

Originally posted by 1320racer:
1. my door is faster than most that post here.
2. The OP's car is quite a bit slower than my door car.
3. I don't need shock sensors, I can read a time slip and my Racepak data.
4. I clearly know how to adjust the shocks on my door car which has been 1.17 in 60 foot launched off the footbrake at nearly 3200 lbs.
5. I'm done wasting my time with your bs, you are CLUELESS and way in over your head, thinking YOU have more technical experience, trust me!

1. Nobody gives a F u c k
2. Irrelevant
3. Again, nobody cares
4. Again, nobody GAF about you
5. If you are done, then just STFU and go away again

quote:

Originally posted by 1320racer:
Al, this car is a full tube chassis car, yes? also who's shocks?

No the heads up car is a ladder bar stock frame rail C3 Vette.. The WORST possible car for doing what we do frankly.

I agree and stand corrected. Who’s shocks?

[QUOTE

2. Pro stock shocks cost $5,000 EACH!

[/QUOTE]

About 5 years ago, they were $9,000 each, but were good for .015

My two cents, On my Altered I checked several times with a temp gun after a long haul and they were not noticeable over air temp. So I do not do anything special on it.

Now on my Front Engine Dragster it bounces like crazy and it has to be strapped down tight and air bladder aired up good or it is going to bounce around bad.

Point is do what ever it takes to make it get there safe. On my new Altered I will not be using an air bladder or doing anything special about the shocks, I do not feel there is a need.
Sure shocks may wear out 2% earlier who knows but it is not worth the trouble in my opinion if it does any good at all. I am certainly not changing shocks out after a long race for the tow home. In fact that is why I am going back to an altered to make it simple.

quote:

Originally posted by 1320racer:
I agree and stand corrected. Who’s shocks?

One of the big name shock guys. We have now gone to another of the big name shock guys.

Bringing this back for those that still believe that "trailers are shock killers". My rear Afco shocks and springs are 16 years old and my front Afco shocks and springs are 10 years old and none have ever been rebuilt, replaced nor leaked.

My "deadly consistent all weekend", Best Engineered car last weekend at the "Largest Door Car Race in HISTORY"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...LI0&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...uVE&feature=youtu.be
I can post more videos from last weekend but they all look the same.

As a reminder, I've been trailing my race cars for 20 years, tied down from the chassis. I have never tied my cars down to limit rear suspension travel/compress my shocks while towing, no mind remove my shocks when towing I want my suspension working going down the road in my trailer.

Just saying.

Knowing your acuteness for preventative maintenance I am surprised you have not had your shock oil changed. When I spoke to one of the shock shop's they made the statement that shock oil breaks down like any other oil over time/use and needs changed regularly. Now what regularly means I am sure depends on application parameters, however again I am surprised since you are very conscious of PM's. I just bought a set of AFCO that I need to install so I will be inquiring on when they need an oil change and check. Not knocking you just surprised.

Valid point.

I'm all about PM but just didn't see the need to fix what ain't broken when it comes to shocks. I also don't buy into the claim that the oil in the shocks breaks down. My shocks get visually inspected throughout the season and removed in the off season for closer inspection to confirm they are function correctly.

That said, I have spoken to a local shock builder

https://www.competitivesuspension.com/

about rebuilding these but I might just have these dyno'd and buy the same shocks new, keeping the current shocks for an emergency which I doubt I'll ever need based on the performance/service life I've gotten from the current shocks.