I've got koni shocks, and they seem to be adjusted right for grocery running, but when I take my box off-road the ride is not right. I can really get the rear hopping, and the trailer hitch tends to smack the ground as I pogo from obstacle to the bottom of said obstacle. Should I adjust the shocks, and if yes, should they be at the highest setting or the lowest? Also, I am towing a trailer sometimes, so I've got to make a decision on setting that the load into consideration.

>--
Peckhammer

 

Sounds like you need to buy a truck! Off-road? Towing? WTF

 

really bro - 3-way konis wont do (soft btw, counterclockwise all the way to the left) it still wont make a difference, it's the wrong application for the wrong car... whatever floats your boat...

 

What I hear you saying is to set them softer rather than harder. How will this affect my regular street handling? I know from motorcycles that a plush ride usually means things are going to get ugly in the corners.

>--
Peckhammer

 

Towing with the XB and Konis.......Well, to make the best of it, you could set them as high you can but this will not help your bottoming. This will only reduce the bounce. The big problem you are going to have is that towing puts a ton of load on the rear springs (compresses them) and the Konis have low compression dampening (easy to compress). Bottoming is a given with this combo. Now the stock KYB's have much higher compression dampening than the Koni's. These would work better to reduce bottoming. You really need more spring and shocks appropriate for towing (which Koni's are not). Actually, a car rated for towing would help as well.


.

 

I don't see how 200 lbs of potential tongue weight puts a ton of weight on the springs, but I do agree that there is more weight back there. The car, with trailer, feels about the same as when two typical American adults are sitting in the back seat. The trailer and load is light -- just two motorcycles. Tongue weight is less than 200 lbs.

The real conundrum for me is whether to set them harder or softer. You indicate harder, and someone else here indicated softer. Time for a poll!

 

weight behind the rear axle is directly on the rear shocks where as 2 people in the car will be distributed to the fronts and rears. 200 lbs on the xb with konis is an extreme amount for just the rear shocks to handle.

 

Then the obvious solution would be to remove the rear passenger seats, and mount the receiver on floor. By leaving the hatch open, the hitch could be attached to the receiver inside the car in a similar fashion as it is done with a 5th wheel hitch on a pickup truck.

But... since the trailer and bikes only weigh 550lbs, I am betting that the tongue weight is pretty negligable. No need to remove my seats and weld stuff to the floor. All I need is a harder or softer recommendation on the shock settings.

 

I'll make the same recommendation to you I made to someone else earlier. Either bag the back of your box to help handle the additional weight, or get in touch with Firestone about a Coil-Rite system. They already make one for the Echo, and it may be able to be adapted to work for the xB.

Shocks do absolutely nothing for load capacity, only dampening. For load capacity you need different springs, or a dynamic suspension like air bags.

Hope that helps.

 

Not only do you have 200 lbs of tongue weight, but you have a moment caused by the weight and distance from the pivot point (front springs). Having people in the back seat is not the same. A load/moment (between axles) is shared between the front and rear springs. Sit in the rear seat, then stand on the towing tongue. As you will see, the rear springs are much more sensitive to this tongue weight. Because of this sensitivity and since this tongue weight varies during normal driving, you see the bouncing and bottoming. Sort of like people jumping around in the back seat.....The way most "towing vehicles" deal with this is stiff springs and stiff shocks. Air bags would also work well as a spring compliment. Koni's can be really stiff in rebound which is the adjustable part of the shock, but the shock is not adjustable for compression dampening. Stiff rebound will stop the bounce after the shock compression. However, setting the Koni at full stiff will not increase compression dampening which resists the compression of the spring. That's means the springs will bottom. Bottoming won't be prevented if you set the Koni's Hard or Soft. Hard will reduce the bounce after it bottoms. Soft, will likely bottom and bounce. Like I said, you would likely be better off to put the stock KYBs in. They should help reduce bottoming as their compression dampening is higher than the Koni's. This is what makes them so darn uncomfortable. The ride will probably be a mess either way.