I just got the lastest Ultra VW. It has two feature cars without narrowed beams and no shocks, as well as a tech article outling fitting a KCW narrow beam, again without shocks. It made me more than a little worried.

As I understood it, shock absorbers are extremely important in braking and handling. I can certainly remember the horrible way my buggy handled without shocks during early test runs.

Seems to me that KCW and similar have thrown the baby out with the bathwater all in the name of getting the car to ride lower and look "seek".

What do you all think?

More to the point, is this mod legal over here?

I can't see any engineer passing it without shocks.
A friend engineered IFS for his rod and with one look the engineer was going to knock him back - until he realised the shocks were mounted horizontally inside the panel work.

Have a ride in one, you'll see it's pretty horrible. Lethal if you are going to drive on Blacktown Council maintained roads.

How narrow are you going? And on what? Ball joint of K&P? You may end up needing pockets for the beam in the inner guards. I have a set I don't need, just haven't had time to cut them out.

u gotta be nuts to drive without them

If you don't have any suspension what do you need shock absorbers for???
I realise that to some 'appearance is everything' and handling is secondary.
What I see in those magazines is all about image or 'the look'.
Personally, I'd rather drive a car that was safe and reliable.

Cheers Dave

Here we go again......

Personally, I am running shocks with a 4 1/2 inch narrowed beam, but Cause the springs are shortend, the spring rate goes up, making the shocks really not needed. Now the other question to ask yourself is how many beetles out there or that you have driven have new or undamages shocks? If the shocks are stuffed, its like having none at all anyway.

N!

[ Edited on 2-4-2006 by Unity-28 ]

[ Edited on 2-4-2006 by Unity-28 ]

Yeah I like the idea of keeping shocks. I've just squeezed my 2 inch narrowed beam in the 64 which has shock towers. Randy Gates' 52 split in the US had a 3 inch narrowed beam with shocks, but his beam was built from scratch with 10mm plate right on the ends of the tubes so it just fit with no body mods. You can just see it in the pics.

I reckon that has to be the hot ticket for a narrowed beam, 3 inch with shocks & no body mods.

That said, a mate has been trying to convince me that shocks aren't needed, and one of these days I'll be going for a ride in his 4 inch narrowed bug, without shocks. So I'll see what my opinion is then...

don't knock it 'til you tried it.

no shocks on a standard beam does ride shit,
but on a narrowed beam, if built correctly, will ride better than with shocks.

Bullshit. Its simple physics, shocks add dampening to the sytem - with out shocks you have no dampening apart from the friction in the king pins etc.

Without dampening in a suspenion system you have nothing slowing the bounce and return of the sprung weight (ie the wheel). With no shocks, your wheel will bounce higher (off the road in come cases) for any given impact, and will continue to bounce for longer.

I'll buy that old, shagged shocks may be the same as no shocks, but I wont buy that any beam on a VW with no shocks could be made to ride better than a stock beam with stock shocks.

Its dangerous (and illegal) to have no shocks on any vehicle that travels at speed on Australian roads. It would be a different argument if you were driving on a surface that is glass smooth though.

But hey, that just my opinion. You are welcome to drive whatever you like, just dont drive it near me if you have no shocks on it.

The majority of guys that are chopping off shock towers to get the wheels in that far are not interested in ride quality. It's all about the look.
These cars are not being built to be driven on interstate trips or at high speeds or on an every day basis, they're cruisers.

WHO GIVES A SHIT. do what ever you feel is right. If you dont like the ride deal with it. If its unsafe and you slide off the road into a ditch, deal with that too. If you want shocks fine, run shocks, If someone else thinks that an 8 inch beam without shocks is cool then thats up to them, it shouldn't effect your day.

Bravo to the people with the sense to advise "for" shocks. Why in hell would you be so motivated to go without shocks in the first place? It's like "ooh, look at me everyone, I can drive from the back seat with a rope tied to the steering wheel and a broomstick to operate the pedals". It's yet another case of crazy and uneducated nutballs trying to convince everyone else to accept their way as legitimate.

As for supporting the removal of the shocks because worn out shocks are like having no shocks anyways... Hey, my motor's worn out, let's just remove it, the car will still drive fine. If something's worn out, replace it, don't just remove it alltogether.

What is the point to removing the shocks? None.

What is the point in leaving them on? Umm, let's think. Less work than trying to remove all the mountings. More control under harsh braking. Less likelihood of wheels hitting and denting the guards and ruining your paint if you hit a bump. If you do happen to get airborne, the landing will be less catastrophic. Oh, and you car remains legal to drive on the road.

WHY ASK THE QUESTION THEN? ask a dumb question get a Dumb answer. I bet the guy with the narrow beam looks after his car more than the little old lady who's rollin round with shot brakes, worn shocks bald tyres, blown globes etc. I know which car Id rather have comin towards me at 100 kms an hour on the hyway

From the lowered bugs I've driven, theres never been that much suspension travel for the wheels to go so far up & down that bump stops are an issue. The torsion bars just dont twist that much, and thats on a standard width beam. Narrow it and they get stiffer so isn't that going to limit suspension travel. Unless your torsion bars are made of plastic I don't see the wheels travelling that far.

People are narrowing beams so that the tyres dont touch the guards, if they did touch the guards without shocks then the no shock thing would have never taken off. As I said earlier I do feel better keeping the shocks, and it was more work keeping them by the time you remove the inner section of the tower, cut down the shock boss, cut out a new flat plate for the back of the tower and weld it on. Cutting the tower off & closing up the opening is pretty damn easy if you ask me.

But am interested to go for a ride in a no shock car just to see the difference. Fact is if you drive an old bug like an idiot on an unsuitable road then something bad is going to happen, shocks or no shocks. Drive sensibly (taking the road and your car into consideration) and you have got half a chance.....

couldn't you set something up so the shocks ran inboard? Like this I spose, but with the shocks running along the front of the beam...

http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=47271 

No reason why not I suppose, if you were going really narrow, really want shocks, and are really good at fabricating. Unfortunately I don't have the time or skills, but it looks like a cool setup, and if its good enough for racing...

Thanks for the link, I had heard of inboard shocks before but never seen the setup, nice to be able to see how it all works.

just seemed to me, that if John Jones (KCW) can design and build such good air beams, surely building a trick inboard shock setup would be right up his ally and well within his abilities. Chopping the shock towers off looks a bit like he being lazy.


[ Edited on 4-4-2006 by pete wood ]

I think i understand what the narrowed guys say about the beams being so narrow that the spring rate is so high the mass of the beetle can hardly move the suspension so a shock isnt required and they only get cruised anyway. But wheres the fun in cruising in a car that rattles and bangs over every bump and cant be driven at speed safely??
And Im no expert but if the beetle hit a bump hard enough with enough energy to actually compress the suspension on a stiff unshocked system, upon release would it be possible to actually bounce the car off the ground at speed? or am i thinking too hard?:P
Does anyone on here have one of these beams fitted and actually drive their car? Id love to hear someones real experience not what someone in america says.