Brad? Wes? anyone?
anyone on here with knowledge/experience of 4-way shocks.
In the 70's i fitted some to my baja. They were a flat wound spring which had special cast alloy clamps which clamped to top and bottom shock housings...they were brilliant for on road handling and worked something like very stiff sway bars...resisting compression of the suspension on one side and lifting on the inside while working together over jumps etc to limit down travel of the wheels and up travel when hitting the ground again. Completely stopped bottoming of the susp against the bump stops. Have not seen them advertised for years. I kept a set but eventually disposed of them about 5-6 years ago during one of our many moves. would like to try them again now on the t3 or on my future project baha
comments anyone?

Are you talking about spring over shocks, Normal Shock with coil springs fitted to outside via alloy lock rings?

Sounds like it Daz,
Custom Offroad sell them

4 way are now called Tough Dog and you can get them from Opposite Lock 4WD stores as they carry them. I. like the other two above are thinking you mean Coil Over Shocks... If this is the case then Custom Offroad are the only option worth considering.

This what you mean ?

Thats a picture of what Custom Offroad sell and hence the reason they look cheap at that price....

Whoops just saw your Picture as well, Yep thats a coil over shock(race/offroad), the picture Brad posted is what you would get from Custom Offroad, If you did not specify a Race/Offroad Shock.:kiss

[Edited on 21-6-2004 by daz67]

[Edited on 21-6-2004 by daz67]

Tough dog don't make a coil over shock.

A coil over shock is a shock with a coil over it and custom offroad sell a shock with a coil over it.

What you have posted is a remote coil over shock and for obvious reasons cost a lot more than a plain coil over.

The COR unit is a god quality shock with a good quality coil but it is not a remore race shock. George can get remote race shocks but they cost more $$$$$$

Is that right ?
It was my understanding that a standard shock with a coil placed over it was a shock with a coil kit, and a shock with an adjustable threaded body was a coilover (whether it be a emulsion or a remote reservoir)
:thumb

The ones to which I refer are NOT conventional coil overs, which work in compression only. These clamp top and bottom so that they work as springs in both directions: ie they had to stretch as well as compress, depending on direction of suspension travel (up or down). Quite popular with 4x4 mob, and suzukis in particular responded well to fitting them. They work across the car as well as in a fore and aft fashion.. hence like having anti roll sway bars between front and back as well as across the axle. At first glance they look like coil overs but the spring was a flat rectangular section (approx 8mm x 4mm, with the longer edge parallel to the length of the shocker) wound into a coil and clamped to the shock absorber. The clamps were cast alloy and were in 2 halves which bolted together around the shockie. worked great and allowed you to get plenty of air under the car on jumps.
Wish I had the foresight to have kept them! %$^%&%it

Tony, I would have thought that the system you're talking about would cause the wheels to hang in the air and lose traction.

Great for a 4x4 with lockers, but I don't think I'd want them on my kombi....


As for the other debate, a shocker with a coil over it is a coil-over shocker, whether its got a threaded body or not.

psst Desert Moose...... the COR ones use an adjustable clamp instead of a threaded body so it is the same stuff ...

Tony.... I have never seen such a device but I can say that wheel travel would suck unless you set it up right and I can't see how you would do that on a VW.
The coil would need to be very light to get the sort of travel you refer to in the sort of wrap you are talking about. Got any pics ?

Do you mean like these ones???

Another veiw...

so pretty much the allloy clamp is just a locator so that the sppring remains seated???

Yeh....you can limit the amount of travel of the shock both in and out. They were on the car when I got it and I havn't bothered to take em off yet as they do come in handy when carrying loads..(Kombi ute). They are just coil over shocks.

[Edited on 22-6-2004 by Mick H]

looks like you need new CV boots :kiss

mmm no ....

That looks like the critters, but mine had different springs, (flat wire round) and the top clamp was fitted similarly to the the other end.... I had a couple of sets. found them excellent but I was not going cross country type off road... just very rough tracks out west of Cairns, south of chillagoe. I found I could maintain faster speeds on rough roads. I was aware of more limited wheel travel but never had traction problems. I got so high (off the gound that is, not the other sort but that too sometimes) that when I landed I broke the battery under the back seat, altho I did not have seat in there just a platform set up......Crapped myself almost, it was scary waiting to hit, thought I would break the poor bloody car in half, landed at the bottom of the gully and the motor was still going.. wasn't til later that I noted the battery busted. Glad it kept going as would have been a looooong wait for someone to come past or a 50 k walk to the nearest town which had no garage anyway (alma den).
Thanks to all for replying... would not mind a set for my future project... will find some... had them all round frt and rear...

The 4 way shocks you are asking about are available from opposite locks stores. the coil actually works similar in cornering situations to a sway bar...the compressed coil pushing up & the extented coil pulling down. unlike sway bars, they will not unduly limit wheel travel as the suspension components are not connected by a spring steel bar. they are more recently popular in their return-to-centre steering dampers that use the same neutral spring to assist in keeping the steering centred.
cheers,
rick

Thanks all... them's the critters... will check out supply situation.. Will be off for a while, moving north