Ridetech

[jphillips]

Does anyone have a el Camino with ridetech Shockwaves on it? I would like to see some pics.i have tried searching with no luck. I put 3 in drop springs and 2 in drop spindles on my elco.it's too low and bottoms out the headers on the highway.thinking and going with ridetech but want to see how far it goes up and how low it will lay. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Don't have any pics of an Elco, but I'm using Shockwaves on my Cutlass. Don't know if you're interested in seeing pics of that?

 

[jphillips]

That would be great.pics of it up and down. Do you have stock height spindles?

 

[Rktpwrd]

That would be great.pics of it up and down. Do you have stock height spindles?

In these first pics, I still had the stock height G body spindles and factory front UCA's. (Sorry, I don't have any pics of it aired up as I was only taking the "glamour" shots at the time).

Since these pics, I've gone to the F body spindles (still stock spindle height) with the shorter Global West UCA's. That allowed me to run a much larger aftermarket big brake package (Wilwood 14" with 6 piston calipers).

Out back I'm using their "Cool Ride" setup with separate 'bags and shocks.

With factory front spindles and UCA's:

At full compression ("aired out").
The inner wheelwells were removed to check clearances.

At full extension (aired all the way up):

From underneath:

And now, with the F body spindles and Global West UCA's:

As you can see, there's not really much difference between the stock G body spindles, and the F body spindles. With this setup, I only have roughly 3/4" of ground clearance to my driver's side header. So for me, trying to go any lower with a drop spindle would be pointless IMO.

Hope this helps you out.
Donovan

 

[jphillips]

That helps alot.with the 5 inch drop on the front of my car my drivers side header scrapes the ground when you hit a bump and it bounces.from what ridetech is telling me you can't drive it fully inflated. How much ground clearance do you have at "driving height "?

 

[Rktpwrd]

Ride height on my car will be determined by a combination of factors.
Air pressure, operating range of the 'bags, clearance for the wheels, etc will all have to be taken into account, and the ride height will be determined from there and the alignment set at that point.
Being as my car is still in the project phase, and not currently driving, I haven't yet determined what or where the optimal ride height will be just yet.
Just spitballing here, but if I had to guess, I would say I expect to have 3-4" of ground clearance at my lowest point (which is my driver's side header as well) under normal driving conditions.

It's been a while, but if I recall correctly, the pics from under the car were taken with the car aired up, or at ride height, I don't recall anymore. If they were taken at ride height, I'd estimate there's probably 4-5" of clearance to the header (you can just make it out in the background).

Donovan

 

[jphillips]

Okay. I really appreciate the help. Thanks

 

[Rktpwrd]

No problem, I wish you the best of luck.

Be aware however, that if you purchase the Shockwave front kit, there will have to be some trimming of the outer framerails done to provide enough clearance for the larger diameter (than the springs) 'bag portion of the Shockwaves.

I encourage you to look into this with Ridetech first so there's no hidden surprises. I wasn't willing to randomly carve out sections of the front outer framerails and then leave it that way, so I did some serious fabrication and closed it back in. I covered what I did in my build thread starting here:

https://gbodyforum.com/threads/the-juggernaut-build-thread.55095/page-6

I don't expect that you or anyone else would go to the same extent I did, but it should give you some ideas and things to consider.