Savage - HB Shock Air Bladders... what do they do?

[olds97_lss]

Hey guys,

I just got a sweet savage from SkyMaxx. I didn't particulary like the soft springs on the shocks he had installed which are hot bodies shocks. I got some stiffer ones, but upon installation, I realized I had caused some issues with my last outing. I apparently f'd up a few of the shocks. So far, I've rebuilt the rear 4 and installed the new springs. I used a heavy oil (all I had was 55weight), so I drilled an extra hole in the disks (total of 2) to allow for the thicker stuff. Seems ok, but I haven't driven it yet.

Anyway, the air bladders of all 4 were laying sidways in the shock cylinder... During re-building, I decided to leave them out and use teflon pipe tape to seal the threads.

That's the backstory on what I've done.

So, what do the bladders do? I know they supposedly keep the air and oil seperate, but who really knows why we care?

Side Note:
My losi xxx-nt didn't have bladders in the shocks and they worked fine. You just had to pump the shocks a few times to get a the air/oil mixed up to get a consistant feel out of them before a run.

 

[Elway358]

I don't know what they're supposed to do but mine did the same thing yours did before I took 'em off. Just bunched up in the cap and caused leaks!

 

[SkyMaxx]

The bladders help act as a gasket (the rim of the bladder) between the shock cap and the shock body. Further they help in the rebound of the shock by using air behind the bladder as a kind of bumper for the piston head at full compression.

Do you absolutely have to have them for the shock to function? No. Do they help with the way the shocks perform? I believe so. Can they be replaced, easily? Yes, most 1/10 scale shock rebuild kits should work just fine.

Onto the bigger issue...how'd you screw up the shocks? Are they toast? If so, you managed in a very short time that which I did not in the time I owned and ran them. El Pirata would be proud.

 

[hb1111]

i just put a set of monster pirate rears (2 sets) on my savage with the help of new era arms that take buggy shock,but no gaskets in the caps so i used some o-rings in the caps the thick type now they are leak proof and work fine,good thing i have plumbing kits in my van good stuff always come in handy oh yeah hell I'm a handyman....

 

[olds97_lss]

12 feet of air and a flat landing. I did a jump about 4 times before I stopped and thought better of doing a 5th time... apparently I should have stopped sooner.

I just finished the front 4. All 4 of them were hosed as well. The clip under the disk snapped on all 4 and all 4 bladders were just floating around. I did the same on those as I did the rear. Only difference is I mounted them upside down so they are less likely to drain/leak the oil through the shock shaft seal. Don't know if it will work, but anything is worth a shot once.

I figure with 4 rightside up and 4 upside down, I should be able to tell pretty easily what works better... or worse.

I put HPI black and purple springs on it. One of each on each corner. This combined with the extra holes in the pistons and the heavier lube now lets it rebound on it's own when doing the waist drop test. It doesn't rebound fully, but more of a high settle. With the stock hb springs, it would just stick. Which is good for small jumps and crawling, but I don't do much small or slow.

I used the pipefitters teflon tape on the threads for the seal.

 

[SkyMaxx]

Sounds like some hardcore landings. Sorry, they didn't handle the pounding. I guess I am just lucky. Things that people say break too easily never seem to in my hands. Case in point those shocks. Everyone bad mouths them. I never had a problem with them and felt fine selling them to you. Now, you go out and do something with them that is not really different than my own treatment...and they break.

Glad you are able to fix them, and I hope they last longer this time.

 

[olds97_lss]

It's not your fault they didn't last. I was just taking to much air. They held up fine until I went to the skate park.

 

[SkyMaxx]

Well, I can say for certain that I never visited a skate park with the beast. The closest thing to an organized park was the RCNT Bash a few weeks ago. Up until then was purely small tracks and huge construction sites.

 

[olds97_lss]

At the skate park (it's pretty small), there's one good ramp that shoots you really high and out of the park. With my sport maxx, it doesn't pick up speed as fast as the savage and I was hitting the ramp and the rest of the skate park for about an hour with it before breaking out the savage. So, I was used to the sportmaxx. Like an idiot, the first thing I hit was that jump. I started in the same spot I did with the smaxx. I hit WOT and hit the ramp... needless to say, it put the sport maxx to shame with height. I was getting about 8 feet with the maxx, but with the savage, I'd have to say I probably hit 15-17 on the first jump. I was really freaking out trying to keep it level so as not to break anything... I hit it a few times after that, but at nowhere near the speed of the first hit. Then I decided to put it away before I did anything else stupid with my new truck and beat the crap out of the smaxx for another hour.