[Dick]

Dick, I knew we needed rear shocks and already had the Koni’s on the front on this bus. My comparison of Koni vs Prevo on the front was with our previous bus. Noticed the difference. When I asked Jeff about putting Koni on the drive and tag he told me I wouldn’t notice the difference that you would in the front, except in my pocketbook. As far as I can tell he was right and spent the difference on Centmatics…good choice. Geo.

[Jim/Chris]

Geo: You’re helping me make my decision. Thanks.

[Archived]

Jon,

You will have to do better than 85 MPH. When back in college, young and dumb, I took a trip home in my 1954 Mercury Monterey four door. I had built a 312 engine, that would be a Ford Y-block. I got on I-81 at Roanoke VA and opened it up. Pegged the speedometer needle at 120+. Held it there for several miles before the needle started bouncing. It then went all the way to zero and back to 120 and came to a final rest back at zero never to move again. Turned out I twisted and broke the speedometer cable. Most of the trip was on two or three lane roads, not much Interstate mileage in 1966. There was a section of two lane south of I-66 with a right hand curve with a Chew Redman Tobacco sign, then about a mile of tangent and level before going into a left hand curve. Visibility beyond the left hand curve was limited by a forest. Oh I forgot to say that in the middle of the tangent and level section was a Va State Trooper building. I had covered so much ground in so little time that I had lost track of where I was in relation to the Trooper Barracks. I burped the throttle and went through the right had turn then hammered back down. When I realized where I was it was too late to back it down so I just left the hammer down and motored on past the barracks. As I entered the left hand curve I again had to burp the throttle and lo and behold right at the apex of the curve, I passed a State Trooper going the other way.

I kept the throttle wide open and pulled into a Shell Gas Station where US 29 and I-66 interchange to fill up. So there I am, quietly filling up with gas when Tropers start coming in from all directions North and South on US 29 plus East and West off I-66. All of them entered the parking lot, got out of their squad cars and were looking and pointing at my all black with baby moon hub caps Mercury and shaking their heads. I took the shaking to be they did not believe they had the right vehicle. Did I mention it was a four door. Well the reason I built the new motor was the old motor was losing compression when hot and did not have enough compression to fire off until cooled back down. Now it was a 6 volt system. I got a 12 volt battery with a step down relay, so when it started the engine just screamed back to life. The other students got back in and I drove off – escorted by four troopers all in a line. Now I did have just enough sense at that time to know accelerating back to a speed in excess of the posted would not have positive results. The troopers fell of one at a time until the last one gave up. I kept my speed within limits for at least 15-20 miles then raised it back up. One of the students was taking a flight from “National” airport in DC to Maine to visit his girl for the weekend. I got him to National in time to take an earlier flight.

Those were some wild and crazy days. I could tell a tale about a 1939 Tudor Ford with a 289 tri-power and a LaSalle transmission and a 1967 Dodge Charger coming off US 11 onto I-81 around Lexington. I’ll save that for sometime when we are sitting around the campfire telling tales. Its a good one too.

[Richard]

Let there be no doubt my Z06 will go faster than 85. If I owned that car at another point in my life I would probably push to see what I could get out of it, but the car magazines and GM all show its top speed in the 195 MPH range and the only thing going that fast on anything except a race track proves is insanity.

The new old Ford has already approached the speeds I have driven the Z06. It is my toad from now on (unless we need more seats or carrying capacity) so for me to have confidence I have been pushing it to make sure it will tow OK. I have now had it up to 80 and may exceed that at some point, but I wanted to verify it would run without vibrations and track OK at speed. The new chassis rides like the Corvette and hands off the wheel at 80 it stays where it is aimed so as my confidence builds I’ll exercise it a little more.

But despite liking a firm ride in my personal cars, coupled with minimal body roll and sure braking and steering, I want the bus to ride comfortably. While firm might be better for handling, I don’t want any harshness in the coach and I prefer a softer ride, but without the never ending rebound that was common on 1955 Buicks with bad shocks and coil springs in the rear.

If I could change one thing about the coach it would be how the 365 tires make noise going over things like expansion joints. Even though they have relatively low tire pressures at 105, unlike the 315 tires at the same pressure from the previous coach the larger tires seem to either thump more, or just make a lot more noise. I would like to dial that back.

[Peter]

I have Koni on the steer and drive and oem on tag , I would do it again , I do about 60,000 a year with a trailer I like the ride , but like Jon said the noise over bumps and joints in road are there would like that to go away I just turn up the music

[Archived]

Just to explain how the Koni shocks could have better
handling and still produce a decent ride. My experience is with competition off
road motorcycles. Shocks can have multistage valving on compression and rebound.
Most common is 2 stage with low speed/high speed compression and rebound
damping. For example the shock would be using the low speed compression circuit
on one side and the low speed rebound circuit on the other when the vehicle
starts to lean going around a corner. During this type of use the shock piston
is traveling slow through the fluid and the valving can be set to make the piston
travel through the fluid very difficult. Then let’s say you’re traveling at highway speeds and
hit a really big expansion joint on a bridge. Your shock tries to move the piston really fast through the fluid but the low speed circuit prevents it. That’s when the increased speed of
the piston produces enough pressure to open the high speed valving which allows
the piston to travel through the fluid much easier. Now the bump has passed under
that axle and the air bags are compressed. Now there is a tremendous amount of
pressure trying to push the body up. That’s when the high speed rebound valving prevents the suspension from rebounding
so quick the vehicle begins to pogo.

Suspension tuning is like engine tuning is very complicated
and what one person likes doesn’t always satisfy the other.

I searched the web and couldn’t find much info about
multistage valving on Koni shocks. Here’s one forum with a little discussion
about 9 replies down.

http://forums.trailerlifedirectory.com/Index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/23282338/print/true.cfm

[Peter]

Here is the pricing on Standard vs Koni Shocks from Prevost Jacksonville:

Standard

2 front shocks @ 59.97 each: 119.94

6 drive & tag @ 39.24 each: 235.44

Total: 355.38

Koni

2 front shocks @ 171.75 each 343.50

6 drive and tag @ 208.38 each 1250.28

Total: 1593.78