Quote:
Originally Posted by 42horsepower
My question: Reproductions from Bratton's and Snyder's are available now and they claim to be lower maintenance than rebuilt. Has anyone used these specific shocks? How do they compare to high quality rebuilt shocks?
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My answer to your question(s) is just my opinion and does not reflect the workmanship of John Holland, Bob, Bryan Perkins, or any other rebuilder.
I have installed quite a few sets of shocks from Bill Stipe, Brattons, and Snyders ...and all of them seem to be holding up well. IMO, from a safety standpoint of adding and controlling stability during driving, stopping, and steering, any of these reproduction shocks are better than having nothing on the vehicle.
Now the one thing that you mentioned that may be 'perceived terminology' however from my vantage point, when someone uses the term "high quality rebuilt" it generally means that
everything has been returned to tolerances or specifications equal to, -or better than factory new. Again, I am not belittling any rebuilder but in my mind unless that person brings all of the internal pieces back within factory specifications or tolerances, it begs the question in my mind of whether the item was actually rebuilt, -or repaired. I feel there is a difference.
With the above thoughts, from my own personal experiences, it is very time consuming to weld-up worn pieces and re-machine these to have the same tolerance as what that item did when new. For this reason alone, most rebuilders cannot spend the needed time to completely restore a shock and come out financially. Therefore, it has been my experience that this person typically finds something that is repairable and do the best with what they have to work with. I have no problem with that, and there is a definite need for that in our hobby. The unfortunate thing about this method however, it really is not comparing apples-to-apples when those repaired shocks are compared to a brand new, freshly machined piece that has everything in proper tolerance.
Just my 2¢...