Hot Rods Ride Tech Shock Experience

I know they're a little Cheffy for this site but they deserve a fair review. I've had a pair on my 32 highboy sedan front for a while but with not a lot of miles I have nothing to compare them to. Now lets go to the Little Howard deuce pickup I traded him out of last year. Buggy springs F&R, Excelsior radials running about 32 lbs. I've probably driven it maybe 6K since I got it with shocks from a manufacturer that will go unnamed. I decided to step up to 4 Ride Tech shocks designed for my type of suspension. I've driven it maybe 500 miles since putting them on and what a difference it makes on the open road. Smoother ride without choppiness. I'm won't try to bullshit you guys trying to tell you that potholes and our little towns brick streets are better cause they aren't. I'll know more in a few months as I drive it almost all the time. Good investment? We'll see. Oh ya, Scotch padded them and gave them a shot of Rustoleum XL satin black, their shiny polished finish wasn't doing it for me.

 

Cool, I’ve been seeing a lot of cars use them in the last couple years. Good to hear a direct comparison review!

 

Oh, that aint right

 

I assume lack of interest in this thread is caused by very little experience with Ride Tech shocks plus their high cost keeps most rod builders at a distance? Yesterday I went to Lincoln for Car's & Coffee at Speedway and found myself on I80 running 80+ plus to keep up with traffic and it rode and handled great.

 

I have used them on two vehicles and found them to be exceptional. Plus, unlike QA1, they rebuild them for free if a problem occurs.

 

I need new shocks, so I'll look into these.
Seems they have 3 typical 'shorty' rod shocks, 2 are out of stock. All have the 7" compressed length.

 

I'm a Ridetech fan. They are high priced but better than what I have used in the past. On the coilovers, look at the machine work as compared to the others.

 

I found the last pair of Ride Tech shorty uncovered front shock at Arizona Vintage Ford Parts, they said they had 2 pairs. Affordable Street Rod Parts as of last week had a pair of covered shorties.

 

Thanks for the update Gary, we spoke at the coffee cruise with regards to your choice of shocks & definitely need to do something with my 32, new tires & balancing did nothing to help as I can watch my headlamps dance around, I'm running Mclean wires & probably need to at least temporarily swap the wheels out & omit that possibility before getting overly involved, great info on your part keep us up to speed on your assessment. Ron

 

@J.Ukrop has them on his new chassis and knows quite a lot about them. Maybe he’ll weigh in

 

I think people see "Ride Tech" and thing of air suspension and pro-touring cars. Most of the fenderless or early 1930's folks probably also view their shocks as looking "too billet".

 

I've heard nothing but good things about Ride Tech's shocks being used on hot rods. .. And they are being put to use on actual driven hot rods like yours, Gary @krylon32

 

Thanks, good input, to hear pro & con concerns reminisant of the Motor Trend Road test articles back in the day.

 

Replaced the front shocks on my A last year, but didn’t even think about Ride Tech - didn’t know they made shocks for such cars. I went with Bilstein, but I’ll check Ride Tech next time.

Thanks for the heads up,

John

 

I’ve been thinking about them but they’ll look out of place on my sedan.

 

I thought the same IronFord but under my fendered deuce pickup painted satin black they are unnoticeable. They also look good polished on the front of my chopped deuce highboy sedan. I just bought another set of 4 for a new deuce highboy roadster I'm building.

 

@krylon32 I might have to consider them. The Suedes are taking a road trip to Milwaukee for Cheateroma in August. It’s about 600 miles from Fargo, Nd.

 

I've seen them advertised for a few years, I have always heard they're really good but it's the price that would keep me from buying them. Here in Canadian dollars they're about $400 each for shocks. That's a lot of money to justify.

 

I can't imagine it takes 1600 dollars worth for 4 shocks to make a car drive good....

...

 

Think they look pretty at home on @J.Ukrop new chassi. These are built specifically for hot rods

 

I've built 100's of chassis over the last 40+ years using the standard generic hot rod shocks and never had much negative feedback. I suspect that at the time it was accepted as the best available. For myself when there's a better option I thought I'd at least try it on my own cars. With careful shopping I spent about $1000 on 4 Ride Tech shocks. Naked front shocks and covered rear shocks. Only time will tell if it was a good investment? I drive the deuce pickup everyday in all kinds of weather except the salt season. If I were still building chassis I would for sure offer the Ride Tech hot rod shocks as an option.

 

Hear nothing but good things about Ride Tech. I have adjustable QA1 shocks on the back of my Merc an am very happy with them. As far as over the counter tube type shocks go Bilsteins over the Monroes all day long.

 

i'm a big proponent of quality adjustable shocks, particularly on anything with modified suspension...which is everything i drive. no more compromises on ride quality. the biggest testimonial to this fact is when people who say they are not worth the money comment on how well an adjustable shock car rides. nearly everyone who rides in my slammed squarebody chevy 1 ton tow rig comments on how it rides better than their late model truck.

FWIW a big difference can be noticed by adding adjustable shocks to the front only, so the delta between regular cheap shocks and adjustable can be about $350, less if you are comparing to quality non-adjustable shocks like bilstein. i run both qa1 and ridetech, good experience with both, however ridetech prices have now gone up making them a bit more than comparable qa1 shocks.

 

Local shop here is letting loose of an Air ride setup for $1500. Was on a 56 F100...PM me if you need deets..

 

Maybe that's part of the reason these hot rod shocks seem to be going out of production? (or at least they don't seem to be in a regular production schedule as they're out of stock a lot of places, and have been for a while now)

Looks like Bilsteins are about $150 CAD a piece for their hot rod shocks.

Standard hot rod shocks are $50-75 CAD each. Big range in price.

 

I know I'll be using RideTech coilovers on the rear of my coupe, mostly because they have the largest available assortment of lengths and styles to choose from what I can tell. I just finished modifying some factory style oil-filled VW shocks for my front though. Ridetech definitely puts out a superior product.

 

@05snopro440 agree, bilstein are hard to beat. Their ride on jeeps, trucks etc are exceptional.

Put them on cars like 40' ford's etc and always liked the way the drove.

On the lighter stuff we ended up going to a cheaper NON-gas charged shock, Monroe-matics for example before every shock when gas charged. I absolutely HATE gas charged shocks on light vehicles, they ride too rough.

Had many customers compliment the ride on their cars after taking off the gas charged and going straight to a standard oil filled shocks.

Downside is empi is about the only company that makes a small shock that isn't gas charged anymore, and exactly what I put on my 31 tudor.....

....

 

05-440 I guess I didn't realize I was commenting about a company quitting production of their products. Thanks for the heads up. You must have a source close to Ride Tech?

 

I said "seem to be going out of production", and I was referring to the product that this thread is about, not the company completely . I've noticed over the past year+ that some of the length options have been out of stock and don't seem to come back in stock. I see now that according to their website, two styles were expected to be back in stock in April 2024 and still show out of stock. No, I don't have an inside source for Ridetech, but if a product is continually out of stock, it's probably not in the regular production schedule and typically that means it is at risk of disappearing altogether.

 

Out of almost 100 offerings they have 2 (polished options) that are out of stock. Pretty big stretch to suggest they appear to be going out of production.