b'TECH TIP PAGE Tech Tip 1: Nitrogen gas pressure in monotube shocks is your frenemy. Having pressure on the shock piston, and therefore the shock shaft (rod) is central to its quick response design. But very high gas pressuresknown as rod pressure slow down the shock.So, gas pressure is your friend, but too much pressure is your enemy. Most shock builders run just enough gas pressure to prevent their shock from cavitating at high shaft speeds. Not uncommon to see 75-100 psi & higher.Two things can help reduce the rod pressure & still have no cavitationbase valves & remote canisters. The remote canister has its own piston & this reduces the pressure on the shock shaft, making the shock more responsive.Another is running a base valve in the bottom of the shock body. It is a valve that allows less pressure to be ran, with no cavitation, making the shock more responsive. Base Valves are an option on some of our ARS, Fox, JRI & Penske Shocks. Just talk to Ron Sutton about them. Our ARS DA, Fox DA & TA, JRI ST08 DA & TA, Penske 8300DA & 8760TA shocks, all come with remote canisters, so they have less rod pressure & are quicker responding as well.Confucius say: The more you knowthe faster you can go.Tech Tip 2: The most common mistake Racers make is not checking for suspension bind. Then the car handles bad at the track, usually in ways that dont make sense initially.An autocross client had a professional shop install his new Speedtech front clip, front & rear suspension. It would drive OK at lower speeds, but when driven fast, all four tires would break away & drift. When he explained this, Ron told him the suspension is bound up. No way. They were a Professional Shop and other reasons were suggested. When he inspected it himself, all the suspension was bolted (impacted) into WAY too tight & bound up.When he removed the coil-overs, the front control arm assemblies and the rear suspension would not move freely. This KILLS grip. Before your car leaves the shop, remove the wheels, coil-overs & one link on each sway bar. Each control arm assembly needs to freely move up & down throughout the useful travel range. The rear axle needs to go up & down, plus articulate freely. Then, with a helper, check it all with the sway bars attached.Sway bars binding up is super common. We had a Racer run zero gap on each side of his splined sway bars front & rear. The car handled OK at lower speeds. But, at higher speeds & roll angle, the car lost total grip. News Flash:Sway bars (and torsion bars) get shorter as they twist. His sway bars were binding & shooting the rates to infinity. He added gap on each side & the car handled great.Another client built his tube chassis car from scratch, but didnt check for suspension bind. He had sway bar linkage binding against the lower control arms. With a Monster 1-3/4 GT/NASCAR sway barit literally broke the lower control armsunder hard braking. 284'