Mack Taperleaf:

[Rob]

Got a question. Wondering if Mack rear Taperleaf suspension can be ran without shock absorbers? I noticed today two of the rear shocks are busted off at the lower mounts so not doing a whole lot of good. I don't have any other truck on this suspension so wondering if they are for ride comfort or needed for this suspension.

Thanks,

Rob

[daveigou]

With most Mack camelback suspensions, shock absorbers were an option, but I just don't remember if that was so on the ST. It may have even been an option on one axle or both. We have an MH with ST, I'll check tomorrow if it has them or not, but I think it does. Usually that stuff is there for a reason. There were two different styles of rear taperleaf, one was under the trunion bar and one was over, which style is yours?

[Rob]

With most Mack camelback suspensions, shock absorbers were an option, but I just don't remember if that was so on the ST. It may have even been an option on one axle or both. We have an MH with ST, I'll check tomorrow if it has them or not, but I think it does. Usually that stuff is there for a reason. There were two different styles of rear taperleaf, one was under the trunion bar and one was over, which style is yours?

Hi Dave, I believe these go over the top of the trunion bar but I'll tell for certain later tonight. The truck will not be operated bobtail after it leaves my shop.

Rob

[Lmackattack]

is this the 3 leaf ? if so those shocks get over extended in the off road. we put 2 sets on a truck and within a month both ripped apart. simply to short of travel.

yes you can run without the dampers. if you bob tail you may notice a little more of a bounce. when loaded those dampers have little affect on ride quality. I put a camelback shock on my shock dyno at work and it had about the same resistance of a damper found on a car. that tells me it will do very little to control the bounce in spring ride.

just my .02

[Lmackattack]

what I found was that the shocks are nothing more than a over sized version of a street car shock. I dont know if I still have the dyno graph but I recall it had little bump control and lots of rebound control. (standard for a street shock) this is all relitive to the speed it moves at. In the low speed movement it had as much resistance as a car. thats not going to do much on an axel that sees 10x the weight. Yes, any damping is better than nothing but I suspect the damper is simply to soft to control such a stiff spring and tire. the best way to improve ride comfort would be to install a longer parabolic spring with less leafs, , and a damper that better controls how fast the spring can flex. this is what they are doing on the fancy over the road trucks. I wont even go into air ride front axels as they are even softer and ride better.