Oakland University FSAE needs some shock supplier help!!!

Long story short our team has a huge issue right now with a shock supplier and we have to seriously consider other options. We need ~ 7" - 7.5 eye to eye shocks (we can remake parts if we really need to to accommodate what we can actually get a hold of). Money is available but time is really running slim, we want to be testing right NOW but without shocks that just isn't going to happen. A few of us basically live in the garage here and are busting our ass every waking moment to get this car running and now were getting hosed by a supplier that we placed an order with back in December! Thanks!

Try Graham Long at Royal Racing.

When the Royal Formula Car company went up for sale, Graham and two friends bought it. I know they have tons of stuff laying around.

graham.long@royaleracingllc.com

or if you don't hear back, call 610-482-4351 and see if Graham is around.

Graham is a former student of mine (I'm the faculty SAE mentor at my college). He's a fellow racer and mechanical engineer. Great guy.

http://www.carrerashocks.com/

http://www.penskeshocks.com/

Only 2 we ever used on the BAJA team. The Forumla team used Mountain bike shocks, because they were ligther.

Something like a Van R might work. Don't know your setup.

http://www.foxracingshox.com/fox_bicycle/bike_index.php?redirect=09_shocks

As of a few years ago, mountain bike shocks were were it was at.

We (RIT FSAE) are looking to sell a set of used Penske's from a previous years car. This could be shipped this weekend if you are interested give me a shout.

GhiaMonster wrote: We (RIT FSAE) are looking to sell a set of used Penske's from a previous years car. This could be shipped this weekend if you are interested give me a shout.

NO.. not another RIT guy.

I was in RIT mini baja 1999-2003.

Thanks for all the suggestions and offers, after some serious arm bending (the owner of the company hung up on one of our guys at one point...) we have been told our shocks will be here Monday. Granted we aren't going to get our hopes too high, we've heard that from them last week. I'm not mentioning any names but It is a mountain bike shock. After 6+ years working with them you would think this kind of thing would be old hat. Arrg! Back to wiring! I plan on getting a full car profile up in readers rides as soon as the car is up and running and I can breathe again.

Who are you guys going through for the shocks? I am with Cal Poly's Formula Hybrid team trying to pick out similar shocks (though 2-3 inches longer) and other then bicycle shocks the pickings are slim... Looking at penske right now, but there site is prettier then it is functional.

RedS13Coupe wrote: Who are you guys going through for the shocks? I am with Cal Poly's Formula Hybrid team trying to pick out similar shocks (though 2-3 inches longer) and other then bicycle shocks the pickings are slim... Looking at penske right now, but there site is prettier then it is functional.

PM me and I'll let you know who NOT to deal with lol.

I don't know how to PM Did they take away the link for it on the fourms? Maybe you could PM it to me?

Message sent, click the user icon and view full profile. "contact" seems to be the new PM.

And it's not a PM. It's an email.

So it's bout 4-am now and I have been in the garage since Thursday evening. Matt, our lead engineer is claiming the garage couch I slept on last night which leaves me with the choice of office floor or side pod mold as a bed tonight.

RXBeetle wrote: So it's bout 4-am now and I have been in the garage since Thursday evening. Matt, our lead engineer is claiming the garage couch I slept on last night which leaves me with the choice of office floor or side pod mold as a bed tonight.

Yep - that's FSAE. Take it all in. You'll cherish it in a few years.

DILYSI Dave wrote:

RXBeetle wrote: So it's bout 4-am now and I have been in the garage since Thursday evening. Matt, our lead engineer is claiming the garage couch I slept on last night which leaves me with the choice of office floor or side pod mold as a bed tonight.

Yep - that's FSAE. Take it all in. You'll cherish it in a few years.

true. and when you're interviewing, employers love to hear these stories. doesn't matter what you look like on paper, it matters what you can do when the chips are down.

Someone mentioned bicycles, but what about the millions of Pit Bike shocks? Made for various Honda CRF50 based pit bikes that are typically ridden by 200 pounds guys taking sweet jumps.

Fastace is a brand I'm familiar with, as I'm running a set on my Formula Vee. Several different types and lengths, including single and double adjustable, external nitrogen canisters etc. Lots of options. They are also pretty simple to disassemble and play with the valving on.

I run these: http://www.fastace.net/prodetail-airoilcoil.asp?cat=43

I've found alternate springs from companies like Century Spring to be fairly easy to fit, but again, I'm running pretty soft springs for a Formula Vee.

Maybe this will help...

Chris H.

Oh, and I dug up their contact info for their US office, which is located pretty close to you guys:

Fast Ace USA 10538 McClellan Place, Cupertino, 95014 1-408-621-2574 ph 1-801-439-5662 fx

Good luck!

C'

Good news is we have a tracking number, I have more seat time than anyone on the team (granted I was sleeping), and I was awakened at 10am to coffee and doughnuts!. Thanks again for all the supplier suggestions I'm keeping a list for next year, or Monday if we get shipped a box of rocks :(

Here's an old pic just for the GRM factor

We have been out driving and breaking stuff for our first day of testing today. Best of luck getting the car out on the tarmac. You could always make some solid links and start testing engine stuff and such, that would be so much fun.

See you in Detroit.

Thanks everybody for the suggestions and offers. Shocks came in today!!! It would have been nice to get the chassis set up but with the wheels not fitting over the uprights, the engine being seized and running out of Argon... Murphy's Law was Berklying us pretty good and there was plenty of work that took priority. As bad as that sounds everything is back on track and looks like testing is a go for this weekend!

if it makes you feel better, when i was on a FSAE team, our first test run was the night before loading up and hauling to pontiac for competition... it was dark when we got to the test site, so we were doing straight line runs with the headlights from our cars being the only light. (we were trying to Iron out the drivetrain at least)

well, braaaauuummm, brauuuummm, brauuuuuuuCRUNK!

our diff carrier came loose and the sprocket around the diff can ate up some of the rear chassis tubes.

IIRC it was almost midnight when we got it to the shop, we had the engine out, tubes cut out and new tubes welded in... paint, reinstall engine...

we had it out of the shop at 8-9am and on the way up to competition..

recurring phrase that year, FETCH THE HEART SHAPED COAT HANGER, ITS GONNA BE AN ABORTION!

dont get me started on getting through sound!

haha I wasn't on the team last year but I heard stories of a hammer being the tool of choice to get through sound when there was just no time to pursue better options. This year I welded up this big rig approved Yoshi exhaust stack that I then realized did not comply with the 23.6" exhaust exit rule :( It's a little more subtle now

we had done our own can, after repacking i forget how many times we ended up going with the steel wool "tampon"

needless to say, in the enduro the tampon fuzed into a buttplug and throttle response went to a discernible fraction of a second.

we were about .5 seconds from putting a cherry bomb on it, lol

(it was a REALLY bad year for the team)

Just out of curiosity, what lot are you driving on?

Too bad we couldn't get enough of our club interested in doing a school on May 10- isn't that the weekend prior to FSAE? We were going to have Lot 1 in the front.

Good luck, guys!

Eric

Apexcarver wrote: if it makes you feel better, when i was on a FSAE team, our first test run was the night before loading up and hauling to pontiac for competition... it was dark when we got to the test site, so we were doing straight line runs with the headlights from our cars being the only light. (we were trying to Iron out the drivetrain at least) well, braaaauuummm, brauuuummm, brauuuuuuuCRUNK! our diff carrier came loose and the sprocket around the diff can ate up some of the rear chassis tubes. IIRC it was almost midnight when we got it to the shop, we had the engine out, tubes cut out and new tubes welded in... paint, reinstall engine... we had it out of the shop at 8-9am and on the way up to competition..

Sounds like par for the course. Our faculty advisor gave us a 9:00 PM deadline. If the car wasn't done by 9:00 the night before we needed to leave, we weren't going. We needed to be on the road by 10:00 to drive through the night to make registration.

9:00 came and went. So did 10:00. The car cranked around 11:00. It actually moved under it's own power for the first time at about 2:00. We did the aforementioned 5 minutes of testing in the ME parking lot with headlights from other cars providing the only light. Loaded the car, loaded the tools, and hit the road at 4:00 am. Advisor never said word 1 about the deadline. Called on the way and begged and pleaded and registered via phone, and got teched when we arrived late.

Spent the better part of Day 1 getting 4 wheels to lock up, as they wouldn't let you do any more dynamic testing without the lockup being proven. We had one wheel that just would not lock. Stuck caliper or something. We ended up futzing with the corner weights to where that wheel had essentially zero weight on it, and conned our way through the braking test. They knew what we did, but I think they appreciated that outside the box approach to squeezing through.

Ended up doing OK in the other dynamic events, but died 10 or so laps into the enduro.

We learned a lot though, and the next year we went back and captured a top-10 finish.