Transporting To the Track

Some of the shock companies suggest securing the car to the trailer so it will not bounce during transport. They claim the shocks and suspension get damaged/worn out on a long haul if the car is allowed to bounce on the trailer. They think some of the suspension failures you see at the track (not including Poppin Willys) were caused by transporting on rough roads and the car bouncing and moving while on the trailer. Just thought it was interesting ....

Makes sense to me

I've never allowed suspension movement while in transportation. We used to have tubing that we used in place of the shocks when we traveled with our Super Street/Gas car. My dragsters have always been hauled with a bladder for the chassis, and my 4link car has always had the suspension tied down + the bladder.

If someone normally straps the front of a door car down by the chassis/frame, but then straps the rear of the car down by the rear end housing (and not the chassis/frame) like a lot of people do, the rear shocks can get a hell of a workout on the ride to the track. If this is how someone normally straps their car down, and they are kinda worried the trailer ride might be shortening the shock life, there are a few things they can try.

The best way of course is to just strap the front & back down by the chassis/frame, and not the suspension. But that can sometimes be hard to do in the rear of some drag cars because of how high off the ground the rear frame/rear coilover shock area is built on some door cars (and how small/thin the tubing is on some door cars past the rear shocks to the rear bumper).    

One easy fix is to just strap the car down normally, (chassis front/housing rear) then get another strap & loop it up-over the rear shock crossmember & back down to the trailer and tighten the extra strap just enough to compress the rear shocks a little bit to reduce the amount they can free travel/bounce. This of course only works if the car's rear shock crossmember is beefy enough to handle this.

Another thing I have heard to do (but never tried) is if you have double adjustable rear shocks you crank both the extension & compression to full tight before the trip to the track.

One thing that Dave Morgan says in his chassis seminars, if that you would be surprised on how hot the oil in the shocks get bouncing down the road inside of a hot trailer in the summer heat. He said the oil gets thinned out and the shocks are weak if you unload and start racing right away, and your setup of your suspension is gone, then you adjust it to compensate for it, then the oil cools off and it changes again. He suggests to use a truck inner tube and 2 pieces of plywood with the inner tube sandwiched between them and slide that under the car and inflate the tube enough to help support the weight of the car.