What to expect from your JounceShock-

The JounceShock is the core of a secondary suspension system that dramatically increases the capacity of your vehicle's suspension. Most systems are designed such that the JounceShocks do not engage the suspension of your vehicle at ride height. Therefore the system does not usually alter the ride height or on-road ride quality of your vehicle. When you have a heavy payload or take your vehicle off-road, your suspension will compress more and engage the JounceShocks. When the suspension engages the JounceShocks, you may hear the initial contact. This is normal and is an indication that the JounceShocks are being applied. As the vehicle is driven off-road you will notice a couple of performance gains. First, as you drive the vehicle over rough terrain you will notice that it never feels as though the vehicle is bottoming. Also, you will realize that the vehicle moves up and down less, Gross Vehicle Motion Control, as it is called. These are changes caused by the characteristic exponential air spring curve and the critical damping of the JounceShock units. These changes significantly enhance the ability of the vehicle, the durability of the vehicle, and the comfort level of the occupants. This added capacity can be misleading and care should be taken to learn the new limits of your vehicle without damage to the vehicle itself.

How a JounceShock works-
When the suspension compresses it drives the shaft of the JounceShock into the JounceShock body. The shaft compresses the nitrogen volume and since the nitrogen is in a closed cylinder, the nitrogen pressure increases dramatically as it compresses. This gives a smooth exponential increase in force (like an air spring) instead of the force spike that occurs when typical suspension systems bottom out. The valving inside the JounceShock is designed such that after the JounceShock has compressed the suspension falls away faster than the JounceShock can extend. Therefore all of the energy that was put into compressing the JounceShock is dissipated by the valving rather than pushing the suspension back out. This is a key factor in why the JounceShocks are so effective for high energy absorption and vehicle control.