Carbon Shocks Q&A

I spent 2 years on these. Started life on a napkin sketch and evolved with every complaint, wish list, request and suggestions taken into consideration to make one of the best adjusters on the market.

Carbon Shock Technologies Damping Adjusters

Unparalleled performance meets cutting-edge design with Carbon Shock Technologies’ Damping Adjusters.

Featuring Cone Valve Technology, these adjusters provide true high-speed and low-speed damping control with 30 positive-click adjustments on each knob.

Why Choose a Cone Valve System?

More Precise Damping Control:
Cone valves offer a progressive, tunable oil flow path.
Unlike shim stacks that flex under pressure, cone valves use a spring-loaded cone for precise control during compression and rebound.

Improved Consistency Over Time:
Shim stacks can fatigue or wear out under extreme use.
Cone valves maintain damping characteristics longer thanks to their mechanical design.

Better Bottoming Resistance:
Cone valves provide naturally progressive damping, increasing resistance deeper in the stroke.
This prevents harsh bottom-outs while maintaining plushness in the initial travel.

Greater Tunability:
Easy, effective tuning without rebuilding the valve stack.
Ideal for racers and tuners needing quick adjustments across varying conditions.

Plusher Ride on Small Bumps:
Superior low-speed damping delivers a smoother, more compliant ride over chattery terrain.

Still firm enough to handle bigger hits effectively.

Temperature and Cavitation Benefits:
Cone valves promote laminar flow, reducing heat generation.
This minimizes cavitation and oil aeration, preserving shock performance over time.
 

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Last edited:
vetteboy79 said:
Ha, no worries. Just being a semantic asshole :flipoff2: looks like a cool design though! Definitely look forward to seeing it out in the dirt.
Click to expand...

Semantics aside 3 people completely missed that haha and the irony is our old adjusters did have some random leak issues and we had to replace a bunch.
We trashed almost 50K in inventory and warrantied a ton more. Talk about adding insult to injury. They truly were DAMPENING with OIL!

We have over 1000 in use and to date 1 issue that we have not received the unit back to figure out what happened and 2 other issue the knobs wiggled loose. The 2 knobs I'm not going to get very mad on because they were 2000 HP mega trucks that will rattle yo ur soul loose. WE changed to red thread locker and not one issue since. The actual issue I think was a mounting issue that smashed into the frame but wont know till I get it back. We replaced the shock right away but never got the original unit back.

These are on a whole different level than the ones we started with. Unfortunately being to hasty led to some hard lessons.

Ill never forget the original design I started with for these and still have the hand draw sketch to this day. I need to frame that bad boy!

I hope to get some Dyno video for visual representation soon.
 
carbon_shocks said:
I spent 2 years on these. Started life on a napkin sketch and evolved with every complaint, wish list, request and suggestions taken into consideration to make one of the best adjusters on the market.

Carbon Shock Technologies Damping Adjusters

Unparalleled performance meets cutting-edge design with Carbon Shock Technologies’ Damping Adjusters.

Featuring Cone Valve Technology, these adjusters provide true high-speed and low-speed damping control with 30 positive-click adjustments on each knob.

Why Choose a Cone Valve System?

More Precise Damping Control:
Cone valves offer a progressive, tunable oil flow path.
Unlike shim stacks that flex under pressure, cone valves use a spring-loaded cone for precise control during compression and rebound.

Improved Consistency Over Time:
Shim stacks can fatigue or wear out under extreme use.
Cone valves maintain damping characteristics longer thanks to their mechanical design.

Better Bottoming Resistance:
Cone valves provide naturally progressive damping, increasing resistance deeper in the stroke.
This prevents harsh bottom-outs while maintaining plushness in the initial travel.

Greater Tunability:
Easy, effective tuning without rebuilding the valve stack.
Ideal for racers and tuners needing quick adjustments across varying conditions.

Plusher Ride on Small Bumps:
Superior low-speed damping delivers a smoother, more compliant ride over chattery terrain.

Still firm enough to handle bigger hits effectively.

Temperature and Cavitation Benefits:
Cone valves promote laminar flow, reducing heat generation.
This minimizes cavitation and oil aeration, preserving shock performance over time.
Click to expand...

Cone valves are normally a mid-valve thing as they're between a poppet and a spool valve. How are you implementing position based damping on them in a base-valve?
 
Throw back to late 2022 when I started designing this adjusters. A lot changed along the way from the original Idea.

This does not in anyway represent the final product but rather where it started.
1745859120313.jpeg
 
Dougal said:
Cone valves are normally a mid-valve thing as they're between a poppet and a spool valve. How are you implementing position based damping on them in a base-valve?
Click to expand...
You are correct that, in a traditional sense, a cone valve is often associated with midspeed damping especially when combined with a spool valve or popoff style valve. Without diving too deep into the rabbit hole, the progressive nature of the cone-style valve allows for smoother initial movement with low resistance at lower shaft speeds, while still ramping up to provide strong damping at higher speeds. This behavior results from how the valve flexes under pressure, offering a controlled opening rate based on the amount of force applied.

Unlike traditional shim stacks, which rely on shims flexing to control oil flow, the cone valve uses a spring-loaded mechanism. By increasing or decreasing the preload on this spring, we can fine-tune how easily the valve opens, adjusting the flow rate. This effectively changes how much resistance the fluid encounters during compression.

When paired with the correct bleed and flow characteristics, the adjuster delivers a noticeable range from soft to firm, providing plushness without sacrificing bottoming resistance. The progressive design specifically enhances high-speed damping.

One key difference is that there is no pop-off valve on the compression side of the adjuster, as is commonly found in other designs. In many traditional setups, the presence of a pop-off valve often contributes to a loss of high-speed damping control.

All of this becomes clearly visible on a dyno chart showing the damping curve. We're excited to share more results soon as we continue doing more tech-focused content like this.
 
carbon_shocks said:
Throw back to late 2022 when I started designing this adjusters. A lot changed along the way from the original Idea.

This does not in anyway represent the final product but rather where it started.
1745859120313.jpeg
Click to expand...

Why were you running check valves upstream of your compression shims? The shims work quite nicely as check-valves. Just curious if you ever built this one before heading to a sprung valve instead of shims?

carbon_shocks said:
You are correct that, in a traditional sense, a cone valve is often associated with midspeed damping especially when combined with a spool valve or popoff style valve. Without diving too deep into the rabbit hole, the progressive nature of the cone-style valve allows for smoother initial movement with low resistance at lower shaft speeds, while still ramping up to provide strong damping at higher speeds. This behavior results from how the valve flexes under pressure, offering a controlled opening rate based on the amount of force applied.

Unlike traditional shim stacks, which rely on shims flexing to control oil flow, the cone valve uses a spring-loaded mechanism. By increasing or decreasing the preload on this spring, we can fine-tune how easily the valve opens, adjusting the flow rate. This effectively changes how much resistance the fluid encounters during compression.

When paired with the correct bleed and flow characteristics, the adjuster delivers a noticeable range from soft to firm, providing plushness without sacrificing bottoming resistance. The progressive design specifically enhances high-speed damping.

One key difference is that there is no pop-off valve on the compression side of the adjuster, as is commonly found in other designs. In many traditional setups, the presence of a pop-off valve often contributes to a loss of high-speed damping control.

All of this becomes clearly visible on a dyno chart showing the damping curve. We're excited to share more results soon as we continue doing more tech-focused content like this.
Click to expand...

So you're using a cone valve to get more stroke and speed sensitivity than a flat poppet? The big attraction of sprung poppets is you can run a HSC adjuster on them easily.
 
Dougal said:
Why were you running check valves upstream of your compression shims? The shims work quite nicely as check-valves. Just curious if you ever built this one before heading to a sprung valve instead of shims?



So you're using a cone valve to get more stroke and speed sensitivity than a flat poppet? The big attraction of sprung poppets is you can run a HSC adjuster on them easily.
Click to expand...
The design was a pain in the but to make and had way to many moving parts. The idea was independent Rebound control and Compression control through the base valve itself but was just to complex.
 
carbon_shocks said:
The design was a pain in the but to make and had way to many moving parts. The idea was independent Rebound control and Compression control through the base valve itself but was just to complex.
Click to expand...

Was it for a twin-tube?
 
Dougal said:
Was it for a twin-tube?
Click to expand...
No just a standard single port style shock. #8 ORB port to hose ect.... There are ways to do it but for what we wanted to do again just to many moving parts. I have a design thats independent control for both rebound and compression but requires 2 hoses to fully circulate fluid. Thought about going this route for a bit and it just becomes to complex and expensive for an every day product to work on say a Toyota Tacoma or Chevy Colorado ect.... To much going on.

The design we ended up doing fits a really good dynamic of control tunability and fitment. Doing a more traditional style dual knob but with our system makes it work really well in a clean package.

The Low Speed bleeds compression and rebound both and the High speed is Compression only with bleed back on rebound.
 
carbon_shocks said:
No just a standard single port style shock. #8 ORB port to hose ect.... There are ways to do it but for what we wanted to do again just to many moving parts. I have a design thats independent control for both rebound and compression but requires 2 hoses to fully circulate fluid. Thought about going this route for a bit and it just becomes to complex and expensive for an every day product to work on say a Toyota Tacoma or Chevy Colorado ect.... To much going on.

The design we ended up doing fits a really good dynamic of control tunability and fitment. Doing a more traditional style dual knob but with our system makes it work really well in a clean package.

The Low Speed bleeds compression and rebound both and the High speed is Compression only with bleed back on rebound.
Click to expand...

Yeah it just becomes a twin hose instead of a twin tube. IMO monotube with a base-valve is better for everything that runs fast shaft speeds, leave twin tubes to the tarmac racers.

Back in the 90's shockworks (taiwan) had a mtb shock with a rebound knob on the piggyback and no comp adjust. No idea what they did inside to make that work. I only ever saw one.
 
The Results Are In — No Tool Adjusters are here!

After 9+ months of rigorous real-world testing, Carbon Shock Technologies is proud to release our No-Tool Bypass Tube Adjusters — now available as an optional upgrade on all new bypass shock orders!

These adjusters are built for serious off-road performance:
🔧 Tool-Free Operation – Adjust on the fly without fumbling for tools
🔁 30 Positive-Stop Clicks – Consistent, precise tuning every time
🧤 Oversized Knurled Knobs – Easy grip, even in tight or muddy conditions
💥 Smooth, Reliable Damping – Confidence you can feel in every click

These are the next evolution in ride control.

Contact Carbon Shocks or your local authorized dealer today to upgrade your build.
🔹 Confidence in Every Click


IMG_5789_ADD.jpg
 
We Don’t Cut Corners. We Machine Them.

When it comes to building serious coilovers, we don’t follow trends - were setting the American Made standard.
Every Carbon Shock body starts with American Made DOM tubing, precision-honed for a smooth internal surface.

Why? Because it reduces seal drag, improves piston movement, and extends shock life under brutal conditions. No rough bores. No import shortcuts. Just flawless motion and consistent damping, stroke after stroke.

Dual-Rate Stop Nuts Made from Steel, Not aluminum. Why? Because aluminum Wears out, deforms, and fails under real load and abuse. Our steel stop nuts hold up to the relentless abuse your springs deliver, time and time again. No galling, no thread slop, no backing off under pressure. Just pure control that stays locked.

We deliver race level performance and nothing less. Dual-Lead Threads — Twice the thread starts means twice the speed and control. You’re not spending all day adjusting preload.

You’re locked in and ready to roll in half the time, with perfect precision. Compare that to single-lead setups that take forever to adjust.

Every part on a Carbon Shock is there for a reason, it’s to give you real performance, real durability, and real confidence behind the wheel.You want coilovers built for abuse? This is what that looks like.
 
Just visited your website. You should make the auto-play video muted by default. It's considered a nuisance practice by the web dev community and search engines generally penalize it. Also it's a great way to get people to close your tab if they're somewhere it's impolite to use sound.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Just visited your website. You should make the auto-play video muted by default. It's considered a nuisance practice by the web dev community and search engines generally penalize it. Also it's a great way to get people to close your tab if they're somewhere it's impolite to use sound.
Click to expand...
What are you talking about? I dont even have a video on our website.
 
JNHEscher said:
2.0 threaded body an option some time? Got FOA's for my car to get started with. Going to upgrade when the time comes.
Click to expand...
Nope. 2.0 coilover cost the exact same to make as a 2.5 so its not really worth the effort when they won't be priced cheaper. I know some might have "tight" spaces but the market is just not big enough to warrant the production for us.
 
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