Another important point to consider when choosing a shock absorber, especially in a rear suspension application, is the overall length of the shock.

This is very often overlooked when choosing or tuning a shock and can cause problems. As an example, we just modified the rear suspension on our Orange Peel Chevelle using a Global West relocation of the lower rear control arm. This relocation lowers the rear location of the trailing arm on the rear axle, increasing the rear suspension antisquat to more than 100 percent, which creates rear suspension rise on acceleration. With this separation comes a significant increase in rear suspension travel. Originally, I tried to run a bolt-in adjustable rear shock but discovered that its limited extended length did not even allow us to assemble the rear suspension at stock ride height. We ended up using a Competition Engineering shock that offered 3 inches of additional travel to allow the rear suspension to work. Since then, we’ve found a set of QA1 bolt-in adjustable rear shocks that also offer an extended length, adjustable shock (either single or double) that would work really well in this application.