Axon Revoshock Dampers
On my never ending journey of testing products for R/C Drift, I have come upon the new Axon Revoshock Dampers. They have proven to be a different type of animal for sure.
The most noticeable feature that seems to catch everyone’s eye is the number of holes in the pistons. There are 16 to be exact. In addition to the unique piston design, Axon also uses 2 O-Rings of different sizes. The dampers come as a add-on for the Yokomo Big Bores as they are not supplied with any mounting hardware or lower spring perch.
Quality and Construction
Right away it’s clear these are some very precision dampers. The quality of the materials is top-notch. The pistons all fit together snuggly on the shock shafts. When I measured the pistons and the shock bodies I was impressed to see their tolerances were high.
Bodies - 2/4 (11.52mm I.D.) 2/4 (11.53mm I.D.)
Pistons - All 4 (11.50mm O.D.)
These tolerances are what I have been finding with the Overdose HG Dampers and if my memory serves me correctly, the clearance is also the same as the HGs.
The instructions recommend a 1mm hole in the shock cap. I usually rely on the pressure from the bladder to provide more rebound, but after following their instructions I found them to have plenty of rebound relying solely on the bladder. I had pondered this decision for a while before finally deciding to do it. In hind-sight it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I had left venting the cap a good while ago, and contemplated if this would still be an apples to apples comparison.
My Experience
The surface here at Super-G is polished concrete so we are considered to be a low-traction surface surface. Most people here tend to run their dampers on the lighter damping side, many running no shock fluid. I found the Axon Revoshock Dampers with their unique 16 hole pistons and their ultra-low resistance have given me a level of tuning I was not able to achieve with any other setup.
Prior to using the Revoshocks I would be forced to choose between running No Shock Fluid, 50wt, 100wt, or 150wt. Anything higher than that and it would be too much damping and performance would suffer. Keep in mind this is for the way I tune and I am in no way saying this is the best.
With the new Revoshocks, 50wt is very close to no fluid. I am tempted to say overall there is less resistance than my Big Bores with no fluid. Most likely due to the dual O-Ring design and better, consistent manufacturing. Basically what this translates to is, the Axon Revoshock Dampers allow you to have a wider usable range of fluids and more fine tuning. Presently I have settled on 150wt front and 250wt rear, but I can see even as high as 450wt or more being in the usable range for a light damping setup.
If I had one complaint, it would be the fact that the bladder is slightly too large and does not fit into the cap easily. This forced me to assemble the dampers differently than I am used to, making it a little more difficult to get the results am accustomed to “easily”. Not a huge deal, but definitely not ideal for myself.
Overall, I give the Axon Revoshock Dampers top marks. Placing them along side of the Tamiya TRF. I cannot comfortably put them in the same category as the Overdose HG Dampers as I feel they are a different animal with quality and design that is unmatched. However, for the time being, the Axon Revoshock Dampers are the damper of choice for my personal chassis. Take that for what it’s worth.