Many people in the RC industry struggle to work out what shock oil is best for their cars. People use their cars in different environments so hopefully the info below helps you get an idea on a base to start from. So let's look at what shock oil would be good for you and your car!

The basic principle is the oil in the shock and the piston work together to control the cars damping, that is, its resistance to shock compression or extension. If you don’t have damping in your shocks, your car would be bouncing all over the place on its springs. Having the shock oil and pistons working together, it makes the car easier to drive.

When it comes to selecting the oils for damping, there are a number of things to consider. The weight of the car, how stiff the spring is, the size of the shock itself etc. As a general rule of thumb, on rough surfaces you’ll want to use a lighter shock oil so the suspension can rebound quicker, allowing the wheels to move up and down quicker with the surface which helps with chassis roll in corners. On smooth surfaces it is more ideal to have a thicker shock to eliminate the car from rolling as you want the suspension to be firmer and more planted compared to rough surfaces.

One thing to also note, is the thickness of shock oils are stated in either CST or WT, which aren’t directly comparable. This is why we always advise to stick with either CST or WT going forward to make sure you are going with the correct thickness one way or the other. Whicher you go for, the greater the number, the thicker the oil.

For example with a 1/10 touring car (take for example a Tamiya TT-02) they usually have the same weight oil in both the front and rear shocks. Due to ideally wanting less travel, the spring travel is shorter than say an off road car. For example a common shock oil weight is around the 400-500 cst range. 

If you own a 1/10 4WD buggy, you would go slightly lighter shock weight on the rear, say a 300 - 400 cst which on low-traction surfaces, damping improves grip. The one thing to bear in mind is there is the chance of it making the back end more nervous. A way around this can be by increasing damping. On the front something like a 350-450cst would be ideal for driving in low-traction tracks. If you are driving on high-traction surfaces like asphalt you could consider trying 500 cst oil.

With a 1/10 Short course truck, you can run on thinner oils to provide damping that should be sufficient. Something like a 350 cst on the rear and 400 cst on the front would be a good base to start from, however if you find the rear starts to bounce too much, it may require you to improve the damping.

Hopefully the above gives you an idea on the shock oils for your 1/10 cars, and we sell plenty of various manufacturer oils in both CST and WT, so by all means take a look on the website and get some shock oil as part of your spares kit.