This thought occurred to me as I was fitting the bash plate last week. This thing in front of me that seems to be working just fine – should not work well at all.
Twin tube shock absorbers don’t work on their side or upside down. The gas in them mixes with the oil and turns it into a foamy mess. This sends the damping rates all over the place, making it unpredictably worse than useless.
Monotube dampers are fine on their side, but not many people run monotube steering dampers. My steering damper didn’t look like a monotube.
Both of these need gas in them to allow for the space the rod takes up as the compress. Some shocks run the gas under pressure for better high temperature performance. Steering dampers do not, it would make them push the steering to one side.
Motorcycle steering dampers run the shaft out the other end, meaning the internal volume stays constant, and you don’t need a gas space. A gas space in these makes them behave very strangely, doesn’t it Brett….
I turned to a mate – Jamie – at GSA Wholesale Suspension for an answer to this one. I find they know more about shocks than anyone else I have ever found.
It turns out steering dampers generally are a twin tube design, but the air is kept in a plastic bag or bladder. This separates it from the oil and prevents mixing. Now, even though it’s on its side, it can’t go and interfere with the valve rates.
Nifty eh….