What's Ideal Position In Shock Stroke To Be When Car Is Level?

[bradsm87]

I've got some Tein Mono Flex coilovers on the way. They have adjustable preload so you can set where abouts in the full stroke of the shock the car sits when stationary on a level surface.

I was thinkin I'll set them up so they are about 1/3 of the way down the shock stroke when the car is level so the hub has double the travel up ways (like hitting a bump or the outside wheels when cornering) than it does down ways (inside wheels when cornering)

I really don't know what is ideal. I want the maximum possible "usable" travel.

Does anyone know how to set these things up?

[robbieraver]

do you mean the lower part of the shock that bolts in to the stub.

well start from a lightly traped spring using the spring seat, then adjust the height of the car from the stub adjustment.

that is the best place to adjust the cars height from, adjusting it from the spring seat will preload the spring more or less.

this is he very short version , once you give it a go its very easy.

[nizmonut]

idealy the compression stroke of a shock wants to be equal to that of the expansion stroke,

this situation you would find in an offroader or rally car as the amount of travel required is extreme compared to lets say a road going car that may only need 1.5 to 3 inches up and down 3 to 6 inches in total.

i would give you a generic description of how to set up sports suspension but it varies so much between types it hard to find a ideal setup by just telling you.

for example in a rear wheel drive drag racer, you'd want stiff extension stroke on the rear to keep the back end down on launch but opposite on the front you'd want stiff compression but alot of expansion pressure to lift the nose of the car and shift the wieght onto the rear driving wheels for traction

in a front wheel it would be opposite to above

ina four wheel you would want a balanced chassis that wouldnt lift in the front and bog the rear down, you'd keep the wieght balanced on all four. ideally all four corners would have the same shocks however the spring rate on the front would be higher than the rear to compensate for the engine wieght

in a circut car the amount of travel in suspension is minimal to stop body roll so 1.5 inches compression/extension max that will give you 3 inchs over the whole width of a vehicals track.

the adjustable platform suspension is to lift or lower ride hieght, also the purpose of adjustable springseats is not to preload the spring to keep it trapped for you MOT check, it is there to load spring rate in order to stop body roll side to side...circut and back to front drag racing

as above the spring rate required in the rear of a drag car would be almost half that of the front to let the rear sqaut down shifting the centre of gravity further back in the car.

the spring rate determines how much wieght it take to overcome the pressure of the spring before it starts compressing.

the heavy the car and the more corner work the car has to do you would want a higher spring rate.

[bradsm87]

So set them up so the car sits half way through the shock travel when stationary?