Coil Spring Science

[dscowell]

Good video by Teraflex like most of their videos it focuses primarily on JK wranglers but coil spring are coil springs no matter what vehicle they are under.


http://youtu.be/V_Qp7L_eTqU

[Haku]

Not a bad job of explaining it. Having done some of this stuff and a lot of reading on coilspring and shock theory, the biggest takeaway I would emphasize with that video is that you need the total package. In other words just replacing the springs or the shocks or the control arms or any single suspension component without taking the whole rest of the system into account won't necessarily make it more comfortable or perform better and could honestly make things worse.

This is why whenever I hear someone say "I could make that for way cheaper by piecing it together myself" or similar things, I encourage them to look at all the work that the company put into it to make the system work with the other components. Yes, you could definitely get there eventually, but it could take a lot of time and money spent to get there to get it to the same level.

The other part they left out is failing to mention during the dual rate part is that the combined rate of the dual spring rates is actually lower then either rate itself, and doesn't settle till coil bind happens and it essentially turns into the single rate (usually the rate found in the bottom of the coil or in coilovers rate the "main" spring which is the bottom one). I guess it doesn't really matter, but if you are looking for specific spring rates when putting a kit together its something to remember.

If you really want to see the nitty gritty of this stuff and how all the calculations work (both just the springs and how shocks affect things) check out the coilover bible on Pirate4x4... http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/coilovers/Part_1/