View Poll Results: What brand of shocks do you use?
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STR Prep - Shock / Damper and Springs Discussion
10-24-2011, 10:36 AM
#11
With the design of the KWs you can't do squat about preload or at least I don't think you can.
The track I've been to a few times is reasonably smooth but it does have some dips mid turn here and there one of which caused me to spin the last time I was there. Now I'm wondering if I wasn't too deep into the bumpstop. I experienced exactly what you were saying. Was going fine and hit that bump mid turn and the rear immediately started to step out. I was trying to take the corner a little faster than I had been earlier in the day but the car should have been able to handle the speed I was attempting through there.
I do see a lot of STR guys running the car just as low or lower than me though so I'm convinced it's a problem you can work around. I definitely want to go up on the spring rates.
The track I've been to a few times is reasonably smooth but it does have some dips mid turn here and there one of which caused me to spin the last time I was there. Now I'm wondering if I wasn't too deep into the bumpstop. I experienced exactly what you were saying. Was going fine and hit that bump mid turn and the rear immediately started to step out. I was trying to take the corner a little faster than I had been earlier in the day but the car should have been able to handle the speed I was attempting through there.
I do see a lot of STR guys running the car just as low or lower than me though so I'm convinced it's a problem you can work around. I definitely want to go up on the spring rates.
10-24-2011, 11:10 AM
#12
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I don't know the all the specs or total height of the rear bump stop but I'm assuming if you compress it more than 1/2", it's going to go full stiff shortly after. I would assume that you need about 1.5" of shock travel with a lightly sprung 570/570 setup. I'm going to aim for 1.5" and measure my success with the butt dyno and zipties on the shocks to see if it worked.
10-24-2011, 01:36 PM
#13
Random1 (Rob) could you post some specs on your rear shocks? Such as dimensions? I'm curious about the following...
Shock body lenth from bottom mounting hole to top of dust cap/shock body:
amount of travel before the tire hits anything metal:
max your shocks have compressed (distance of that ziptie to the shock body):
This would help for people that get custom shocks made so they don't end up with shocks looking like mine..
these were bottomed out with 700 lbs rear springs and 60mm or so of rear shock travel. Also I've seen the helper springs on both the top and bottom of the main spring. What is the prefered location? My shocks came with them ontop but I think they should be below the main spring so that the body doesn't have to travel into the spring perch. Which causes rubing on the side of the dust cap as you can see. These shocks are only one season old and the limited rear travel caused them to already start leaking. They are being cut down over the winter and really need some specs from someone that already has short bodys. Please help me out rob.
edit- Your awesome! Tomarrow I'll post my shock dynos and all my findings. I'll pre-warn everyone I know nothing and just to take what I have to say as my findings and my findings only.
Shock body lenth from bottom mounting hole to top of dust cap/shock body:
amount of travel before the tire hits anything metal:
max your shocks have compressed (distance of that ziptie to the shock body):
This would help for people that get custom shocks made so they don't end up with shocks looking like mine..
these were bottomed out with 700 lbs rear springs and 60mm or so of rear shock travel. Also I've seen the helper springs on both the top and bottom of the main spring. What is the prefered location? My shocks came with them ontop but I think they should be below the main spring so that the body doesn't have to travel into the spring perch. Which causes rubing on the side of the dust cap as you can see. These shocks are only one season old and the limited rear travel caused them to already start leaking. They are being cut down over the winter and really need some specs from someone that already has short bodys. Please help me out rob.
edit- Your awesome! Tomarrow I'll post my shock dynos and all my findings. I'll pre-warn everyone I know nothing and just to take what I have to say as my findings and my findings only.
If you have limited travel you don't want to loose part of that travel to 50lbs helper springs.
Get rid of the helper spring and raise the bottom spring perch back up to maintain your current ride height.
10-24-2011, 04:02 PM
#14
2) How exactly would taking out helper springs change how much shock travel you have? Maybe I'm missing something but that makes no sense.
10-24-2011, 04:04 PM
#15
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Tom-
Yea when they rebuild them and put on new shorter shock on I think I'm going to leave off the helper spring since it's scaring up the shock body. I'll prolly leave them in the front of the car though.
Yea when they rebuild them and put on new shorter shock on I think I'm going to leave off the helper spring since it's scaring up the shock body. I'll prolly leave them in the front of the car though.
10-24-2011, 04:04 PM
#16
Spring rates are very high and the shocks are shortened and they're not running bumpstops.
10-24-2011, 04:10 PM
#17
Why are your helper springs rubbing on the shock bodies? They should be the same ID as the main springs?
10-24-2011, 04:12 PM
#18
Originally Posted by TTMartin' timestamp='1319492164' post='21097314
I would get rid of the helper springs all together.
If you have limited travel you don't want to loose part of that travel to 50lbs helper springs.
Get rid of the helper spring and raise the bottom spring perch back up to maintain your current ride height.
2) How exactly would taking out helper springs change how much shock travel you have? Maybe I'm missing something but that makes no sense.
10-24-2011, 04:19 PM
#19
Originally Posted by IntegraR0064' timestamp='1319500945' post='21097722
[quote name='TTMartin' timestamp='1319492164' post='21097314']
I would get rid of the helper springs all together.
If you have limited travel you don't want to loose part of that travel to 50lbs helper springs.
Get rid of the helper spring and raise the bottom spring perch back up to maintain your current ride height.
I would get rid of the helper springs all together.
If you have limited travel you don't want to loose part of that travel to 50lbs helper springs.
Get rid of the helper spring and raise the bottom spring perch back up to maintain your current ride height.
2) How exactly would taking out helper springs change how much shock travel you have? Maybe I'm missing something but that makes no sense.
No helper springs, more shock travel for the actual springs.
[/quote]
No, that's not how it works.
Think of it this way - when you put the car down the helper is fully compressed into a spacer. Therefore it's no different than moving the spring perch up since it's just a spacer.
10-24-2011, 04:36 PM
#20
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Originally Posted by josh7owens' timestamp='1319082322' post='21085486
Random1 (Rob) could you post some specs on your rear shocks? Such as dimensions? I'm curious about the following...
Shock body lenth from bottom mounting hole to top of dust cap/shock body:
amount of travel before the tire hits anything metal:
max your shocks have compressed (distance of that ziptie to the shock body):
This would help for people that get custom shocks made so they don't end up with shocks looking like mine..
these were bottomed out with 700 lbs rear springs and 60mm or so of rear shock travel. Also I've seen the helper springs on both the top and bottom of the main spring. What is the prefered location? My shocks came with them ontop but I think they should be below the main spring so that the body doesn't have to travel into the spring perch. Which causes rubing on the side of the dust cap as you can see. These shocks are only one season old and the limited rear travel caused them to already start leaking. They are being cut down over the winter and really need some specs from someone that already has short bodys. Please help me out rob.
edit- Your awesome! Tomarrow I'll post my shock dynos and all my findings. I'll pre-warn everyone I know nothing and just to take what I have to say as my findings and my findings only.
Shock body lenth from bottom mounting hole to top of dust cap/shock body:
amount of travel before the tire hits anything metal:
max your shocks have compressed (distance of that ziptie to the shock body):
This would help for people that get custom shocks made so they don't end up with shocks looking like mine..
these were bottomed out with 700 lbs rear springs and 60mm or so of rear shock travel. Also I've seen the helper springs on both the top and bottom of the main spring. What is the prefered location? My shocks came with them ontop but I think they should be below the main spring so that the body doesn't have to travel into the spring perch. Which causes rubing on the side of the dust cap as you can see. These shocks are only one season old and the limited rear travel caused them to already start leaking. They are being cut down over the winter and really need some specs from someone that already has short bodys. Please help me out rob.
edit- Your awesome! Tomarrow I'll post my shock dynos and all my findings. I'll pre-warn everyone I know nothing and just to take what I have to say as my findings and my findings only.
If you have limited travel you don't want to loose part of that travel to 50lbs helper springs.
Get rid of the helper spring and raise the bottom spring perch back up to maintain your current ride height.
this calculation is probably off a bit but with a 570# spring and a 800 corner weight the 570# spring would compress about 1.5" I think. going to a 670# spring would essentially give me back 0.3" of travel I think. I guess that's another option for me gaining some rear travel and retaining a helper spring and a lower ride height. Time to decide b/t the two evils I guess, cut my bump stops down or raise my spring rates.