shaddy-z.

I don't know how to explain this very well. But I've been told I can adjust how much my coilover "droops" or the wheel travel in other words. So here I go:

I recently got new coilovers and they don't let the wheel hang as much; What I mean is that if I were to jack up the car with my old coilovers, my wheel would hang and have about ~4 inches give or take between the fender and the wheel. However now with my new coils, the wheel will only hang 1 inch or less. The reason I ask is because basically in any road racing, drifting etc. if my car were to go slightly airborne mid turn I could lose traction because my wheel would be completely off the ground.

Hopefully I'm making some sort of sense and don't sound like I'm pulling this out of my *** Is this even possible? And if it is, what collars do I adjust? I know how to set preload and how to adjust height but this was something somewhat new to me because I didn't have this problem with any of my other coilovers.

If this is not possible I apologize for asking such stupid questions...

Thanks!

Z Professional

iTrader: (7)

Just my $.02.

I understand what you're saying but I don't think that's something that you can adjust...And from a physics standpoint, even if the tire is still on the ground but there's enough lateral forces to be lifting the wheel off enough to need ur coils to droop, I don't think there's going to be friction coming from that wheel just barely kissing the ground anyway.

Case in point, if you ever watch the Aussie V8 road car racing series, when they cut the corners, you can see the inside wheel that went over the red / white striped curb thingy and there is no droop to em. Therefore I don't really think that's a factor to be concerned with. Either way I thought it was how the suspension handles the loading and unloading of weight that mattered.

SoCal07HR

iTrader: (17)

You can absolutely adjust droop, problem is your damper is riding high its stroke so it doesnt have much shaft left to droop with (if that makes sense). Less pre-load on the spring and lengthen the shock body to make up for the ride height difference. if the spring is too stiff and less preload just makes the spring loose then you can look into helper springs to get the damper riding where it should be.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, this is how it was explained to me.

shaddy-z.

Now that I think of it, when I watch proffessional racing, their wheels come off the ground very often. And when they skip around corners on the curb the wheel actually goes airborne but not much traction is lost.. Good point

I believe you're right. But I'm trying to stay at my "low" ride height while still having some droop. My preload is set to where the spring doesn't hang loose, but isn't very tight. This is how I was told to adjust any type of preload.

SoCal07HR

iTrader: (17)

Then look into helper springs if you want more droop. The best reason to try to keep your inside rear on the ground is if you are using an open or a quaife differential and would be losing power through the wheel in the air.

Vivid Racing

iTrader: (67)

The fact that your wheel doesn't drop as far is because the coilovers have a shorter stroke, and because they have a lot more rebound damping. If you adjust your rebound damping to the lowest setting, you can get more "droop", but ultimately it comes down to the shock stroke. When the piston reaches the highest point of its travel within the damper, that's that. No changing it.

What you're trying to adjust can't really be adjusted much, and adjusting it will affect your ride height. Also, unless you're off roading you really don't need a ton of rebound travel. Your preload setting is correct. There's no reason to adjust preload on a street car, and unless you know what you're doing then leave it as is. SoCalHR is on the right track when it comes to spring sag/helper springs in respect to rebound travel, but keep in mind that for every inch you gain in rebound travel, you lose in compression travel.

What's your reason behind wanting more rebound travel? Have you been lifting the inside wheel on turns? If so, you need to address the body roll.

shaddy-z.

I wasn't personally having any problem, but a specialty track shop recommended me adjusting the "droop" which is why I came here and asked. They just said if I were mid drift and hit a slight bump and my wheels came off the ground slightly it could affect my angle and everything. They said addressing the rebound would help minimize the chances of that happening. I was unaware that this could be adjusted without helper springs. I know how helper springs worked but the shop just told me to adjust a couple things but the way they explained it kinda confused me. I guess it really isn't possible without getting other springs and changing ride height.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Take your springs off, install the coilover and set the length. A lot of people have the body lenght set to short to the point where the uptravel can not be used. Removing the unused up travel, will give you more droop. Once you have this done, set your ride height with spring preload. Doing it this way (at a respectable ride height) you will need helper springs in the front with springs over 12k and helpers for the rear with springs greater than 5k.

Results will very depening on the stroke length of your brand. This is just a general idea and how my setup worked out. I run my control arms front and rear level, i'm not close to being slammed.

Vivid Racing

iTrader: (67)

They're definitely right about how your car can become harder to control. You can get some droop adjustment with your current setup, just not much. Once your coilovers are setup correctly (read Terrasmaks post below), you'll be maxed out. Most decent coilovers should be able to keep all 4 wheels planted fairly well once installed properly. If not, then the engineers didn't calculate the stroke properly.

It sounds like you're referring to adjusting "OEM style" coilovers. If that's the case, you're not adjusting preload; just spring position(ride height). Preload refers to how much the spring is compressed while the vehicle is in a steady state without loads (ie stopped on level ground). The rest of the advice here is good, I just wanted to clarify preload vs spring height. If you have "true" coilovers in the rear, you'll be able to actually adjust sag/droop and preload. It's a lot easier to mess up your shock stroke settings with an OEM style setup.

shaddy-z.

Yeah my previous setup was an OEM type setup. However now I'm running a true type setup so I can freely adjust my camber and toe to whatever I please I was able to get from an aggressive setup with -4.2 camber to still aggressive, pulled my fenders a little and got to -1.5 degrees. My coilovers look almost like stubs lol because of how I adjusted the height. Maybe that's just how these coilovers are?

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Actually i'm talking about true coilover front and rear. Adjusting the body length to actually use the suspension travel available. Many people have the lenght way to short, reduces droop and the suspenion rms bottoms well before the bump stops ever engage.

shaddy-z.

So are you saying to adjust the height basically using the preload? I thought this was against all adjustment rules Leave the length of the coilover at whatever I want then adjust height of car by spinning the top two collars?

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Yes , your actually using both to set ride height. If you do it the way i mention you will get more usable suspension travel a will be more likely to have your shock pistion in the proper location of they travel.


BTW high end coilovers don't even have an adjustable body. All ride height is done with preload.

shaddy-z.

So which way would I spin the top two collars to make the car lower? Down, making the springs loose? Or up increasing preload?

ALO8

iTrader: (5)

what brand of coilovers do you have? and spring rates?