i've just installed a koni yellow and g/c setup on my dc2 integra with 380 front and 250 rears, and my tires are 195/50/15. with the smaller profile tires i have to go lower to fill the wheel well.

i was wondering what was the least amount of shock travel reccomended for longevity and not bottoming out. i cant tell from driving if i'm hitting the bump stops or not, but right now i have maybe an 1.5 inches of travel all around, and the bumpstops are cut stockers that are about 3 inches in the rear and and 2 inches in front.

should i just cut the rear bumpstops to 2 inches to get 2.5 inches of travel and get ground control tophats for the front to get 2 inches of travel there?

i would like to go a little lower, like .5 inches in the front, so would 1.5 inches of travel be enough for 380lb springs and the shocks halfway between full stiff and full soft? i do decent cornering at around 60-70mph daily.

thanks for any opinions or recommendations

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by daily &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i've just installed a koni yellow and g/c setup on my dc2 integra with 380 front and 250 rears, and my tires are 195/50/15. with the smaller profile tires i have to go lower to fill the wheel well.

i was wondering what was the least amount of shock travel reccomended for longevity and not bottoming out. i cant tell from driving if i'm hitting the bump stops or not, but right now i have maybe an 1.5 inches of travel all around, and the bumpstops are cut stockers that are about 3 inches in the rear and and 2 inches in front.

should i just cut the rear bumpstops to 2 inches to get 2.5 inches of travel and get ground control tophats for the front to get 2 inches of travel there?

i would like to go a little lower, like .5 inches in the front, so would 1.5 inches of travel be enough for 380lb springs and the shocks halfway between full stiff and full soft? i do decent cornering at around 60-70mph daily.

thanks for any opinions or recommendations</TD></TR></TABLE>

Interesting question. I'm running 400/400 springs on my DC2, and I managed to bottom out on a pothole 2 weeks ago, with the GC entended top hats no less. Current ride height is tire flush with the wheel wells, on 205/45-16s. Bottoming out, as in, there was some nice solid "no more suspension movement available, at all", slam. My LCA might be a little bent now...

I don't know how you measured the available travel, but with the tires flushed, I'm sitting on the bumpstops. Since you have smaller tires than me, and I have the extended shock mounts, I half imagine that you're very close, if not on them, yourself.

Either way, bump for a knowledgable answer. How much shock travel is necessary?

 

i can look in and see the gap in the fronts between the shock body and the bump stops. in the rear i reached in to feel the gap with my fingers.

i might just go ahead and buy the g/c tophats, dont they come with new bumpstops that fit up in the extended portion? how long are those bumpstops?

 

The best way to take and actual measurement of how much shock travel you are using would be to put a zip tie tightly around each shocks rod and cut the tail off. Becore you put the car on the ground, push the zip tie travel indicator down on the shock body. Go for a drive representative of normal driving without hitting too much then jack the car up. The zip tie will now be pushed up to the maximum point of compression stroke that youused during the drive. It's location will tell you if you need more height, need more rate, can afford to come down some, etc.

How and where you drive is critical on ho much strok you need. It is possible to bottom the shock from stock or slightly lowered heights if you hit the right (or wrong) thing so you can never know, that is why you have a bump rubber to try to help protect you. The more bump rubber, the more protection. Hitting the bump rubber if it is relatively soft and progressive is not necessarily a bad thing, living solidly on it all the time can be but it beats destroying the shocks from bottoming. Only you can establish how much height, rate and stroke is needed for your use and a few cheapo zip ties can gather real data from your own car.

 

good idea.

i'll probably still need ground control tophats, i'm sure that extra inch will be necissary.

so i'll set it so the bumpstops give at least that much shock travel before contact.

am i correct in assuming that adjusting the rebound won't have any affect on how much the shock will travel? seems obvious but just thought i would make sure.

 

Always a good answer from you Lee. You were telling me about this trick over the phone the other day.