ok i seen alot of people installing gc top hats or just making their own top hats. for those whose done it what are yours thoughts and reviews on it???

 

What do you mean, "how it feels?" Extended top hats simply give you a little more shock travel... I highly doubt you will feel a diference in anything, unless you are riding on the bump stops.

 

If you "feel" anything with extended top hats there is something seriously wrong with your car.

 

haha thanks guys. just kinda thought since it gives it more shock travel maye if u were low before the ride would improve a lil but its just in the mind i guess

 

The only way you'd see any ride improvement is if you're riding around ON the bump stops. All extended top hats do is provide the bump stop more room to travel. If the rates are too soft on a dumped car the shock is likely to blow even more quickly with the increased travel.

 

years ago i went from bc N+ with stock top hats to brand new Skunk2 tophats I had laying around. I could have sworn i felt a difference then, may have been nothing. I remember that it seemed the stock tophats were bigger & that the Skunk2's fit the coilover more snug.

..my memory is horrible tho. could have been me just wanting them to feel different i guess.

 

Even stock modern cars ride on the bump-stops. It's just how they are designed. OEM's use them more as "spring helpers" to tune handling rather than a simple bump-stop. Now once you make your street car a wannabe race car, you typically trim the bump-stops short to allow more travel and less "progressive" effect. The reason for this is to create a more linear and predictable suspension setup. Part of the main reason we don't use progressive spring rates either.

So let's say you are currently hitting bump-stops over bump X. Extended top hats give you an extra 3/4" of wheel travel before making the same impact on the chassis. Obviously this will effect ride quality, but only in particular instances where your hitting the bump-stops enough. Now there is also the fact that the bump-stop that's included in w/ most top hats are different. Softer or stiffer is also going to impact how a given bump will feel.

Personal Experience: My 94 CX hatch. I installed front top hats & Koni's at the same time. I can say that over a couple troublesome pavement spots on the city streets, things were noticeably less harsh. Car was lowered almost 3" though. Now it's up around -2.5. Ride quality is much better and I don't have to worry (except speed bumps).

 

I should have been more clear:

Yes, the "bumps" will be smoother, like on rough spots on the road or pot holes. I suppose I always think of these questions in the context of driving down on a normal road and expecting a game-changing ride difference under normal conditions.

 

yes

pretty much.

typically, people unknowingly adjust the preload of the spring and the amount of suspension travel. which could potentially alter the feel of things. even more often, it's a placebo.

 

^you contradict yourself.

 

haha its all good. yeah i kinda guess that since it have more shock travel maybe a lil less harsh on bumps and stuff like that

 

How the hell does new tophats fix blown shocks?

 

magic, simply magic

 

I noticed literally no difference. Not why I bought them though. I bought them for the extra travel for that just in case when you hit the curbs/rumble strips apexing a turn. I'm sure if I did testing back to back with that I'd notice a difference. I figure it will help longevity of my struts riding more in their happy medium rather than at the end of their travel stroke.

 

i dont know if mine qualify but i installed softer springs and top hats on my koni's and ride is night and day

 

The ride is usually smoother with top hats, until the upper a-arms smack the shock towers.

 

How do top hats make a ride smoother? I'm running them on the hatch and noticed absolutely no difference. However, it is notable to mention that I'm not trying to get low enough to ride on bumpstops.

 

I could be wrong here but I can't see how extended top hats would not help with the ride on a full length shock. I.E. stock, Koni, Tokico, KYB, Bilstein. If the car lowered an 1" or less than maybe there would be no noticeable change.


Doesn't the dampening change within the stroke of the shock? For instance I have read that an ideal shock curve for a Honda is a digressive curve, meaning damper force reduces as the piston velocity increases, correct? Get too far into the shock travel and the shock would go through the travel even quicker. Add in the extended top hats and travel should be more back in line with how the shock was designed to work.

 

No. Damping changes with the speed of the piston. Not the position of the piston. It doesn't matter where the neutral position of the piston is inside the cylinder unless your running into the end of the stroke in either direction (ie: internal or external bumpstop).

 

So there is no change at all based on position? Is the bump stop 100% responsible for stopping the shock from bottoming?

 

feelz good man


seriously though, to end this thread, it feels like the upper control arms are now smacking the frame.. unless you kept the long bump stops.

no.

if you mean that external rubber/foam bump stop, yes. it's deteriorating self is all that is between you and complete ruin.

 

There is internal compression & extension stops that limit the damper in either direction. They should not come into use much when driving. The droop limiter keeps the shock & spring from flying apart when your wheels lift off the ground. The internal bump limiter is only a last resort if the primary bump-stop fails.

What chassis are on? I had top hats on my EG with stock UCAs lowered about 2.5 to 2.75 inches (for 8-9 years now) and I have never hit the UCA on the shock tower. I know cause I just replaced my UCA bushings last month and checked closely.

Camber arms suck!

 

my old ek did on any big bump, moderately lowered on gc. the springs were just to soft. that was even with stock top hats, the allen bolts in the camber arms put holes in my towers, effectively bottoming out before the tokico blues.

fwiw, most shocks don't have internal limiting on the compression (bound) side, just the fully extended (rebound) ones.

 

I've had the camber adjusting screw on my Ingalls upper control arms make contact with the top hat on my EK. Car wasn't even super low, about 1.75".