What kind of preload do you guys run? Front=more preload or less?
Back=more preload or less? When I say preload I mean on the setups that have dual adjustable perchs. Such as the Tein RE's and Zeal B6's? I have some Apexi N1's and I have noticed the way the car handles different when I change how much the springs are compressed.

I have stiffer springs in the back and have them preloaded a little too much right now, they ride nice cornering but don't offer to much dampening. As for the fronts I tried a little softer spring without as much preload and I could tell it road better but gave up a little bit of cornering

 

I wont be able to answer ur question but when i have my GC preload to achieve a certain ride height, the ride quality very bad. I then adjusted so that the spring are not preload, and the ride got much better.

My brother use to run some Zeal but i dont know what it was. The coilover was able to adjust from the spring perch and the shock perch. If i remember correctly, he never preload his springs. The spring are just sandwich so that the spring wont have any play but the spring was never really being compressed. Everything else was adjusted but the shock perch.
I also would like more info from other people.

 

sounds like both of you are confused about Hooke's law and how a linear spring works. "preload" doesnt affect anything about a springs function. a linear spring exerts the same amount of force from being compressed 0-1" as it does from being previously compressed at 2" to being compressed another 1", basically 2-3". what is effectively changed is the ride height when you adjust the amount the spring is precompressed and the static cornerweights of each wheel. the fancy shocks that allow you to separately preload the spring allows the adjustment of ride hieght independently to cornerweights.

hondacivicex,it seems from what you described by when you adjusted the preload, you lowered the car too much and rode on the bumpstops, which is basically a crappy ride and destroys your shocks. preload has nothing to do with dampening, unless you run out of shock travel...

[edit] meant to address the last paragraph to hondacivic, not soundeffects, sorry.


Modified by Tyson at 6:35 PM 4/14/2003

 

I adjust the coilovers with the first set of perchs, they are pretty much raised up to the top, then the pillow mount sandwhichs the spring making it under some pressure already. I have complete shock travel and yet to hit the bumpstops.

I adjust the height with the bottom set of perchs by turning them clockwise or counter-clockwise. It seems that when i had a softer spring in them before I could feel the difference from when they be compressed by an inch or when they would be at full extension. In order for them to be at full extension I would have to lower the first set of perchs a bit so the upper pillow mount wouldn't compress them too much.....kinda confusing.

 

One thing to note is that, by adding preload onto the springs ur effectively reducing total spring compression before you will experience spring binding. BUt as long as you have stiff spring rates with the proper length, coil binding shouldnt be a problem. That being said, I also would like to know the effects of adding spring preload.
I know that with linear rate springs, rates do not change and therefore compression rate would not change. But by having the springs preloaded, that means they are already storing energy into them and I would think that it would affect rebound in some way.