Quote:
Originally Posted by Jhill
That last statement sounds odd to me. I have always seen the opposite. As you jump in spring rate the coil thickness has to increase but the space between the coils must be the same otherwise you alter the springs stroke length before coil bind (absolutely not good).
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You're right to some extent, and maybe i did phrase it a bit odd. But i think you are overlooking the
load factor. If you are increasing the rate, you are reducing the amount of work the spring has to do. So although you decreased the space between coils, you also reduced the distance spring has to travel to support the same amount of weight. The stroke in such case does not need to be equal.
100ibs will compress a 25ib rated spring 4 inches
100ibs will compress a 50ibs rated spring 2 inches.
The open questions are; how many inches does the spring need to travel (
total load capacity), and capable of traveling (
maximum spring stroke). From there we can decide the window of operation and necessary spring rate change.
As long as the weight the spring has to support is the same, there is no reason to change the load capacity (assuming the previous load capacity was suitable in the first place). If you use the same length but increase or decrease the rate, you change the load, this is where the problem of binding and spring sag comes into play. So if you keep the load capacity the same for any given spring length, you shouldn't run the risk of binding a spring. OF course its a case of diminishing returns after changing the length too much.
A 2.5i.d 10inch x 12kg spring has a load capacity over 2 tons. That is about as much as the car would ever see. A 14kg x 10inch spring will have a capacity of over 4500ibs (over 9000ibs axle load!). The car will never see this in standard trim, nor would any tire support that. You'd need like 355 tires squared and a 1000ibs of downforce front and rear at like 60mph lmao.
As it stands. those springs are already too large. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume this car has never bound the coils or even got close to it.
Do you do any offroad excursions Spooler? Baha 1000? lol