Tennis Balls in coil springs

garberz · Mar 8, 2016

I'm trying out these coil spring inserts. They aren't tennis balls, they're Prothane Coil Spring Inserts. About 40 year ago they were called Haga Balls and Score considered them a secondary suspension. I'm using them as bump stops mainly, the HP 44 i'm working on has no real estate for the standard poly bump stops, so I'm gonna see how these work out. I also switched to a linear rate, lighter rate, coil spring. So I'm planning on these being a secondary spring. The have zero rebound effect, which is a plus. I have 5" up travel, these inserts make contact at 2 1/4". My Duff Long Arms contact the bottom of the frame at 5" up. They haven't hit yet, but I haven't trail tested it much. I made upper and lower landings for them to ride on. I'm running a 10 1/2" and a 2 1/2" insert stacked. My coil springs are 5 1/2" lift, 19" of spring at ride height. 13" of inserts, 3 3/4" of landings.

Mark

Action · Mar 8, 2016

Nice

Thanks for the info. Still like the tennis ball idea....LOL...
Jack

garberz · Mar 8, 2016

Action said:
Thanks for the info. Still like the tennis ball idea....LOL...
Jack

That's how the Haga Balls came about.

Ol'Blue · Mar 8, 2016

Gunna have to check this out at FFF. Ive been saving for Duff Arms and need to see them and this tennis ball idea!

nickgp · Mar 8, 2016

I ran those on my 86 f150 4x4 almost 30 years ago. Had rancho arms, shocks, and springs. Ran the piss out of that truck pitting and chasing. I didn't know they still made those donuts. Just threw some away that were off of that truck. They had turned to jello.

bigjhoov · Mar 8, 2016

Some interesting reading, they mention Stroppe.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/desert-racing/620622-secondary-suspensions.html

The red balls of wax were actually early urethane spring bushings that grew out of the Haga balls if memory serves. Charlie Haga came up with the idea I think when he was still working for Stroppe and had a major tire company (Firestone?) build some. They were used on some Stroppe trucks and were not as good in practice as they were in theory. They may have had too much rebound. The balls had holes in the middle and had a steel rod through the middle and flat washers between them. The lower end of the rod was attached to the I beam and the top went through the spring mount with some kind of droop stop (a ball on top?). I remember seeing these, but usure when, there was a write up about them in Off Road magazine? too. This was a long time ago though so I may be a little fuzzy. This was in the early 70's and the drugs were just starting to wear off, so I could be slightly factually wrong.

Still available for purchase.
http://www.jegs.com/p/Prothane/Prothane-Coil-Spring-Inserts/762178/10002/-1

bigjhoov · Mar 8, 2016

More...
http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210478

Yeller · Mar 9, 2016

got a good friend that has run tennis balls for years as bump stops. Every 2-3 years he replaces them and his little truck gets lots of air time. Having rode in it I can attest they work

smokinjoe · Mar 9, 2016

This is cool, and new to me....off to the interwebz to do some learnin'

RPM289 · Mar 9, 2016

So do you fill the holes in springs with tennis balls or is there a certain number based on????? BTW I have Superlift 5.5 springs up front and yes it may get some airtime one day

garberz · Mar 11, 2016

smokinjoe said:
This is cool, and new to me....off to the interwebz to do some learnin'

They have other uses also.

Action · Mar 11, 2016

Lol

Nice touch...................

Bundy · Mar 11, 2016

hahaha nice Mark!

Elite Broncos · Mar 11, 2016

Old school idea that worked before urethane and airbags

Tennis Balls in coil springs

garberz

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