Any Chassis Experts Out there? coilover question

[dnewman9]

I am preparing to put my coilovers on/back on. The PO kept his old coils but he had them mounted nearly verticle over the normal spring bucket. I was thinking of angling them forward to the front c bucket where the old quad shock mount is.

Seems like mounting them up there would increase their effectiveness as the radius of the suspension arc would be at its max.

Anyone have any thoughts on that?
Thanks
Dennis

 

[Broncoloupy]

Not an EXPERT but I know/have learned a bit. Too much angle is bad. Inward angle will help with sidehill and foreward angle will help with fast running provided it matches your suspension arc. I would guess that unless you have wicked travel, more than 4" slant in any direction would be detrimental to the function of the coilovers. Springrate gets harder to figure when you angle the shocks. More info would help a bit. Coilovers get a bit pricey when you need to keep changing springs because of rates that do not work with your setup.

 

[Broncoloupy]

After rereading your post,do you want to slant the front shocks forward? If so that is the opposite of what you want. Look at a lot of pictures of good working rigs and try to mimic those setups within your vehicles limitations.

 

[dnewman9]

Yea, I was thinking of moving it to the front of the radius arm where the c-bucket keeps the radius arm bushings in.

I see your point though, alot of race vehicles put their shocks somewhere between the axle and the pivot point as opposed to the other side of the axle. I hear you on the spring rate issue as well as you end up with two components of force and the x component is now not simply the spring rate of the coils you have.

I think I will abandon the idea for now and just put them back where they were.

Thanks
Dennis