cliffyk

When you say "bouncing" are you talking about the body bouncing around as though the shocks were completely shot, or that the entire car is bouncing around on the road, as in the tires losing contact with the roadway?

If the former (the body is bouncing around on the suspension, the tires stay on the road) then you need stiffer shocks to control the jounce and rebound)-

However if it's the latter and the tires are losing contact with the road and when cornering the car wants to leave the road, then softer shocks may help a bit but don't expect any miracles. It is more likely that the suspension is so stiff and restricted by the higher spring rate and reduced travel, from cutting the springs, that it is not sufficiently compliant to keep the tires in contact with the road.

What happens is that when you hit the bump the tire gets pushed upward, the spring and shock compress as much as they can; and then the body, suspension, tire and all are tossed into the air.

By now you have passed the bump and the tire is no longer contacting the roadway--the shock and spring extend, but because of the limited available travel the tire remains up in the air (or makes contact with very little traction) until the roadway rises at the next bump and/or the body drops.

This happens at each bump, at each wheel, and in the rear a bump on the right will affect the left, and vice versa, because of the solid axle. Obviously when the tires are in the air you have lost all traction and in a turn the centrifugal force makes the car hop sideways and potentially off the road...

teej281

HP, what you dont understand is that the different stiffness levels in the D-Specs is not for how soft or harsh you want your ride to be. Its more along the lines that you have the ability to change the stiffness needed or not needed for a certain spring rate. Like you cannot run lakewoods(or wouldnt ever suggest it) with H&R Race springs or Super Race springs. They do not have the valving to handle that spring rate or the fact that they are lowered in the operation range. You need a shock that is going to be able to handle not only the extreme lowering, but the increased spring rate at that extreme level of lowering. With that said, I'm going to make a suggestion to you that would probably be backed up by the techs at MM...MM Sport valved Bilsteins. They will be able to handle the extreme level of lowering and the spring rate. I would suggest the regular HD's but they might be valved just barely too soft for your application in the rear. In the front you would probably be able to get away with an HD but not in the rear. One of the reasons that made me go IRS is the WAY better ride the IRS has over the SRA. Like its obnoxious how much better my car rides with the IRS. SRA's ride like a buck board to begin with then lowering them that much and adding the HP's on there really just makes me cringe.

BTW, the only adjustable dampers I would ever suggest is the Koni's...I hated my Strange 10 ways. They rode like crap. Just saying. Adjustable=more stuff to go wrong IMHO and more opportunity to mess stuff up.

hpwrestler220

Cliffy - The car doesn't lift off of the road with the other springs from what i can tell. It's just bouncy as all h*ll. It was always connected to the road, it just didn't feel stable on hard/bumpy/rocky turns and when i went over a series of hills, i couldn't concentrate i was bumping around so badly.

I put the other rear springs back in today and it rides much more smooth, but the handling and braking is drastically reduced/compromised compared to the cut mach 1 springs that i had on there.

So i guess i just need a stiffer shock to handle the crazy amount of bouncing that is going on here.

Teej - you really don't think that the HD's in the rear will help? I heard that sport valved shocks are really rough for street driving...

BTW - when people say "my car rides ROUGH" wtf does that mean? Like you feel every bump, but you dont bounce around? I don't mind that, but i do mind bouncing around as it's pretty damn unsafe not to mention VERY uncomfortable...

cliffyk

Let me try to rephrase to make sure we are talking about the same thing. When you say "bouncing" are you talking about the car being mushy and bouncing up and down on the springs like an old Chevy Caprice.

When you go over a single bump or dip in the road does it bounce up and down 2 to 3 times before leveling off?

Or are you talking about it bumping and shaking about on the road, and becoming uncontrollable?

Once again the former is undamped oscillation because the shocks are worn, or just can't can't handle the spring rate and vehicle weight--this is most common with heavy mushy riding cars.

In the latter where the car seems to be hopping around, the tires may not be actually leaving the road (though they would if one pushed hard enough) however they are losing enough traction that stability is lost.

hpwrestler220

Cliffy - I know exactly what you are referencing in your post, but it's hard for me to give you an EXACT answer so i'll tell you what i know...

When i have the tokico progressive rate springs out back and i hit a turn and hit a bump midway through the turn, the car actually "skipps" out on me midway through (just slightly though).

I haven't experienced that with the cut mach 1 springs though.

But when going over a rough surface with the tokico progressive rates, the car is more predictable and seems to handle the bumps much better. Just like when i drive down the highway my car is smooth and seems to groove with the bumps and such and instantly dampen.

With the cut mach coils, i can hit 1 bump and the car will struggle to dampen it seems, but it does dampen, just not as quick as it does with the tokico springs (it seems)... It might take an extra bounce to dampen, but it does it fairly quickly, just not as fast as the tokico springs.

With the mach springs though, it is VERY bounce happy on rough roads. If there are a series of bounces, my car feels like an amusement park ride. It's terrible and uncontrolling.

So in short, i don't think my wheels have ever come off of the ground with the mach springs. But when hitting a turn that is far from a nicely paved surface, the car does not feel stable and almost wants to jut out on me like you said in the latter in your above post. It feels as though stability is lost, but i seem to be connected to the road the whole time (even if barely). And when its not a nicely paved surface and i am going straight, the car bounces a vast amount of times until the road becomes nice again. But if it's a nice road and i hit a bump, it might take 2 bounces til it fully stops bouncing again. With the tokico's it might take 1 bounce to stop bouncing again... It is riding like the chevy caprice you are talking about. Idk how that chevy caprice takes rough surfaced corners, but hilly straight roads the bouncing doesnt seem to stop soon enough.

What are we thinking here? Shocks?

jt02gt

bingo

teej281

See I thought you were referring to the at riding like a buck board and feel like the shocks are just solid bars. But in that case I think the hd's would help...but now off to debate bilstein vs. konis in your other thread.

hpwrestler220

Ahh i see what you mean teej. When i am going over a bunch of cracks in the road, i think the shocks are non-existent... The trouble here is on rough surfaces. Even on "SLIGHTLY" rough and i mean slightly rough roads, my car handles well and doesn't really bounce. It's just on roads that are more than slightly rough that kill me with the bouncing and feel as though i don't have shocks, which probably don't help my "feel" at all in the back of the car when i say that it "feels" like its going to skip out on me and lose control...

I would think that some nice shocks will help push the wheels right back down to where they are supposed to be.

It's making me feel better that the consensus seems to be bad shocks.

I would still love more imput if people have more to say

cliffyk

+1, you need "stiffer" shocks with more dampening...

hpwrestler220

Thanks everybody for the help. Cliffy you really picked my brain. I appreciate it.

Now it's just a matter of koni's or bilsteins...