LIRS6

Can someone explain the relationship between springs and dampers to me? The dampers function to accomodate for abrupt uneven road surfaces - pot-holes and such, yes? But what is the function of the springs? Are they designed to soften the overall ride? If one wants to control body roll and dive, is that achieved more by the firmness of the dampers or of the springs ... or both.... If one has adjustable dampers, do you go for a softer spring rate and increase the stiffness of the dampers, or vice-versa? TIA

4NG CRCS

I did some rummaging around and found some pretty good answers on the Stasis web site...
stasisengineering.com/faq.aspx

Tomasz@Startup

Cars ride on springs. Dampers control the spring from bouncing up and down.

Springs keep the car from diving or rolling (rollbars are springs too), dampers just keep the springs in check.

Dampers will affect the ride quality to some degree. Stiffer damper will feel like going from 17" wheel to 20". Or pumping your tires to 55PSI (try it).

LIRS6

thereby interpreting that if you want less roll/dive but a not-so-harsh ride, then you would go with firmer springs and softer dampening (as opposed to softer springs/firmer dampening)?

LIRS6

That's great Dave, thanks!

MikekiM@PureMS

Springs control the amount of travel you get. While dampers control the rate at which the suspension slows down and returns to normal

Just Me

Springs hold the car up. They actually push between the wheel and the body of the car. For each inch that they compress, they exert another "X" hundred pounds of force. Sp the more they compress, the harder the press. This is why when you put more people, or stuff, in the back seat, the car goes down until the spring's compression equals the total weight.

A damper does not push up nor down. It resists all motion. Its function is to keep the spring from oscillating or "bouncing"up and down. It keeps the car controlled and the wheels planted on rough tarmac.

The important thing is that overall springs and dampers need to be matched to each other. While there is certainly room to have lighter or heavier (sportier) damping - like when people put Bilsteins in to firm things up, if you mismatch by too much you get an over-damped ride. That means a) too harsh for the overall roll stiffness, and b) you can actually get a suspension that cannot respond quickly - dampers wont let the spring move quickly!

In fact, the overall spring-to-damper relationship is ultimately measured by engineers in frequency (hertz or cps).

Hope this helps. Springs hold the car up. Dampers counteract all motion. Period.

Grant

Tomasz@Startup

Changing that suspension is a heresy, but I will try . . .