Dembo

I made that mistake, and the rear of the car dropped nearly an inch when CG loosened the bolts.

soulcrew

Hellagap.

razzele

Si2k

What is spring preload anyway?

You can't change 'preload' a spring without changing the weight of the car.

Dembo

It makes the springs effectively stiffer than the default.

Or something. I have to admit to never quite being able to understand how it works.

Ultra_Nexus

Preload is what it is.

Pre Load.

Is is the amount of load you apply to the spring before you put the weight on it.

What it doesn't do is simulate a stiffer spring.

So if you preload a spring 300kg, it will take 300kg of weight before the spring compresses any more.

Hence, if you ever preload, your car will effectively have no compression and then, once it reaches the required loading, have original spring rate compression.

Hope that makes sense

lovegroova

Good exxplanation from here: http://www.worksperformance.com/html/tpl_desc.html

[QUOTE]Spring Pre-load and spring rate - CHANGING PRE-LOAD DOES NOT CHANGE SPRING RATE. You don’t get a stiffer spring by adding pre-load. Rather you change the weight point at which the spring starts to move. Once the spring starts to compress it will move at its spring rating.

Dembo

So you have no suspension at all, up to the point where the load reaches the same as the preload amount, then you have the suspension you would have had.

I'm no sure why that's good.

lovegroova

Presumably you're relying on the damper up to the point at which the spring starts working. I'm also not sure why this would be good

Ultra_Nexus

Damping has nout to do with it because if your preload exceeds your load, there will be no movement of the piston/spring.