Discussion
GreenV8S said:
its underdamped.
dukeenfield said:
made them softer and it rides a lot better now.
I might be missing something here, but do you mean 'harder'?
I also was confused when Julian said under damped but having read some of Julian's posts in the past he seems quite knowledgeable on the subject so maybe he can educate us amateurs?
I think the confusion is in the terminology or use of it.
Scenario A. Stereotypical American handling station wagon. You know like in the films where they screech to a halt, jump out and walk away and the car can still be seen bouncing away in the background.
Scenario B. go-kart. Skips over bumps and rattles your fillings loose.
Which is "under damped"? I thought it was A
leorest said:
I think the confusion is in the terminology or use of it.
Scenario A. Stereotypical American handling station wagon. You know like in the films where they screech to a halt, jump out and walk away and the car can still be seen bouncing away in the background.
Scenario B. go-kart. Skips over bumps and rattles your fillings loose.
Which is "under damped"? I thought it was A
Well, quite. A spring is better than no spring (go-kart), but once the spring has been compressed it has to release the stored energy as the load is removed. This would cause the spring to oscillate, leading to lots of bounce. The function of the shock (or damper, perhaps
) is to provide a resistance to the spring's movement. Less friction (or damping) equals Yank tank. You actually need two damping actions; some in compression (to allow the spring to compress, but not too violently) and then in rebound to slow down the spring's recovery. Get it wrong and you get skipping tyres, crashy ride, body roll.... in fact most of the criticisms that can be levelled at the Wedges, so perhaps most of us have a problem.... 
The reason i said it was underdamped is because in the first post it said the car was bouncing around after fitting RT stiff springs.. I assumed that he meant the dampers weren't controlling the new stiffer spring and the car was bouncing on them.
It now appears the car was too stiff and jumping across the bumps.. something else entirely.
a confusion of terminology I think.
It now appears the car was too stiff and jumping across the bumps.. something else entirely.
a confusion of terminology I think.
Yes it must have been jumping over bumps before and not bouncing, my mistake,not up on suspension settings.
I took my car for tracking the other day and he managed to do tracking ok,but couldn't get camber (or is it caster angle,the ajustment to front tie rods) ajusted to recommended setting.Does this setting make much difference.
I took my car for tracking the other day and he managed to do tracking ok,but couldn't get camber (or is it caster angle,the ajustment to front tie rods) ajusted to recommended setting.Does this setting make much difference.
It is caster. Camber is not adjustable. Caster can make a bigt difference on self centering and the amount of effort needed on the steering. Don't know how you are measuring it but unless you have a castor guage it can be very easy to get it wrong.
To be honest the whole design is a bit of a set of approximations at the best of times...
To be honest the whole design is a bit of a set of approximations at the best of times...
Gassing Station | Wedges | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff