Coil Over Conversion Installed

[Tahoewhat]

You had mentioned getting some turning radius back from the spindles so i commented on my situation. Still no idea why ur same as me, unless you're resting on the bumpstop cup and dont realize it... i know that when i did the coilover swap, i hadnt trimmed the new stops yet and as i lowered the springs down the truck wouldnt sit any lower, then i realized it was just sitting on the bumpstop

Ah.. i dont even remember honestly. I get confused between mine and your thread. lol.
But you know what, i quite possibly could be on the cup, i know there is not much room at all, but im sure i would notice it resting on the cup. Worth a check to see again if am now.

Still dont understand it, find it odd. oh well.

I despised the loss in turning radius with my 2" drop spindles. If you have a rotary grinder then there is an easy fix for this. I am MUCH happier with the stock turning radius that I *now* get from my McGaughy 2" drop spindles.

yeah i noticed it very prominent when i first did it and said what the heck, i cant turn into a parking spot. But after 2 -3 years of turning i think it has cut a groove into itself by now, b/c i can turn pretty good now. ( i have that thread saved. lol)


So far though, i am happy the way the ride has become after lowering the settings on the shocks. The comfort status has come back. Still a few things to tighten up, as most of you know what, but happy i went down in clicks. Going to try the same click down i did yesterday again and get some more miles on these settings.

Still glad i made the swap, just now the urge for a new car or "new to me" is hitting me.

 

[Tahoewhat]

5/10/14

Cut the front bump stop cups off & added helper bags in the rear & raised the front up to around 32.5 little less.

First i'll talk about my findings today:
The shock has been bottoming out on the cap (top part of shock) either while driving around and hitting good sized bumps or its from the stupid speed bumps at work. Its not bad, but signs that we could see it was hitting. Was not hitting the bump stop bracket, but the shock, but also remember i was at the bottom of the coil threads. lowest setting. The shock had no room to travel and the spring load was from my understanding not much at all, Hence my reviews of wanting a harder spring. I think the correct term is, i did not preload the coil overs correctly and rushed into the setup. Also realized rear bump stop is hitting the frame, so looks like i need to c-notch for maximum travel. (not anytime soon)

WHAT CHANGED
Raised the front up to around 32.5 or little less & cut the stops off. Did not add new ones b/c the ones i have linked are too tall for my drop and i would end up cutting them basically all off, so might as well buy new smaller ones. (will edit op with my findings) Also added helper bags to the rear.

Impression
Wow, just that little raise in height and the helper bags have really smoothed out the ride. I did not even change the shock settings. Front 10 & Rear 8 (right now) Once again drove from friends shop about 50 or so miles away, back roads, freeway, construction, etc, rode pretty dang good throughout all terrain and was honestly impressed. Need to adjust rear bags a little and fine tune the height on the front to exact 32, but just that .8 from 31.5 to 32 1/4 has me quite pleased again with the ride. Seems to handle better as well.

With that i suppose there is a limit to how low we really can go on our tahoes and still have a comfortable ride that handles well. But dont hold me to that, as i do have an idea, but was told it did not make sense and awaiting a response from someone. But if true, I can go lower than i thought if i wanted to. (will add details when i know what im talking about, lol)


( this is on the 2nd post in here as well)

 

[digitalfiend]

With that i suppose there is a limit to how low we really can go on our tahoes and still have a comfortable ride that handles well. But dont hold me to that, as i do have an idea, but was told it did not make sense and awaiting a response from someone. But if true, I can go lower than i thought if i wanted to. (will add details when i know what im talking about, lol)

I'm really interested in what you're waiting to hear back.

Personally, think it all depends upon your rim/tire combo and your driving style. I designed my Tahoe's ride height around my driving style and my rim-tire setup. My driving style is hard and fast...I do NOT want to have to slow down for bumps and cracks during normal driving. I have found out that the lowest part of my truck that will hit are the rear lower control arm mounts. I was crawling down an incline from pavement onto a grass parking lot and they hit on the edge of the pavement. I think it was a of something like 6" or more...but that was a drop that you need to drive slowly down anyways.

Don't get me wrong, I do want to go lower, but if I went lower then I would not have enough room for suspension travel in the front *and* rear.

 

[Tahoewhat]

I'm really interested in what you're waiting to hear back.

Personally, think it all depends upon your rim/tire combo and your driving style. I designed my Tahoe's ride height around my driving style and my rim-tire setup. My driving style is hard and fast...I do NOT want to have to slow down for bumps and cracks during normal driving. I have found out that the lowest part of my truck that will hit are the rear lower control arm mounts. I was crawling down an incline from pavement onto a grass parking lot and they hit on the edge of the pavement. I think it was a of something like 6" or more...but that was a drop that you need to drive slowly down anyways.

Don't get me wrong, I do want to go lower, but if I went lower then I would not have enough room for suspension travel in the front *and* rear.

Basically what was said in blkouts thread is what i was doing this weekend. I was trying out the stud mount with a washer that atomic sent me. Was going to try it out, but due to time it did not happen. But my thoughts about it have been confirmed by blkout actually installing the stud mount.( which is lower it more)

Me & my buddy discussed that it would in fact lower the vehicle down, but would not change the shock positioning. (not sure that is right though) It would not help w/ bottoming out or anything like that.

My thoughts on it, were to install the stud mount & raise the coils up so that i am not on the bottom of the threads, (which to me basically has no preload) and raise it up some or back to my ride height, which again in my theory, would allow some load on the spring and not make the front bottom out so much as it was sitting on the bottom threads, b/c of the load the spring would then have.

But while doing so i was thinking that it would put me at the right height for the midpoint of travel on the shock, which hopefully in turn would allow for a smoother ride and still sort of be able to go lower if desired. (or lower it and go with a longer shock that would be set right for the ride height i choose going with the stud mount. )

Sorry if that doesnt make sense, its kind of hard to explain my thoughts typing. In short i guess, install stud mount, raise coil over up to allow more load on spring but still have good height that i desire and have the right shock mid point of travel.

-- the way you explain your driving is very similar to mine. I do not stop at all bumps in the road nor rail road tracks, nothing, unless i know of a big bump then slower i go. Of course speed bumps is another story. As you stated, there is a limit to where and how low we can go on these w/o loosing all shock travel. B/c the shock i currently have is the smallest shock i have ever seen for a vehicle, none the less a big tahoe.

AFter about a 60 miles round trip today, after rasing it up all around somehow about .5 to 1" the ride has really improved and even my bro at lunch asked what i changed and didnt tell him anything. He noticed without me saying a thing. So the ride is a for sure change only raising it a little bit.

Tomorrow i am back at the shop to even out the front settings to 32 to the correct ride height that atomic helped me with in the begining for my shocks and figure out why the bags lifted the rear of my tahoe 1".

 

[Atomic]

I wish you guys were closer to my neck of the woods i would be glad to help with the install. Kinda sounds like a lot is being left on the table during the installation process :/

 

[Bomba02]

atomic, so im gonna be getting the rest of my stuff soon, been kinda waiting on info and things to resolved i guess. So if i went stud top and the ds303 can i still go lower or would it just gain me more travel and similar height just use 32 for reference? my ideal height would be around 31-31.5. (have to get a center hub to fender measurement).

When setting up the coil over did you per-load it so it was in the middle of the shock? Do you have a pic of your shock set up? Also so if i do my measurement and find ride height and then pick my shock and spring how do i dial that in to be in correct location for shock so the system works correctly.

Sorry for all the question but want to order my stuff soon just trying to dial it in.
Billy

 

[Tahoewhat]

I wish you guys were closer to my neck of the woods i would be glad to help with the install. Kinda sounds like a lot is being left on the table during the installation process :/

I wish that as well. Maybe we can come to you. lol.

I will say the install sort of went the way it suppose to, but when you have others do the install it never ends up the way I want it to. So soon i will be getting necessary supplies so that i may be able to do all this myself and measure and do it accordingly and hopefully answer some questions of Bomba and others & myself for that matter.

 

[Z-56 Hoe]

Hmm.

 

[Atomic]

Using the stud top will lower it automatically 3" or so compared to the procomp mount. If you only want to go another inch lower than the procomp you could use the stud top then get a longer shock. The ratio of shock travel to wheel travel is about 2:1, so if you want 4" drop at the tire, you need to shorten the shock by 2", etc.

So I made sure I installed the shock at the right height: with the spring off and the shock all the way compressed, measure from the two mounting points. Lets say this is 13”. Now fully extend the shock and measure between the same two points, lets say this is 16”. So we know the shock travel is 3”, so we want half which is 1.5”. Now extend the shock until the length between the two measured points is 14.5” (13+(16-13)/2=14.5). I used a sharpie felt tip marker to make a reference line on the shaft where it meets the base of the shock body at this point.

Now install the coilover and adjust the preload on the spring until the truck sits so the shock is exactly where you marked it. This should be right in the middle of travel.

 

[Tahoewhat]

Using the stud top will lower it automatically 3" or so compared to the procomp mount. If you only want to go another inch lower than the procomp you could use the stud top then get a longer shock. The ratio of shock travel to wheel travel is about 2:1, so if you want 4" drop at the tire, you need to shorten the shock by 2", etc.

So I made sure I installed the shock at the right height: with the spring off and the shock all the way compressed, measure from the two mounting points. Lets say this is 13”. Now fully extend the shock and measure between the same two points, lets say this is 16”. So we know the shock travel is 3”, so we want half which is 1.5”. Now extend the shock until the length between the two measured points is 14.5” (13+(16-13)/2=14.5). I used a sharpie felt tip marker to make a reference line on the shaft where it meets the base of the shock body at this point.

Now install the coilover and adjust the preload on the spring until the truck sits so the shock is exactly where you marked it. This should be right in the middle of travel.

Wow, it will lower it 3" by using the stud top, i thought it was around 1.5" the length of the pro comp. Either way sounds like there is quite a bit of room to be lower then me and blkout currently are. But getting the proper height and shock midpoint is very important.

I guess no matter how low you go though the rear will still be up. lol
All part of the trade off.

Thanks for the info richard