Has anyone cut a coil?

[Getinyukinlower]

Hey guys new here. I have a 02 Yukon with a 2/3 drop with the front cranked all the way down. I have herd that people have trimmed a could off but was wondering how it fits back I'm the cup. I'm short on cash and just want it an inch to inch and a half lower. If you have pics that would be awesome!! Thanks guys

 

[Baker1k]

I have done it to a few 03-04 cobra's because they come stock with linear springs. I'm sure that tahoe's and Yukon's have progressive springs which means ride quality will go to hell. I would not do it because the s10s we did when I was young ride really sucked bad. If anyone has done it and it turned out good post up.

 

[NASTY GM]

When I first got mine there weren't all these nice kits out. So I ran 2" drop spindles and cut 3/4 of a coil off. I had no problems at all.

 

[ezdaar]

You cut or heat a coil, your ride wil suffer the 10 plauges of egypt.
You wil find your ride sufers from rough, to bounce, to WTF. why did I do this.

Coil springs are designed for their lenght and compression rate.

be smart and buy drop spindles, keep your OEM geometry and spring rate.. or buy Progresive springs to give the drop you want whike maintaining a decent ride...

 

[emann_01]

You cut or heat a coil, your ride wil suffer the 10 plauges of egypt.
You wil find your ride sufers from rough, to bounce, to WTF. why did I do this.

Coil springs are designed for their lenght and compression rate.

be smart and buy drop spindles, keep your OEM geometry and spring rate.. or buy Progresive springs to give the drop you want whike maintaining a decent ride...

couldnt have said it better myself....X2

 

[Getinyukinlower]

I do understand that the ride quality is goin to be bad for now. I'm doing this under a budget right now while saving for 5" drop springs. With me cutting a coil and a half off I'm also putting on some air shock hopefully to counter some of the bounce. Then going to do the free travel mod to give more room from bottoming out.

 

[GreatWhite]

I think cutting coils has gotten an undeserved bad rap. A couple of years ago when I was fooling wtih my Envoy I got hold of some TBSS springs (~3/4" lower) - the only difference between the two was that the SS spring was one coil shorter at the fat end - same wire diameter and everything else. Our springs aren't very progressive if at all and especially not at the top where you would be doing the cutting. That's the place to do it because the tops are not flattened so the cut spring will still fit fine in the cup. Bear in mind that as you reduce the number of active coils, the spring will get stiffer: take off one coil out of 10 and you'll have a 10% stiffer spring. That's usually a good thing up to a point. I wouldn't have any concerns about taking one coil off but I wouldn't want to go much beyond that. Another popular low-buck way to lower the front end is to relocate the lower spring perch on the shock/strut by machining a new groove in the shock body. That doesn't change the spring rate at all so you have to worry more about bottoming out. That's why it's done more for show cars than drivers. You also have to have access to a lathe big enough to chuck up the shock.

---------- Post added at 09:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 PM ----------

PS: I should have mentioned that it's not totally straightforward to calculate how much lowering you will get by cutting a coil. If you cut exactly one coil, the effective length of the spring will be reduced by the coil spacing under static load, not the spacing you would measure on the bench. Measure the coil spacing before you take the spring out. Once you know that, you still have to know the ratio of wheel travel to spring or shock travel. That number will be greater than one. You can get a rough estimate by measuring the horizontal distance from the lower A arm pivots to the center of the tire and dividing that by the distance from the same pivots to the lower shock bolts. Multiply that number by the coil spacing under load that you measured before and you will get the amount of drop per coil that you can expect.

 

[NASTY GM]

I do understand that the ride quality is goin to be bad for now. I'm doing this under a budget right now while saving for 5" drop springs. With me cutting a coil and a half off I'm also putting on some air shock hopefully to counter some of the bounce. Then going to do the free travel mod to give more room from bottoming out.

Bro cut the coil. You won't even notice the ride quality difference.