How do you determine coilover spring rates?

[motochris]

How do you go about setting a car up with coil overs? More or less, is there a "formula" for figuring out spring rates and such? I'm guessing you would take the vehicles weight front/rear and go from there?
I have a beam play car, that I'de like to pull the torsions and go with a coil over setup in front. It already uses coilovers in the rear. Just wondering where to start.

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[*TRD*]

There are calculations for ride frequency. They are the best method to use when determining spring rates.

[motochris]

There are calculations for ride frequency. They are the best method to use when determining spring rates.

OK.....but that tells me nothing. Where do I find these?

[*TRD*]

OK.....but that tells me nothing. Where do I find these?

You could search for ride frequency...

http://www.timskelton.com/lightning/...on/springs.htm

[motochris]

You could search for ride frequency...

http://www.timskelton.com/lightning/...on/springs.htm

Interesting, thanks.

[*TRD*]

That was actually the 1st thing that popped up. I have not read that website before.

Rancho has a nice explanation but it is hard to find.

If you search this site you will probably find better material.

[85yota]

couldn't you find out the spring rate of your torsion bars and find the same spring rate coils, that is if you torsion were the right rate to start with. But it would give you a baseline to go from.

[TUBETECK]

Okay I'll throw out the obvious, Call Fox and King and see what they say, then call or see Mike,O at Kartek and listen to what he has to say. Mike been a round for awhile and helped us out with similar questions when we first started playing with suspensions

[cosmo]

Call Mirage racing products

[picone]

Here's a real simple way to do it:

Weigh your front end, divide by 2 (say 200#).
Figure it out so you sit 1/3 into the travel.
Figure out how many inches that is on the shock (say 4").
Figure out the leverage on the shock with weight X distance = weight X distance (say 50%), you need 100# of spring.
For dual coils us 1/K= 1/k+1/k. that gives 2-200# springs.