Please send comments to Steve, not me!

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven X. Schwenk [mailto:steve@syncro.org]
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 1:54 AM
To: Derek Drew
Cc: Syncro@egroups.com; vANAGON@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: [Syncro] Radical Spring Calculations

One other point I should have noted is that spring preferences are
subjective to some
extent.  I think back when David first speced out his springs, people were
talking in the
abstract about springs 20% stiffer as being ideal.  David's are considerably
less than
that.  And they are considerably less stiff than the Siekel springs, which
many people
appear to like.  So I am not saying David's springs are objectively too
stiff, i am
advocating that softer is better...as soft as you can go without the obvious
effects/symptoms of undersprung suspension, which you get with the stock
springs on a westy.

The springs you want Derek are a sort of hybred of the betts and the
marshall springs.  You
are after lift because of the heavy loads you carry.  You want the ride
height of the Betts
when you are fully loaded, which may require the ride height of the Marshall
spriings when
empty.  Still, spring rate still has to be part of the equation, and, the
damping
limitations of the stock shock put a limit on how much stiffer  you can go
before
encountering unintended effects of under-damped suspension.  (Unless you buy
the stiffer M
or N shocks.  Peter Seikel advises use of the N shock with his springs.)
How much stiffer
do you want?  It's hard to tell without actually trying different springs.
10% sound good,
but it's just a guess until you actually try it.  And if you are going to
increase the front
spring rate considerably, then you should increase the rear spring rate as
well, at least
based on what we've seen with the last run of betts springs.  The ride is
better and the
suspension works better when you use the betts rear with the betts fronts,
as opposed to the
stock rear.

The point?  This spring stuff is complicated.  There is no one size fits
all.
steve
p.s. what's this about Winkler having a variety of springs and
sitffness....really?  Where?