

| Subject: | Re: My van's home again!!! |
| From: | Don Hanson |
| Date: | Mon, 4 Jul 2016 07:48:08 -0700 |
Handling, as influenced by suspension setup and tires, it is fascinating. Altering one adjustment or component changes many of the other settings. I have a GM Safari AWD van that was kinda unpleasant to drive.....a dead feeling steering wheel and it darted around the lane, trying to turn too sharply... I took just one turn off the adjusters for the front torsion bars, lowering the ride height a bit...and now it steers nicely. When you first begin to learn about suspension, it's smart to be conservative and make just small adjustments to a single setting, with a way to go back to the way it was, if you find you've got things worse...if a little change helps, you can go a bit more...if it gets better, you can do some more until you start to get negative results ...or you may discover that another small "tweak" to a different part will enhance the change you just made....and on and on....😉 Keep track. I keep notes for each vehicle...things I've done and specific settings like tire pressures, changes to alignment, etc. It's very easy to"get lost" when you do a bunch of suspension changes all at once... For example:. That GM....I know lowering the front made the vehicle drive nicer, but was that just the ride height? No, the whole thing is different from that one little change... toe, camber, caster, weight transfer, etc etc...it all was altered with that one little tweak....but which changes actually did the most? Fun stuff. It's not really a science, it's more of an art.... and there are too many variables...each vehicle is unique... The fun is in making them work better... like that Safari.....now it's fun to drive, but it would still be a real Pig if I'd been lazy or meek.
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