>| Sure it will ride higher...but it will also ride stiffer.  And if this is
>| not how you pre-laod the spring, then how do you?  And why isn't the
>| compressed spring stiffer?

        You preload a spring by physically compressing it - by clamping
down on it. Ok, let's look at it another way, the van has a preload which
is determined by the weight of the van because NO OTHER LIMITATIONS are
imposed on the spring - it's preload is determined by the weight of the
van. Adding a spacer does not introduce any new limits to the travel of the
spring at rest - there is no additional compressive force (if anything,
there is an immeasureable reduction in the force applied to the van due to
the fact that you shifted the center of mass away from the earth's center
of mass which reduces the pull of gravity on the body of the van thus reducing
the van's weight, again immeassureably) and thus there is nothing to change
the preload of the spring... Why don't we just measure before and after
and wait til that's done to discuss the why this might be... I volunteer
my van if someone has some doughnuts and a spring compressor and a spare
weekend to give me ;)

dave