Progressive Coils / Spring Rates

[JMyerz]

I know nothing but have been hearing alot about them.

I know Land Rover guys have been running them for years.

Can anyone explain the benifit of them to me?

Thanks

Justin

[Allen]

They start out soft and get stiffer as they compress.....

Allen

[Sephiroth]

Originally posted by Allen
They start out soft and get stiffer as they compress.....

Allen

That did not sound right

[JMyerz]

YIKES!

How does this affect on road ride and and off road performance?

Thanks

Justin

Originally posted by Allen
They start out soft and get stiffer as they compress.....

Allen

[bart]

You can get a softer on road ride and compliant suspension for most of the cycle. I think they work great for high speed stuff too, less likely to bottom out. I guess the biggest proof that they work is that most coilovers are set up for dual or triple rate.

-Bart

[blkTJ]

Hey Justin, not sure if you noticed the other day, but I'm running the RE progressive front coils. They work perfectly fine suspending the front of the Jeep over the front axle. Are they any better or worse than straight wound coils? not sure.

[Milan]

I tried dual rate springs couple of times on my Bronco. These had closely spaced winds in the "soft" part of the spring and widely spaced winds in the "hard" part of it. The soft portion, after few runs over railroad tracks, colapsed so much that the coils were touching, letting the harsher part of the spring do all the work all the while the nose of the vehicle sitting lower than with stock springs (these were 2" lift springs). To this day I fail to see how the softer coils are supposed to stop from colapsing on each other if in most cases you will exceed their load rating during compression. If you have a spring with equal winds throughout but softer rating in say 1/3rd of its length, I'd figure the soft part would eventually sag anyhow. So I stick with single rate coils. If you have the proper rate, they seem to work fine.

[Stu Olson]

One thing I noticed the other day were the dual rate springs on a friend's Rubicon. At rest, several of the bottom coils were touching each other. At the top of the coil, the winds were quite a distance apart. In the middle, they looked quite normal.

What I found interesting was that when he dropped a tire into a hole, those lower coils would expand and effectively give you a longer coil.

At rest, the rig sat like a TJ with a 4" lift. At flex, it reached like a 6" sprung lift.

I guess this is one way to help keep your COG lower at regular ride height. Yes or no?

[Darrell C]

Do you know who made those dual rate coils??

[JMyerz]

Thats what I was thinking as well. That and the stiffer rate would force the tire down when articulating.

Justin

Originally posted by Stu Olson
One thing I noticed the other day were the dual rate springs on a friend's Rubicon. At rest, several of the bottom coils were touching each other. At the top of the coil, the winds were quite a distance apart. In the middle, they looked quite normal.

What I found interesting was that when he dropped a tire into a hole, those lower coils would expand and effectively give you a longer coil.

At rest, the rig sat like a TJ with a 4" lift. At flex, it reached like a 6" sprung lift.

I guess this is one way to help keep your COG lower at regular ride height. Yes or no?

[Stu Olson]

Originally posted by Darrell C
Do you know who made those dual rate coils??

These were RE coils.