Ride height.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,290
Likes: 1
From: Ca
Re: Ride height. (Miles in Michigan)
You can't ever change the weight of the front, back, left or right by changing ride height. Those are determined by where the mass is relative to the tires, and will not change unless you move components (like put the battery in the back).
All you can change is the corner balance. If you make one wheel lower (ride height higher at that corner), you put more weight on it, but at the same time take the same amount of weight off the wheels next to it, and add weight to the wheel diagonal of it.
A car is corner balanced when RF+LR is equal to LF+RR.
All you can change is the corner balance. If you make one wheel lower (ride height higher at that corner), you put more weight on it, but at the same time take the same amount of weight off the wheels next to it, and add weight to the wheel diagonal of it.
A car is corner balanced when RF+LR is equal to LF+RR.
Of course you can't change the weight of the car. You are perfectly correct regarding corner balance and RF counter acts with LR and vise versa. That is why you need the scales to do this the right way. You can't eye ball diagonal weight transfer. There is more you can adjust than just the ride height to achieve this...but the ride height is where you start.
:yesnod:
Burning Brakes
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 1,163
Likes: 0
From: The greatest risk is not taking one at all
Re: Ride height. (RCswish)
Make sure that after you lower the front and rear that you wait a couple of weeks before you get an alignment so everything can settle n' stuff.
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 1,922
Likes: 0
From: Boulder, Colorado
Re: Ride height. (RCswish)
Of course you can't change the weight of the car. You are perfectly correct regarding corner balance and RF counter acts with LR and vise versa. That is why you need the scales to do this the right way. You can't eye ball diagonal weight transfer. There is more you can adjust than just the ride height to achieve this...but the ride height is where you start.
I hopped in the driver seat and Ted May at Valaya racing balaced my suspension to be axactly 25% in each corner with me in the seat. Now the ride height was perfectly equal but it was perfectly balanced with me in the drivers seat.
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 246
Likes: 0
From: N.J.
Re: Ride height. (Rapid Transit)
Rapid Transit, thanks for the info, my car looks great lowered, but it's ride was like old farm tractor with steel wheels
87 coupe auto silver beige/medium brown
98 cope auto nassau blue
86 El Camino SS silver/grey
65 Olds 442 4 spd. :chevy :flag
87 coupe auto silver beige/medium brown
98 cope auto nassau blue
86 El Camino SS silver/grey
65 Olds 442 4 spd. :chevy :flag
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,290
Likes: 1
From: Ca
Re: Ride height. (Miles in Michigan)
Of course you can't change the weight of the car. You are perfectly correct regarding corner balance and RF counter acts with LR and vise versa. That is why you need the scales to do this the right way. You can't eye ball diagonal weight transfer. There is more you can adjust than just the ride height to achieve this...but the ride height is where you start.
You seem to be agreeing with me, which is odd because you said this earlier:
I hopped in the driver seat and Ted May at Valaya racing balanced my suspension to be exactly 25% in each corner with me in the seat. Now the ride height was perfectly equal but it was perfectly balanced with me in the drivers seat.
How'd he do that? I'm not sure what you're talking about here.
You seem to be agreeing with me, which is odd because you said this earlier:
I hopped in the driver seat and Ted May at Valaya racing balanced my suspension to be exactly 25% in each corner with me in the seat. Now the ride height was perfectly equal but it was perfectly balanced with me in the drivers seat.
How'd he do that? I'm not sure what you're talking about here.
You can transfer where the weight balance hits the ground in the 4 corners. Take your own body for instance...while your standing up straight all your weight is on your 2 feet. When you do a handstand all your weight is on your 2 hands. When you are on all fours you have different weight going to each limb depending on where you lean. At no time did you add any weight to your body...but you did change how much weight was focused on your arms and legs. Same as a car. You can test this at home. Put a bathroom scale under each of your coffee tables legs and measure. Now cut one leg shorter than the others and weigh it again. The shorter leg will be heavier...yet you never added wieght :lol:
When my Corvette was on the scales in Ted's shop we were able to transfer how much weight hit the ground in each corner. As we lowered the front left by say 2 threads it would increase the weight that hit that scale by 40lbs (estimate) and would reduce the weight that hit the rear right wheel by 30lbs (again just an estimate I didn’t really track this).
So in this manner we did transfer weight...and that was the method in which we did it. The scales are the proof. I'm not sure where the confusion lies.
Yes you cannot move physical mass with the suspension, but yes you can move the balance of the weight because the suspension is bolted to the frame and it adjustable and can lean in multiple directions. As the suspension leans...weight balance is transferred. If we were to sit the frame on a scale...or the over all car on a scale, sure it would be the same weight. Ted was measuring the weight of the contact patch of each individual tire.
That is as simple as I can explain it.... sorry for the long post
[Modified by RCswish, 12:44 AM 8/20/2002]
