You're looking to lower your car. Lowering spring, coil-over which way should we go?
I'm Damien Brase here with Steve Smith. Today we're going to talk about the differences between
lowering springs and coil-overs. Steve what do we know about lowering springs?
Well we know they are advertised to lower the car a given amount whether it's one,
two inches maybe even more than that not too bad on the installation. You throw them in it will
lower the vehicle and it can be an effective way to get the car down the stance the center of
gravity down. You can pair it with a adjustable shock sure and get the ride quality out of it
so it can be a useful tool. What what are some of the drawbacks of going with the drop
coil? The biggest drawback with a drop spring is that when you install it into the car
that's what you get. Where it sits is where it's going to sit. Now you can pair it with the
adjustable shock like I was saying but everybody has a specific height they want their car at
and this might do it but it also might not do it. We'll get calls on the tech line about
using not lowering springs but maybe other factory springs that were made for say a big block car
where you need to support a larger amount of weight or you're trying to raise the front
you can go to a six-cylinder spring in some cases and lower the car. The problem again comes back to
whatever wherever you set that car down that's where the car is going to sit there's no adjusting
it and so we'll usually find that customers will swap a couple sets of springs in and out
two three sets of springs by about the third set of springs they're done taking this suspension
apart and they're ready to go to the coil-over which is easily adjustable. So now that we know
a little bit about the lowering springs and when they might be effective and when they might not be
tell us about that coil-over Damien that's going to save us a lot of trouble. Well with
the coil-over shock we've got the threads on the shock here that's going to give you your
ride height adjustment range. We've got multiple different spring rates for different applications.
So you want to lower your car a half inch you want to lower it one inch two
inches you've got the option to to get that adjustment range with the coil-over shock.
Whereas with the lowering spring that's that is what it is. Yeah the other thing is that many
cars are not going to weigh the same amounts side to side. So you put a standardized spring rate or
lowering spring into the car and you still might have a situation where one side of the car is
leaning or the you know similar to the ride height and the desired ride height. The coil-over you
simply will jack up that corner and you can level things out. Yeah cure the the common Chevy lean
and then spring rate wise we've got multiple spring rates for every application we catalog
parts for. So if you got a you know a stripped down drag car maybe 15 1600 pound
front end weight we've got a spring for that. You've got a twin turbocharged big block with
air conditioning and your pro-touring rig and we've got a spring that'll work for that too.
And the other nice thing about the coil-over shock is that it combines the shock for the ride quality
with the adjustable ride height of the coil. With a lowering spring we've had customers that
will get the lowering springs they'll buy our non-coil-over shocks our Stocker Stars and that
can work for them. But if they decide that the ride height isn't quite what they want they want
to go to the coil-over now that non-coil-over Stocker Star shock cannot be turned into a
coil-over it's buying another set of shocks this one to have the best of both of those worlds. So
some customers will find that instead of swapping all these different lowering springs or factory
springs and they may have a nice adjustable shock the time and spent and the money
just jumping to the coil-overs is usually a good bet. Yeah prevent having to buy multiple sets of
springs or you know even buy one spring pull it out cut it a couple times and now it's too short
and you're back to buying the coil-over anyway. Now Damien when you talk about spring rates not
just the ability to lower or set the car where you want it but the variety and availability of our
spring rates will also lend itself to different things you might be doing with the car. Sure.
So if you want to lower the car down you know you want that pro-touring look but you're not going
to be racing it you want a good ride you want it to handle well you know maybe you go with like
a 400 pound spring in your street car versus the guy that's actually going to be out autocrossing
road racing you know that type of car. You might want to have a firmer spring in there
where it's going to ride rougher on the street and not necessarily give a comfortable ride. So
having those different spring rate options paired with the adjustability and the coil-over shock
really lets you dial in your stance and your performance for how you're using the car. Yeah
and for customers that are mostly street cars but maybe you want to go to the track
more than twice a year maybe do a little bit of competition you can slightly soften that
spring rate on your street car and get some better results at the track too. So the availability of
all of the spring rates that we offer also lends itself very well to the coil-over option for
as far as just lowering a car. Now you know a little bit about the differences between
lowering springs and coil-overs lowering springs might get you to where you want the car to sit
might not. Coil-overs you've got the adjustability to get your ride height dialed in along with the
adjustable shock valving. For more information please visit us at QA1.net or give us a call
on the tech line. And don't forget to hit our social media as well and always #goDRIVEit.