- Hello.
You may be wondering, hm,
I haven't seen that shirt before,
and that's because you haven't.
It's the start of a new month,
and that can only mean one thing.
We're giving away some more stuff.
So we have something special planned this month
for a giveaway, so stick around till the end of the video
to find out what exactly is going on.
And trust me, you're not gonna wanna miss out on this one.
Anyway, I'm Gels from Fitment Industries,
and on today's episode of The Build Sheet
we are gonna be diving into some suspension
and taking a look at what you need to know
about spring rates when it comes to your coilovers.
(upbeat music) (machinery humming)
So you know that thing when someone
is like talking about something
and you know that you should know what they're talking about
because it sounds familiar,
but it's like so far along in the process
that at this point you're just too afraid to ask?
Well, this is like one of those situations.
When it comes to coilover suspension,
things like spring rates are just one of those things
that you just kinda like, "Uh-huh",
nod your head in agreement when they're brought up.
And don't you lie to me, I see you.
You're watching this video for a reason.
Don't sit there and tell me that you haven't been
at least a little bit confused at some point.
So here we go, let's start with the basics.
What exactly is the definition of spring rate?
In basic terms it is the correlation
between the amount of force or weight that is needed
to compress a spring by one inch
in the standard measurement of things.
In basic terms it's the correlation
between the amount of force or weight that is needed
to compress a spring by one inch
if you're looking at it from the standard side of things,
and we'll get into that in just a second.
So if you have a spring that is rated at 300 pounds,
or a 300 pound spring rate,
you can put 300 pounds on it
and you can expect to compress by one inch,
and that's pretty straightforward.
So how does this relate to coilovers
and where does the confusion really come from?
The first thing that usually throws some people off
or causes some confusion at the very least
is that most coilover springs are rated as either
like a 6K or 10K spring,
instead of like our example
where we said it's like a 300 pound spring.
And in reality, it's pretty simple.
You see, here in the good old United States of America
we haven't switched to this cool little thing
called the metric system yet.
So when we hear 300 pound spring,
that would make sense to most of us.
However when you hear a number with a K at the end of it,
like 6K for example,
that is the abbreviated metric equivalent
to pounds per inch,
which just so happens to be kilograms per millimeter.
For the most part, for car suspension like coilovers,
this is how spring rate is usually noted.
When you get into the truck side of things
with coilover suspension lifts and things like that,
they are usually measured in pounds per inch.
So if you ever need to convert
a standard spring rate to metric,
just like, let's take 500 pounds for example,
just divide it by the number 56,
which will give you the spring rate of right about 8.9K.
Now if you want to do the vice versa,
you take that 8.9K, times it by 56,
and you'll get right around 500 pounds.
So now that we got that out of the way
we can dive right into some different types of springs,
and what they actually have to offer.
So first up, we have the usual linear springs.
Now these springs are gonna take our spring rate
of let's say 10K and remain consistent or linear
throughout its travel range.
That means the initial 10K will compress the spring
by one millimeter.
And when you increase the load to say,
20 kilograms or 20K,
it will compress another one millimeter.
Now these are what we see come standard
on most coilovers on the market,
as they offer great handling that is very predictable
in how they're going to perform.
However, if you're rolling with a high spring rate
you do suffer a bit as far as comfort of your ride goes.
So if you're one of those people
who are more concerned about their ride more than anything,
this is where we start to see
progressive spring rates come into play.
Now progressive spring rates will offer
a multiple of different spring rates
within one spring design.
Basically meaning that you have a softer spring rate
near the top of the spring that will compress first.
And then when you start to get into higher speeds
during cornering and things like that,
you'll start to hit the higher spring rate
as the spring compresses.
Now this is great for offering some more comfort
with your ride, and you would probably think
that it would be a great alternative
for someone looking for comfort and performance,
and that unfortunately just isn't really the case.
You see, with progressive springs
it becomes very unpredictable
just when you're going to reach
that higher spring rate of the spring,
keeping you as the driver not entirely sure
of how fast or tight you can take a corner,
because it's very dependent on a lot of different things
going on with the vehicle.
Maybe you're not going fast enough
to make use of the higher spring rate.
You could be taking the corner not as tight.
The weight shift could have been different on initiation.
All of those kind of things start to come into play,
whereas if you had a linear spring,
you are 100% certain of what to expect all of the time.
So what it comes down to is,
why do we care about spring rates as car enthusiasts?
Well, for one,
when we are looking at changing up suspension in our cars,
it's going to be either for one or two reasons.
For looks or for performance.
And when it come to looks, it should come as no surprise
that people take things to the extreme,
especially in today's world
of stanced cars and fender to lip fitment.
You don't want the lip of your wheel
bashing into your fender.
Now, this is why we see static stance cars
running such high spring rates.
Because it's needed.
They don't want that suspension component
to move almost at all.
One thing to keep in mind is that it isn't all reliant
on the spring rate itself, however,
to get the looks or performance out of your coilovers.
A lot of it has to do with
how the damper of the coilover itself is valved,
and how it's going to react
with the spring that you have chosen for your car.
Now, when it comes to determining
what spring rate or valving that you need
for a specific purpose of what you're dealing with your car
is where it starts to get just a little tricky.
And for the sake of not making a 20-minute video,
we can save that for another time.
Just let us know down in the comments below
if that's something that you'd really like us to go over,
if that'd be something that's really helpful to you.
However, if you are in the market for some coilovers
right this second and need that kinda information,
you can always shoot us an email.
We're always looking to help out
if you're looking to make that type of purchase.
So now we've reached the end,
and if you remember in the beginning,
if you didn't skip the beginning,
because if you did I just don't know at this point,
but we had some great news that we wanted to share with you
and we wanted you to stick around to the end.
So hopefully you didn't just fast forward
to the end either to find out
because that's just a lame move, bro.
Anyway, we're super excited to announce
that we have partnered with BC Racing
for the month of August
to give away a set of BC Racing coilovers.
So of course just like every giveaway
we have created an absolutely killer shirt,
this one I'm wearing.
Now wait till you just see the back.
I'm a turn around real slow like,
'cause the mic has been cracklin',
and I don't want it to crackle.
Dakota, is it cracklin'? - Doing good.
- Okay, good.
So check out the back of this shirt.
It is absolutely killer.
It is by far my favorite shirt that we have done so far.
Now I know I've said that like, every time.
It's not cracklin'.
I know I've said it like every time,
but we just keep getting better and better with the shirts,
and they just all become my favorite.
So what this is gonna do,
by picking up one of these shirts
it's gonna automatically enter you in
to win a set of BC Racing, BR Series coilovers.
Now just like every other giveaway as well,
we always make sure that we give back.
So we're gonna be making a donation this month
with the help from you guys
with the contributions from every shirt sale
to go to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Now this organization has been around for almost 60 years
and it's the leading organization in conservation efforts.
So if you remember last month at the Konig giveaway
we were able to raise over $6,000
for the ASPCA thanks to you guys.
Thanks to everyone for picking up a shirt.
So we're super excited to choose WWF
for our organization that we're gonna be
giving back to this month.
So pick up the t-shirt.
Fitmentindustries.com, we'll have the link below.
Get entered in to win a free set of coilovers.
This is the first suspension giveaway that we've ever done
so we're super-excited to give away a free set of coilovers.
We've given away wheels in the past,
we're gonna be giving away some suspension now.
We're really glad to be doing this.
So pick up a t-shirt, enter in to win a set of coilovers,
save some turtles, save some animals and things like that.
I'm Gels from Fitment Industries.
Don't forget to subscribe.
We will see you later.
Peace.