Leaf springs win

[Magilla]

wtf are you doin in a TJ to experience severe oversteer?

gymkhana

[JoeNitro]

wtf are you doin in a TJ to experience severe oversteer?

driving it without sway bars.

maybe im missuseing the term oversteer? but with it off if you take the wheel and go back and forth quickly the body roll is so severe it gets scary and the handeling is snappy.

[JoeNitro]

put it this way i do not feel at all safe driving it with out the front sway bar attached. keep in mind it has no rear sway. i dont know if its the coils or maybe the shocks but its not safe. very unpredictable.

[Ktmracer419]

i think the rig is cool

can i see it doing some challenging wheeling?

[Jeepbonehead]

thats what i found

[Jeepbonehead]

doesn't look like super hard terrain, but difficult.

[Pedro]

do want

Also, my TJ without a front swaybar has pretty snappy steering IMO, much faster than my XJ. However, I can whip it around turns much better than I could my XJ.

[Zullock Holmes]

cool kids are doing coil over airshocks

time rj, time.

^^ btw that last picture you posted..... "shoot the moon" at rausch creek?!?!?! looks kinda like the bottom of it.

[Burton58]

[OWEN]

humm must be the rough country stuff then cuz without the front sway connected on the tj its way to sketchy to drive at speed. are they known for haveing soft springs or something?

There is way more to it. It is a common misconception that coils give you a soft "wet noodle" unsafe ride. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Coils=Leaf=Air Shocks=whatever, when it comes to spring rate

It is a means of "suspending" the vehicle. A 180 lb/in coil spring does the same "suspending" as a 180 lb/in leaf spring for all instensive purposes. The main difference between ride characteristics, comes from the friction between leafs in a leaf pack, verus essentially no friction in a coil. That is why a good quality leaf spring has tapered, smoothed ends, anti-friction pads, and an anti friction finish. Any time I build my own leaf pack, I will take a die grinder and smooth and taper the ends of the leafs, and put a film of copper anti-sieze lubricant between the leafs, to minimize friction.

Dampening
Shocks are a crucial part of a soft-riding yet tight-handling suspension. Shocks dampen the cycling of the suspension over terrain; they slow down the rate at which the spring can move. Very important in all applications, especially use of coils, because as mentioned earlier, there is no friction to create any resistance of movement.

Other functions of springs
I am going to leave air shocks, coil over shocks and hybrid type shocks out of this, because I do not know enough about them, but from my understanding they act as a spring "suspender" and shock "dampener". Leaf springs act as an axle locator and a mediocre one at best; For starters as the leaf spring compresses and extends, the shape will cause the axle to move back and forth. But far more importantly, for a lightweight vehicle it is difficult to have a leaf pack that will give a good ride quality but resist twisting from axle wrap. As you can see in the pictures of the rig shown on the first page, an anti-wrap bar is in place. I do not want the point of my post to be link suspensions are better then leafs, but to understand the advantages of both.

Getting back to the locating fuction. The shape of a coil spring does no make it usable as an axle locating part, so with coil springs, links must be used (not because coils are "softer") The design of the suspension links has everything to do with handling.
Are the suspension links triangulated?

Are the ends rod-ball type or poly or rubber?

Are the shocks located and functioning properly?

It seems to me that a lot of factory jeep coil setups use short links with little-to-no triangulation. Not ideal, but it is simplier, more economical to manufacture with short arms and simple geometry, and rubber bushings transmit less road and tire vibration into the jeep. That is why factory vehicles with coil springs also are commonly seen with track bars and sway bars... like using a whole box of rubber bands versus a hose clamp. And the metaphorical hose clamp, would be your metal rod end.

Understanding how springs and suspension really work is an important part of building a capable offroad vehicle. There is no perfect setup. I am a little old school - I like seeing kick ass leaf spring vehicles, but I also realize a coil spring-link suspension is a great compliment to any vehicle- when disigned and understood properly

[Hydra]

There is way more to it. It is a common misconception that coils give you a soft "wet noodle" unsafe ride. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Coils=Leaf=Air Shocks=whatever, when it comes to spring rate

It is a means of "suspending" the vehicle. A 180 lb/in coil spring does the same "suspending" as a 180 lb/in leaf spring for all instensive purposes. The main difference between ride characteristics, comes from the friction between leafs in a leaf pack, verus essentially no friction in a coil. That is why a good quality leaf spring has tapered, smoothed ends, anti-friction pads, and an anti friction finish. Any time I build my own leaf pack, I will take a die grinder and smooth and taper the ends of the leafs, and put a film of copper anti-sieze lubricant between the leafs, to minimize friction.

Dampening
Shocks are a crucial part of a soft-riding yet tight-handling suspension. Shocks dampen the cycling of the suspension over terrain; they slow down the rate at which the spring can move. Very important in all applications, especially use of coils, because as mentioned earlier, there is no friction to create any resistance of movement.

Other functions of springs
I am going to leave air shocks, coil over shocks and hybrid type shocks out of this, because I do not know enough about them, but from my understanding they act as a spring "suspender" and shock "dampener". Leaf springs act as an axle locator and a mediocre one at best; For starters as the leaf spring compresses and extends, the shape will cause the axle to move back and forth. But far more importantly, for a lightweight vehicle it is difficult to have a leaf pack that will give a good ride quality but resist twisting from axle wrap. As you can see in the pictures of the rig shown on the first page, an anti-wrap bar is in place. I do not want the point of my post to be link suspensions are better then leafs, but to understand the advantages of both.

Getting back to the locating fuction. The shape of a coil spring does no make it usable as an axle locating part, so with coil springs, links must be used (not because coils are "softer") The design of the suspension links has everything to do with handling.
Are the suspension links triangulated?

Are the ends rod-ball type or poly or rubber?

Are the shocks located and functioning properly?

It seems to me that a lot of factory jeep coil setups use short links with little-to-no triangulation. Not ideal, but it is simplier, more economical to manufacture with short arms and simple geometry, and rubber bushings transmit less road and tire vibration into the jeep. That is why factory vehicles with coil springs also are commonly seen with track bars and sway bars... like using a whole box of rubber bands versus a hose clamp. And the metaphorical hose clamp, would be your metal rod end.

Understanding how springs and suspension really work is an important part of building a capable offroad vehicle. There is no perfect setup. I am a little old school - I like seeing kick ass leaf spring vehicles, but I also realize a coil spring-link suspension is a great compliment to any vehicle- when disigned and understood properly

dr. owen, we love you

[Zullock Holmes]

dr. owen, we love you

seriously, i always learn so much from your posts thank ya!

[Danksters]

cool kids are doing coil over airshocks

Nah brah, now it's all about transverse leaves with airbags.