Choosing springs

[Hardline]

I'm finding my crawlers don't seem to visibly change performance when I try different springs. It always climbs the same rocks, fails the same rocks. How do you guys decide on spring rates and oil weight? Is it something you look for -- some sort of test -- flip a coin?

[ScaleFreak93]

Are you sure that it's failing on the same rocks because of your springs? Whats the rest of your setup like?

[Hardline]

Not at all. I'm just trying to upgrade the rig for comp, and springs and shocks are what I'm currently working on. I'll work on other stuff later.

[Robbob]

I start with what the good guys are using. No really I do

I read into other builders (veterans/pros/champs/and even new guys) threads and see what the common oils and springs seem to be. Same thing with setups. I think to how I like my truck to feel and put that together with what others have then start there.

Now after that I watch what the truck does. Im not a pro and not saying this is the correct way but its what works for me.

Does my front collapse to easily when climbing ..... yes then maybe I need heavier springs ..... no ok maybe my springs are good.

Does my rear collapse on climbs ... do I lose front bite from the rear sagging .... yes well maybe my springs are to soft .... maybe my oils to light

Does my shocks seem to unload on an axle to fast, spring up and throw the truck over .... yes then maybe I need to drop spring rates or go up in oils .....

Do my axles seem to flop around to easy ..... maybe springs are right but oils to light ..... need to go heavier to slow them down ....

Do my axles take to long to respond to course changes ..... drop down onto rocks, settle flat from articulation ..... maybe the oils to heavy, time to drop some ....

I change springs first only because its easier then the oils. Springs can show you a wider area of change and maybe help you see better what the truck really wants.

One spring may cause me to unload the rear axle to quick on off cambers causing me to roll. A lighter spring may solve that but now I could lose my forward bite on climbs because the weight transfered back to far. So in my head Im thinking lets go back to that first spring and go up in oils.

Up in oil could show me an improvement on front bite when climbing but only slightly helped my unloading problems. Now the trucks telling me lets go back to that light spring but stay with the heavier oil.

Now the truck has equal front bite as the heavy springs and doesnt unload on the sidehills. To me a step in the right direction.

When I was tuning my LCC I tried a lot of things. I found that Jakes shock setup didnt work for me or the terrain I run on. Eeepee's setup was better for me and our terrain was similar. Now with the XR I run I find Jakes shock setups work for me as well as Nabils and I only wish our terrain was like theres.

But link locations, weight bias, tires, shock angles, width, complete setup ..... theres more that can come into play for climbing those same hard lines.

Hope that helps ....... (and makes sense)

[Hardline]

Good answer, thanks. Clearly you're seeing things in the rig's behavior I'm not. I am however a believer in starting from a proven baseline. As for the rest, I'll have to work on it.

[AdverseCity]

Great post Robbob, I'm sure that will help anybody who reads it in tuning their shocks. I personally don't have the patience for that kind of in depth tuning so I just bought a well tuned berg from my buddy when he built an XR10. Bonus is he now helps out as my mechanic when needed because he knows the rig so well.