Suspension modification ideas.

[thewayitis]

Now I had a bit of a read before I decided to post this. I have been playing around with the suspension on my cr-01 because in stock form, in my opinion is pretty poor. I dont think the geometry is correct, especially with a cantilever/swaybar/shock absorbers. I decided that the cantilever setup had to go. So I removed it and test flexed. However when I test flexed it, and thought about mounting shocks, I found that the eyes where the cantilever used to bolt to, hit the shocks. So in the rear I swapped the coil hats from side to side. Now I had the "eye" at the rear of the car. When I did this I moved the coil mounting hats back 2 holes, to compensate for the fact they are offset and also to sit the coil back a touch more. With the front I did exactly the same. Then it came time to mount the shocks. I first mounted them straight up and down right next to the coil, however it sat too high at full compression. so I mounted them on a angle, at the top hole of the group of holes on the angle (picture describes it better). Overall I'm pretty happy with how it goes over stock, however I would like to play with the links now. I really didnt want to go to a coil over shock. In the future I might try different springs. Anyone else have any other hints or tips?

[low_range]

Most people just cut the eye off the coil bucket, so they dont have to flip them over, altho then you cant put the cantis back on. You might not like the way it performs though, as these things get tons of torque twist. Best thing i could say is, run it, and see how it performs. Some people like a soft squishy suspension and some dont, so id run a battery through it to see what you think, and then tune it from there. There is no 'perfect' setup, its all personal preference. I can definitely recomend the short barrel springs though, think that everyone will appreciate the lowered COG, and it gives you some more options in how you want to tune your suspension. Another cheap recommendation is trying different weight oils in the shocks; i think these things could benefit from a stiffer shock, altho thats just my opinion.

I spent a lot of time tuning mine; stretched the wheelbase & tuned the canti's pretty well (i think anyway) which allowed me to run a sway bar in the back to keep the torque twist to a minimum, while still gaining a ton of suspension travel over the stock form. So its really personal preference in how you want it to handle, as well as what type of terrain you run it on. I like mine to be low & kind of stiff because it spends most of its time in a rock garden, and on hill climbs in the woods, so off camber & sidehilling ability is key for me.