THE Coilover Bible - Part 1

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Billet Benny
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THE Coilover Bible - Part 1

Post by Billet Benny »

I figure most of you know who the great Billa Vista is. If you don't know, he's the tech writer for pirate4x4.com. Anyway, I have been fortunate enough to be brought on board for the newest project which is a five part series covering coilover shocks and some other suspension stuff. Part 1 is coilover basics and I can honestly say I have worked pretty hard with Bill on this thing. I can only imagine the hours he has in it. Anyway, we are nearing completion of Part 1 and will be releasing it asap.

I would like to use this post to receive feedback from all of you. I'm very curious as to how this article will go over. I want to hear how clear it is to readers of all levels of suspension know-how and how much the reader feels he/she learned from the read and how much he/she thinks is possible to learn from the article after spending time with it. We feel the article as a whole can be semi-revolutionary to the rockcrawling community especially as trends venture towards higher speeds.

I invite all of you to work with it if you're at all interested in suspensions or coilovers. I hope it is a helpful learning and tuning tool.

I want to use this thread as an opportunity for me to get your feedback and as a place where we can discuss the clarity and content of the article for my benefit.

I'm pretty stoked about the release!! Get ready! I'll post the link as soon as it's public! :flipoff2:
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jonesy
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Post by jonesy »

i will definitely be interested in it ... im betting the suspension together for the jeep so i can start building on it ....

and i would like to have a good idea of where to start with valving, spring rates, mounting angles etc ...

and i can give a pretty good review of how it reads from an idiot's POV ... i dont know shit about suspensions lol
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Billet Benny
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Post by Billet Benny »

jonesy wrote: and i would like to have a good idea of where to start with valving, spring rates, mounting angles etc ...

and i can give a pretty good review of how it reads from an idiot's POV ... i dont know shit about suspensions lol
Part 1 will definitely get you started with spring rates and mounting configuration. Pay careful attention to installation ratio and ride/suspension frequency. One big goal of the article is to get the crawling community to begin thinking in terms of suspension frequency and not droop/up travel. Valving is an extremely complicated subject and the beginnings of that won't really come to light until one of the later more advanced shock specific parts. For sure let me know what you think. Also, if you buy Fox shocks I'm willing to work with you for valving trials as I have the full on Fox shim kit at my disposal for just this purpose. If you want to know what precise tuning of valving with proper springs can do just look at a rally car land a jump!
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Billet Benny
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Post by Billet Benny »

And it's published!

Here is Bill's announcement:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=664763

Here is the Coilover Bible - Part 1:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavist ... rs/Part_1/

Enjoy! :flipoff2:
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Post by jonesy »

Billet Benny wrote:
jonesy wrote: and i would like to have a good idea of where to start with valving, spring rates, mounting angles etc ...

and i can give a pretty good review of how it reads from an idiot's POV ... i dont know shit about suspensions lol
Part 1 will definitely get you started with spring rates and mounting configuration. Pay careful attention to installation ratio and ride/suspension frequency. One big goal of the article is to get the crawling community to begin thinking in terms of suspension frequency and not droop/up travel. Valving is an extremely complicated subject and the beginnings of that won't really come to light until one of the later more advanced shock specific parts. For sure let me know what you think. Also, if you buy Fox shocks I'm willing to work with you for valving trials as I have the full on Fox shim kit at my disposal for just this purpose. If you want to know what precise tuning of valving with proper springs can do just look at a rally car land a jump!
i might go with FOX ... but i bling doesnt look good covereed in rust :o

not to mention FOA is cheaper ...

speaking of, what is your opinion of FOA coilovers? (for the record, i hate the coarse ACME thread ... looks like ass)
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Billet Benny
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Post by Billet Benny »

FOA is just well.... cheaper. I've never even seen one so I really don't know, just keep in mind they're built with the budget guy in mind. Fox's aren't that much more expensive and I know they are built with quality parts and tuning in mind. You can easily acquire and replace any part of a Fox shock. That may be true with the FOA as well, but overall I like Fox, Swayaway, and King. Fox being my first choice for quality shock and value.
Last edited by Billet Benny on Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by yotacowboy »

huge congrats, bro.

i know this is big for you - you've got a right to be proud.

but.


i think you should have spent a paragraph explaining (over and over again) that it is DAMPING

not

DAMPENING.

likewise::

it's pronounced like its spelled: solenoid.


lol



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Billet Benny
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Post by Billet Benny »

Thanks, Clay. You didn't find anywhere where "dampening" was written did you?? I thought I caught all the times Bill pulled that off.. :flipoff2:
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Post by tsmall07 »

I just searched the article and didn't find any instances of the mistake. :thumby:
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Post by Leach »

shocks are hamperers
member # dos
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Post by Arya Ebrahimi »

Very cool Benny. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but just after reading the first 1/3 I have such a better understanding of shocks in general as well as coilovers, it's amazing.

Thanks to you and Bill for putting this together and educating the rest of us dummies :beer:
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Post by MILLER »

Does it have pictures? Cuz I like pictures.
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Post by maybs »

I read it last week. Great stuff! But, it appears to have been temporarily taken down due to "technical difficulties". What's the deal?
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Post by maybs »

Part one is available now... I just hadn't tried refreshing the page in a while... still curious why it was down. Looks like part 2 is now up too.
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Billet Benny
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Post by Billet Benny »

maybs wrote:Part one is available now... I just hadn't tried refreshing the page in a while... still curious why it was down. Looks like part 2 is now up too.
A technical difficulty. We had some upset people for a while, but all is well and good again. I think.. :mrgreen:
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