Date:         Tue, 5 Jun 2007 09:24:15 +1200
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: Aftermarket suspension parts..
In-Reply-To:  <000a01c7950b$ff9ff380$5bb2d8d1@dhanson>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

>   Suspensions work as a whole system.  Adding just one new piece,
> without adjusting everything else is usually not effective.  For
> example, the rear sway bar.  While it will feel like the vehicle works
> better, you can almost count on it working worse..Because you've just
> changed one part of the system, which means all the other stuff is now
> not working at optimum..
>   What the sway bar does is to transfer some of the body roll down to
> the wheels. A trade off.   So in exchange for less body roll, you get
> more weight transfer between the wheels, for one thing..Plus, now the
> front is 'out of whack' because before the change, it was set to work
> as well as possible, but after swapping a sway bar, you would need to
> go to the front end and do some adjusting there, or at least change
> THAT bar, also.

If you fit a rear swaybar, this will increase the tendency to oversteer.
It is necessary to also fit a stiffer front swaybar such as a Whiteline.

>   You have to keep in mind that your vehicle is sitting on four
> springs..depress or lift any one, or two of those springs, be it by
> going round a corner, doing a wheelie in your SVX Syncro, getting
> blasted by wind off a triple trailer UPS truck or whatever, and all the
> other wheels do something..  One thing that helped me visualize
> suspensions when I was wrenching on my race car...Take a couple of
> pencils or sticks, cross them, then put em in your hand, horizontal to
> the earth.  Rotate your wrist slightly and see which way all four ends
> of the sticks move...Move one, they all go... Same-o when you are
> talking about your vehicle suspension.  Four corners..

This is less important with a fully-independent suspension, such as all VW
Type 2s have, than a live-axle setup. However better handling is not a
matter of "stuffen the springs, swaybars & dampers and lower the car as
much as possible". Handling is always a compromise. The siffer an item is,
the better the result UP TO A POINT, after which everything goes to hell.
Ask Toyota Australia, which marketed an AE90 Corolla hatchback with
too-stiff swaybars; the car suffered from excessive understeer.