Chasing a dream

I took the buggy out today for the first time. Just me and my boy. I didn’t take a single picture, oops.

So the buggy done good, no leaks and all temps look good. I’m happy with the gearing options as well. It rides pretty good, however the lack of down travel is a problem. I really need it lowered a bit to try and get more travel. I pulled the front driver tire on a rock and I can’t go very far without it pulling the driver rear, and the lack of down travel makes it feel pretty tippy.

I know the basics of messing with the coilovers but not confident enough to mess with it myself. And living in a camper I obviously lack a cherry picker the the needed things to mess with it.
If there is someone semi close to me that can take the time to look into this I’ll pay for your time. A good start would be making sure the springs on it are correct for the weight and stuff, and simply adjusting the pre load on them. I need to try and make these adjustments this month, so if you know your way around coilovers and have some known spring rates and can help let me know.
 
Where are yall at currently? I saw you mentioned Jellystone, but there are 3 in NC, atleast.

At a minimum, post up pics of the current coilover setup, and there should be rates on the springs. With the current measurements, one of us can calculate the corner weights, and some options for you to change it up.
 
Looking at the pics if I had to guess, it's sprung way too stiff.

I believe so as well.

The springs just say Hyperco, I see no weight ratings.

I’m in Asheboro

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I see this :

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How much room do you have before stuff starts running into itself ?
IE : I see about 6" of uptravel here at the bumpstop (including bump travel).
If you lower it, even 2", the ride will become pretty shitty
 
I see this :

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How much room do you have before stuff starts running into itself ?
IE : I see about 6" of uptravel here at the bumpstop (including bump travel).
If you lower it, even 2", the ride will become pretty shitty

That is also my fear. I won’t know without pulling the shocks and putting it at full bump, but I believe the bumps can be adjusted up just a little.

But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s too stiff overall. Cause yesterday when I pulled up on that rock, the front should have been able to compress a lot more and it didn’t.
 
It's easy to pull under a tree and use your winch to lift the front end up and remove the springs first and drop it down on the bumpstops to see how it looks at full bump.

If you think you have room and nothing seems like it's gonna hit if you go lower, then lift it back up. Remove the bumpstops altogether (might be a pain) and drop it back down slowly down until you find what is the lowest it'll go (IE shit starts running into itself)...

Then make decisions from there.

I'd do that before even going to see someone.

Seems unlikely that someone welded the bumpstops there and left uptravel on the table but you may be lucky. Don't know until you try,
 
Seems unlikely that someone welded the bumpstops there and left uptravel on the table but you may be lucky. Don't know until you try,
Agreed. Thos are the type of decisions that usually get made during chassis construction. Id be shocked if they left free travel
 
It's easy to pull under a tree and use your winch to lift the front end up and remove the springs first and drop it down on the bumpstops to see how it looks at full bump.

If you think you have room and nothing seems like it's gonna hit if you go lower, then lift it back up. Remove the bumpstops altogether (might be a pain) and drop it back down slowly down until you find what is the lowest it'll go (IE shit starts running into itself)...

Then make decisions from there.

I'd do that before even going to see someone.

Seems unlikely that someone welded the bumpstops there and left uptravel on the table but you may be lucky. Don't know until you try,
x2, can even lift the rear up with a front winch to do the same in the back.

My eye might be off, but it seems like there is more up travel in the shock, then you can get in the chassis. I know that some is to allow additional flex, but how much and can you use it? If so, might be able to remount the shocks or go with longer ones to get more down travel.

Also, I didnt see a sway bar. Is there one tucked in somewhere?
 
There is a rear sway bar.

The front bump stops were added this year. It originally just had poly bumps up front, and still does have one single poly bump in the rear.
 
There is a rear sway bar.

The front bump stops were added this year. It originally just had poly bumps up front, and still does have one single poly bump in the rear.
I would flex it out and check the shock travel. You mentioned that it lifted a tire; that could be from the sway bar. Likely not, unless the bar is really stiff, but worth checking while you flex/measure the shocks/travel.
 
Well I got her nekked yesterday.
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All the skins have been dropped off to be wrapped and I am very excited about it. I can’t wait to see how the new skins make it look, with my new seats and new harnesses. Seats are supposed to ship out 1st of next week.

I also have a date scheduled for @Mac5005 check out my suspension. From our talk it sounds like the springs are too stiff. I tried to flex it out on my ramps yesterday but all that weight on just one ramp bent the ramp. But I’m 240lbs and I can’t really make the suspension move a lot when climbing on it and jumping up and down. I’m excited to see this thing become my own, and hopefully get the suspension working good.
 
Wait till you hit his telephone pole whoops :) than you will see if it works.
 
Well we did it. We finally filmed our first video for YouTube. I don’t expect it to be a popular video but it is the intro to what got us to where we are and answers some questions many people seem to ask. Im doing some “editing” and will post a link here once uploaded.
 
Here you go folks 😬


Subscribed.

BTW, FYI, near the end, you said to leave comments...but comments are turned off. Also, subscribed, but can't turn on notifications because you have kid safe turned on.
 
Subscribed.

BTW, FYI, near the end, you said to leave comments...but comments are turned off. Also, subscribed, but can't turn on notifications because you have kid safe turned on.

Thanks. I got that fixed. It asked me if this was made for kids, I said yes because I didn’t want YT to think kids could not watch it. I didn’t realize that was going to block certain features. I’m still figuring so much stuff out lol.
 
I subscribed too. Looking forward to your post and videos. FYI I shared it on FB but to my wife it shows content not available.
 
I subscribed too. Looking forward to your post and videos. FYI I shared it on FB but to my wife it shows content not available.

Thanks. It should be fixed now
 
Today was a great today. I hated missing the get together, but I didn’t have much choice but to take the only opportunity for both me and @Mac5005 to be free at the same time and do some work on my buggy. I left before 6am to make the long boring drive out to Rocky Mount to be there by 8:30. We did a few basic things and flexed out one side, measured before and after, disconnected the sway bar and repeated that, and like me and him and many others suspected the springs were far too stiff. Neither of us were prepared for just how stiff though!

This is all it would do when I got there. The front nor the rear would compress enough to go any more without picking up a rear tire.
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We started with 28” on the front tire picked up.
We ended with 40” and got even greater results with the rear once done.

It had 250 uppers on top of 350 lowers up front and the rear was even stiffer with 250/380!! Nuts!! We were baffled to say the least.

We recorded a lot of it, and once I edit it all up you’ll have to watch the video for the final results. But I left there today with an entirely different rig. It’s insane what a difference it made getting the right springs on the buggy!

Bonus, I got to hang out with his smokin hot wife for a bit. She was nice enough to bring us lunch and hang with us for a bit while we all swapped wheeling stories.

All in all it was a great day and I learned a ton of helpful info and my buggy works a billion times better now!
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