Spring assistors

[jon gould]

Hello, if anyone has ever used these rubber coil spring assisters, are they car specific or does one size fit all. Are they a Halfords type item or is there a specialist flogging them ? Otherwise I`m winding blankets round the coils....

Cheers
Jon

[E_T_V]

There are several sizes, you need to find your by measuring the gap between coils I think. They can be got from a number of places www.towsure.com (http://www.towsure.com) for example. I presume you want them for towing with as they help reduce bottoming out.

Hope this helps

Dan

[Maria]

I know for a fact you can get them at http://www.carparts-direct.co.uk too. (The exact page is http://www.carparts-direct.co.uk/muscle_kit.html)

[jon gould]

Cheers to Dan and Maria. I`ll follow both your links and see what is available.

Jon

[Landcrab1800]

Hi,

I have used them in the past to help sagging springs.

IMO they are only a stop gap.
They work by immobilising a coil of the spring, this causes more stresses on the remaining coils, especially if you tend to do the monthly shop.
It is always better to get new springs. After market ones come in varying stiffnesses and if this is not enough then you can change the shockers as well.

Remember, if your car sags are one end then you have weak springs and weak springs are just that weak

:)

Gordon

[jon gould]

I`m actually trying to get more ground clearance for use over rough terrain. This business of immobilising part of the coil sounds like it will cause a failure elsewhere along the coil if used for those purposes.Any other ideas how the clearance can be upped ?

Cheers
Jon

[Liam]

Can you fit springs from a Meastro700 van to the hatchback? Would that give more clearence aswell as increased load carrying capacity? Would it allow a greater towball weight aswell? Or would the back end sit really high looking silly?

Just a few thoughts,

Liam.

[E_T_V]

A few comments from me:

Spring assisters aren't a stop gap they just prevent the spring from bottoming out. (basically they raise the bump stop height) What that means is that if you load your car excessively on the rear the suspension will reach its limit before it compresses completely.

It isn't an ideal solution I agree but for towing it is good enough. It will do little to cure suspension sag (except in extreme cases) as under normal loading conditions they don't take much/any load

The maestro van uses leaf springs rather than coils and a different shock setup so no they aren't likely to fit a car easily.

You can get two ride heights of shock absorber for maestros (which is one of the reasons why ledbury cars look taller than other 1.3's) they still use the same spring I believe. The lengths are something like 250 mm and 264mm I can't remember the exact numbers at teh moment.

If you are after extra ride height then longer shocks and maybe springs are the way to go, but bear in mind that this will put extra stress on the CV joints and your steering geometry might go out of the window depending on how much higher do you want to go?

If it is for this adventure thing then I'd recommend a sump gard instead as this'll provide much more protection than raising it a couple of centimeters.

If you want to use stiffer springs to raise the car a little then springs can be made to order for stiffness and length. I've been investigating the possibility of lowering my van and come across a company who'll make any spring I want.