victorofhavoc
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Kansas City
Okay...Unless your weight transfer involves completely unloading the wheels on one side of your car, this has nothing to do with preload. The force of a linear spring is simply F = -kx, where k is the spring rate and x is the displacement. The spring force does not depend on preload, or velocity, or how what part of the stroke you are in (until you coil bind).
How long it takes for a car to settle after an impact depends on wheel rate (which depends on spring rate) and damping force. If you believe that any of this is affected by the preload of a spring, please show me mathematically how that works.
F=-kx is true when assuming x is displaced from spring free length
F=0 on no preload spring
F=-kx on preloaded spring where F = preload total and x is the distance you compressed the spring to generate the preload force.
As a result it takes two different forces to compress both sides the same distance. The whole point of corner balance is to counteract the weight swing, but transitional characteristics are impacted by the potential energy in the spring and usually the higher side is storing more potential to keep that corner higher. Will you feel that difference? Most people probably won't, but a pro driver could.