AirSpeed VW Community Forums

Technical => Chassis & Suspension Forum => Topic started by: RickyG on February 24, 2010, 06:50:20 PM

Title: increase spring stiffness
Post by: RickyG on February 24, 2010, 06:50:20 PM

Hello,

What is the easiest way to increase ride stiffness to compensate for increased curb weight? We are building an electric beetle and the car will weigh about 3000lb in the end with batteries.

Thanks

Title: Re: increase spring stiffness
Post by: Bruce on February 25, 2010, 01:46:19 PM

What year is the car?  Super or Standard?

Title: Re: increase spring stiffness
Post by: GRK on February 25, 2010, 09:18:30 PM

Quote from: Bruce on February 25, 2010, 01:46:19 PM

What year is the car?  Super or Standard?

Bruce I'm pretty sure this is it 72
http://airspeedparts.com/online-community/index.php?topic=16762.0

Title: Re: increase spring stiffness
Post by: Bruce on March 03, 2010, 02:14:14 PM

OK, we now know it's a 72 standard.

What is the expected loads on each end?  Any recommendations will have to know where that extra thousand pounds is distributed.

Title: Re: increase spring stiffness
Post by: 85fastlane on March 27, 2010, 10:39:09 AM

In a lot of the EV Bugs that I've seen I noticed many people went with a coil-assist type of shock. I don't know if this is a good idea or not. I know it's not a good idea to rely solely on your shock mounts to fit in some kind of coilover system, but if it was used in assistance with the torsion suspension it might be okay. Don't take my word for it though, haha. There's some good shots in this gallery (http://www.ecosmotors.com/gallery1.html) of the suspension setup in the Ecos EV Beetle, but I imagine you've seen this thing already.