How to lower your car on a budget.

[Koochologist]

Not sure if anybody has read this yet, but I think someone should try it.





Read on here
http://m.jalopnik.com/5886063/how-not-to-lower-your-car

[MikeW]

That doesnt seem very safe....

[cuate01221]

How about you try it? I would never do that to my car. Seems sketchy as hell!

[Koochologist]

That is my car, lol yeah I saw that and I was like what the bell. Talk about ghetto rigged.

[TracieS]

corys accord Im sure it will show up in here anyways

notice his top hats

I used Grade 8 bolts for my hardware. Grade 8 bolts have a tensile strength of about 150,000 PSI, and a shear strength of roughly 60% of that, which is 91,000 PSI.

My bolts are 5/8" bolts, which is .625". The cross-sectional area of the bolt size is obviously Pi x R^2, where R = .625/2, or .3125. Multiply that by the shear strength capacity, and you get this:

91,000 lbs/in^2 x .3068in^2 = 27,918.5 lbs.

Look any of it up, as that is the proper way to determine shear strength of a bolt. If it needs clarifying, that means each bolt will take almost 28,000lbs of force before deforming (not breaking). If we want to be precise, that's 83,755.5 lbs of force on each front corner of the car, which is 167,511lbs of force on the front half of the vehicle.

That's the weight of a 2,500sq/ft house. I'm not too worried about it.

And remember, the top hat only holds the damping force of the shock. That force is only applied perpendicular to the plane of the top hat; never at any angles or torque, just up and down on that plane. Furthermore, if you grasp the function of a double-wishbone suspension, you'll know that even if all 6 of those grade 8 bolts holding my shock rod in place snapped all at the same time, the only thing I would loose is dampening, because the suspension retains its geometry and the spring is still mounted in the strut tower. At that point, it would be no different than driving a car with blown shocks up front.

So I appreciate your concern for the safety of your family, but the top hats are hardly dangerous.

[Jon]

I'm all about doing stuff on the cheap, but that is just damn right not safe. But hey to each their own and it's not my car so do whatever the f**k you want!

[deevergote]

I'm all about doing stuff on the cheap, but that is just damn right not safe. But hey to each their own and it's not my car so do whatever the f**k you want!

Unless you happen to be in their path when it breaks and they lose control...



If there was no other way to do it, then I'd applaud the creativity. But since there are MANY affordable options to lower most modern vehicles, why would anyone choose to do this?
Tying your dick in a knot might be an effective method of birth control, but it's hardly an option worth considering.

[ChIoVnIdCa]

1)I see nothing wrong with that setup besides looks..

You need to think of how much force (less then you think) the top hat has and what would happen if it fails (not much)

2) That extended top hat doesn't lower the car

[deevergote]

That is true... I had to digest the actual concept... and yeah, it doesn't lower the car at all. The spring is still mounted the same way. If you brought the spring up into the engine bay more, like the tophat is, then it would lower the car.
This just allows for more shock travel when the car is slammed to the ground. Still not an option I particularly like, but it's honestly better (in theory) than riding on a fully compressed shock.
Even this "solution" should not be an excuse to run improperly matched shocks.

[Koochologist]

corys accord Im sure it will show up in here anyways

notice his top hats

Well at least his setup looks somewhat well made from what I can see, the top one is just cheaply made. I don't think those nuts would last very long, at least go buy some good bolts and nuts.

[stewie]

1)I see nothing wrong with that setup besides looks..

You need to think of how much force (less then you think) the top hat has and what would happen if it fails (not much)

2) That extended top hat doesn't lower the car

lets say you have that set up and somehow something breaks causing you to veer into an oncomming lane and clipping another car head on. your cars going to get towed to a shop, and your insurance adjuster will look at your car, take one look at that set up, and deny you of any claims and leave you solely responsible for your own injuries....and the guy you hit...

[RagingAsian]

Budget and Suspension should never be in the same sentence.

[Tippey764]

I used Grade 8 bolts for my hardware. Grade 8 bolts have a tensile strength of about 150,000 PSI, and a shear strength of roughly 60% of that, which is 91,000 PSI.

My bolts are 5/8" bolts, which is .625". The cross-sectional area of the bolt size is obviously Pi x R^2, where R = .625/2, or .3125. Multiply that by the shear strength capacity, and you get this:

91,000 lbs/in^2 x .3068in^2 = 27,918.5 lbs.

Look any of it up, as that is the proper way to determine shear strength of a bolt. If it needs clarifying, that means each bolt will take almost 28,000lbs of force before deforming (not breaking). If we want to be precise, that's 83,755.5 lbs of force on each front corner of the car, which is 167,511lbs of force on the front half of the vehicle.

That's the weight of a 2,500sq/ft house. I'm not too worried about it.

And remember, the top hat only holds the damping force of the shock. That force is only applied perpendicular to the plane of the top hat; never at any angles or torque, just up and down on that plane. Furthermore, if you grasp the function of a double-wishbone suspension, you'll know that even if all 6 of those grade 8 bolts holding my shock rod in place snapped all at the same time, the only thing I would loose is dampening, because the suspension retains its geometry and the spring is still mounted in the strut tower. At that point, it would be no different than driving a car with blown shocks up front.

So I appreciate your concern for the safety of your family, but the top hats are hardly dangerous.

The fact that he went through the engineering stand point of the modification rather than just hoping it would work really says a lot

I would trust this mod if that kind of thought went into it.

Budget and Suspension should never be in the same sentence.

" You should never try to modify your suspension on a low budget. "

[illinois_erik]

Instead of stacking nuts they could have used some small diameter DOM tubing or the sorts with a chamfered seated bottom, even a chunk of billet machined out for the bolts and strut rod. just my 2cents

[Tippey764]

Instead of stacking nuts they could have used some small diameter DOM tubing or the sorts with a chamfered seated bottom, even a chunk of billet machined out for the bolts and strut rod. just my 2cents

Either more expensive or not as strong