22 replies to this topic

[Tamworthbay]

It's hard to see how anything but the rubber cone springs can work across a wide range of uses. The rubber cone spring is a true 'rising-rate' spring which the Mini with its very short suspension travel needs. For race applications where the suspension has little actual movement and can, therefore, hacve very high initial rate springs, then coils are fine. For a road car which needs a low initial rate getting very high as the suspension gets towards max travel the rubber cone springs are exactly right.

And there in a nutshell is why you should go rubber

[jaydee]

Wit the thread topic as listed... I thought we were going to talk about pastry and I was suddenly very hungry.

Sorry... nothing constructive to add to the suspension topic.

Mmmm tasty donoughts

[Kevdee]

There is a set of coils from a company advertising back pages mini world mag whith hilos for just over 200 they say coils much smoother ride but rubbers still designed for the job so still undivided to which ill be using :sc

[Klevdo2202]

Stick some red dot cones supplied by minispares and hi lo's/adjustarides you won't go far wrong I don't think...

[rally515]

What is the wear diffrence also in comparison to rubber cones i.e sagging (if any) ?

[Tamworthbay]

There is a set of coils from a company advertising back pages mini world mag whith hilos for just over 200 they say coils much smoother ride but rubbers still designed for the job so still undivided to which ill be using :sc

They say that because it is in their interest to sell as many as possible. They definately aren't smoother in my experience.

[Cooperman]

The reason some Minis have coils is because they are basically racing cars. On a track and with very low ride height the initial spring rate needs to be very high and the rubber cones are not stiff at small deflections. A track is ultra-smooth so the spring initial stiffness needs to be high and suspension deflections are absolutely minimal.
However, for normal roads a low initial deflection is needed, increasing as full deflection is approached. This is difficult to achieve with a coil spring as although the ride height will be standard, there is still only a small deflection compared to other cars with coil springs. What happens is that the manufacturers of these coils spring conversions make them softer at initial deflection, thus giving a softer ride (and more body roll one might assume), but increasing rapidly over a small deflection. That, really, is exactly what the rubber cone spring does so well. If a softer ride is wanted, there are some softer rubber cone springs available. It is also vital that the coil springs cannot become 'coil-bound' over big bumps or the car will become very unstable as well as liable to structural failure of the suspension.
Now, that is not the same as 'coil-over' damper/spring set-ups. These replace the original springs with coil springs mounted over the damper tubes and, in theory, can have longer springs thus making the necessary rising-rate easier to achieve. The problem with these is getting the static loading, which is the weight of that corner of the car, plus the dynamic loading, into the structure of the car through mountings which were only ever intended to take just the damping loads. Of course, it is possible to modify the top brackets with a substantial piece of new structure and to also modify the lower damper mounting onto the top suspension arm, but the net result is really no better than the original rubber cone spring, so why bother doing all this modification and welding for no definable gain.

[cliche]

It's hard to see how anything but the rubber cone springs can work across a wide range of uses. The rubber cone spring is a true 'rising-rate' spring which the Mini with its very short suspension travel needs. For race applications where the suspension has little actual movement and can, therefore, hacve very high initial rate springs, then coils are fine. For a road car which needs a low initial rate getting very high as the suspension gets towards max travel the rubber cone springs are exactly right.

And there in a nutshell is why you should go rubber

yup Cooperman's advice made me go the same route earlier this year