Mi2_Tastic

I have just inherited a big box of touring car springs from a mate, there must bo 30 sets of springs in the box, however he has no idea what is what and neither have I for that matter, however we are sure that there are Schumacher, X-Ray, AE, Tamiya, Yokomo and many others makes in the box and we are smacking our heads trying to figure out what is what.

My point is this, why doesnt the RC industry have some form of standardisation in it, I am probably going to have to spend upwards of£100 on a spring dyno to figure this lot out, this will be used once, and then sit in my pit box till some other idiot emptys the spring box out and has to replace the lot back in the box.

andsetinn

Yes I absolutely agree with you. Why stop there? Why don't they all standardise on suspension mounting points so we can use the same suspension arms and C-hubs on all our cars? I'd also like to see standardised shocks that are all the same length and diameter so I could swap them between all my cars. Better yet, why don't they all use the same shocks?

I guess I'll never get to live in Utopia.

A. Rhodes

iTrader: (32)

Not sure if this will help, but Xtreme RC Cars Magazine did a very complete review of all on-road springs in their July 2005 issue (#116). Most if not all of the springs you have are listed in their review. If they are out of that issue, send me a PM and I can scan & email it to you. Hope this helps.

Sean R

iTrader: (36)

You can take a digital caliper and measure the diameter of the coiled steel to give you a rough estimate. 1.4mm is soft 1.8 is stiff.

TryHard

iTrader: (4)

YGPM

RichChang

Considering springs do go bad after use, it might be cheaper for you to just purchase the few sets of springs you need. I'm sure that will still be cheaper than the 100 pounds you were going to spend on a spring dyno, and at least you will know the springs are new.

-Rich

Birky

iTrader: (1)

This may also help if you know which springs are from which manufacturer.
http://rcingreece.com/index.asp?page=spring_comparison

fathead

Jebus, you don't need to buy a spring 'dyno' to measure the spring rate.

All you need is some calipers a couple weights and a calculator to figure the rate out, weight divided by distance compressed gives you the rate in what ever units you want, unless they are progressive springs then thats a whole other ballgame!!

Mi2_Tastic

Thanks for the help guys, I am trying to look for the most painless solution to this, however there doesnt seem to be one, so I will have to just get the scales the calculator and the brain out and try and work it out for myself.

AM03GT

iTrader: (13)

also, there are many many pictures of rc parts all over the net. different manufacturers use the same colors sometimes but for completely different rates. you can probably weed out a decent percentage by checking color and the # of coils.

SlowerOne

Err... no. Spring rate is a function of material type, number of coils, wire section, wire diameter and surface finish. Fathead has it right - calibrated weight, spring guide, calipers or dial indicator - and stay away from those progressives if you don't want to fry your brain!! HTH