downstops and droop
 

hi guys, confused about setting droop ie on my set-up sheet front droop 6mm and rear droop 5mm do you know what this is on the downstops method ie putting blocks under the car and measuring with a droop gauge? thanks stephen :confused: :confused:

The "blocks method" you refer to is setting your downstops. Droop is the actual measure of uptravel of your chassis before the tires leave the ground. It is only confusing because many people use the terms interchangeably and incorrectly.

Typically, the setup sheets show static downstop settings. Remember that the true droop (or uptravel) will change with tire diameter so if you are running foams, your actual droop will change all the time with tire wear.

ok then so it says 6mm front 5mm back on a cyclone saet-up sheet does this mean downstops or actual droop? :confused:
thanks stephen

On a Cyclone it will mean 6 and 5 on the gauge.

droop guage or downstop guage?

There is only one kind of gauge.

Stephen,
Forget what the gauge is called, just know that it sets your downstops.

Set your DROOP by measuring from a fixed point at the front and rear of the chassis with a ruler.

Simply set the car up ready to race, sit the ruler against the front bumber and from a set point, as you lift the chassis until just before the point the tyres leave the ground, measure the difference between the resting mark and the lifted mark. Basically, if you are wanting to set 6mm droop, you need to lift 6mm before the tyres leave the ground.

Do this front and rear, then use the droop/downstop gauge to set the downstop points. You should have to move the srew too much to set both side and each end, this setting will ensure that no swing arm will travel lower than the other.

Look at it like this.

Downstop = same down travel of each swing arm, ie: they will stop at the same point on each side of the car

Droop, the amount of vertical travel in your suspension before full load. ie: you chassis will lean to one side, therefore if you have enough droop, th inside tyre will remain in contact with th ground giving you more traction, however too much droop and your car will be slow to respond to direction changes.

Obviouisly there is other settings that will effect these two, so I suggest you go here http://www.teamxray.com/teamxray/pro...ria=0&catName=

This is a great tool and will help you understand most of the settings required in racing touring cars.

Hope it helps

Sorry, should have told you that when you get to thie above site, download the T2 set up book, 43 pages of racing knowledge

Both "droop" and "down stop" are effectively the same thing. It's just chassis up travel measured by two different methods. Chassis up travel will effect your front to rear weight transfer more than anything.

The further one end of the chassis is allowed to travel up the more weight it transfers to the other end. Under braking your rear droop setting dictates how much weight is transfered away from the rear tires to the front tires. Under acceleration your front droop setting dictates how much weight is transfered away from the front tires to the rear.

You generally see foam tire set up sheets measuring droop as actual chassis up travel. Such as "1mm over ride height". The general range seems to be anywhere from almost 0 to 3mm when measuring like this. Foam tire setups are measured like this because the droop needs to be readjusted as ride height is raised to compensate for constantly wearing foam tires. As stated earlier you would measure this by lifting one end of the chassis and measuring the distance before the wheels actually lift off the ground with a ruler. The best way to lift the chassis it to set one end of the chassis near the end of a table, place the tip of a hex driver under the end of the chassis, and press down on the handle of the hex driver like a seesaw. This works better than trying to lift by hand.

On the other hand, rubber tire setups, are often measured with the down stop gauge. Rubber tires obviously don't change diameter so measuring with a down stop gauge is just easier. You will usually see this measurement in the 4-6 mm range.

Hopefully that makes sense. Good luck.

sorted cheers guys! :) ;)