Originally Posted by John Wallace2

Fred I have loved your posts on this thread. You are certainly unconventional and usually spot on; however, wouldn't putting thicker oil in the dif of a 2WD car give you more steering (at least that is my experience with 4WD cars)? Your hose test has certainly given just about all of us something to think about because I don't know anyone who has been doing that to the rear shocks. While I like the factory set ups as a reasonable place to START, especially if I know the track that setup is for, I've only seen a handful of setup sheets that didn't use the same piston in both the front and rear shocks. BTW I found an equation in Tune to Win by Carroll Smith for calculating the Wheel rate (page 66). First the motion ratio is defined as the wheel travel divided by the spring travel (both of which can be measured on an RC car). The equation is wheel rate = Spring rate/(Motion ratio^2) (^2 is Excel speak for squared). After looking at the wheel rate equation, your spring balancing approach looks like you are in effect balancing the wheel rates. Using the equation and a little algebra, if you know the wheel rate at the rear of the car, and the motion ratio of the front, you can calculate the spring rated needed for the front in order to have a balanced F/R wheel rate. Haven't tried it, but it should eliminate some of the trial and error.