Originally Posted by
Sarinexia
This is how I understood it and did my balancing. I put the collars where I wanted then proceeded with moving locations on the shock towers and arms to achieve balance.
That is correct.
This tuning method works regardless of scale of vehicle, mid motor vs rear motor, 2WD vs 4WD, car or truck. When you learn how to do it, you can dial in ANY vehicle and you quickly lose any preconceived notions about tuning. There is no different method for a rear motor vs a mid motor car but there are entirely different requirements. If you tune this way, those things will work themselves out. Trucks are the same way. Just follow the steps.
Keep in mind that fine tuning a car requires lots of time and effort. This is not a "here set it up this way" type of thing. You WILL be moving your shocks around A LOT! You WILL be taking your shocks off and changing the oil in them A LOT! I am telling you what order to perform your trial and error tests in. Once you figure this all out and learn what does what, fine tuning for different tracks becomes quite easy. The hardest part is getting it right the first time. You can either spend lots of time up front to get it right and little time everywhere after, or you can spend lots of time forever and hopefully get it right. With this method we are leaving bumps to be handled by the springs and shocks. We are letting the roll centers determine our balance in corners. We are letting our tire pattern and compounds determine our overall grip. We are letting our antisquat and rear toe in determine our forward traction. You get the idea. Each item on a suspension has a job to do. Let it do it's job rather they relying on one thing to do many jobs. It's far easier to predict what to change this way.
I don't believe in copying setup sheets and believing them to be perfect. They are merely a guideline. If you are a person who believes that copying a team driver's setup sheet will make your car perfect, ask yourself why they may have a new setup a few months later, or the next year. They are adjusting for THEIR conditions and those conditions may change. Just something to think about.
The next thing I'll go into when I get time is shock oil selection. I'm at work and they expect me to actually do something while I'm here!