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Saturday Night Racer >> RACE TECH >> pro & cons leaf vs. coil
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Message started by propit21 on 12/09/10 at 5:42pm

Title: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by propit21 on 12/09/10 at 5:42pm

whats everyone opinion on leafsprings to 3 link in a pro stock class or similar class. what are the pro's and con's of each?

Do people feel one is more competive then the other or have an unfair advange?

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by jrtracing on 12/10/10 at 8:32am

Leaf Spring pro - within 40 lbs of bite, I run the same set up everywhere I go. I feel like I can go to any track and as long as I have the right gear in it, I should have a front running car right off the trailer.

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by hoosierdaddy on 12/10/10 at 1:34pm

Alot of it will depend on track rules for the 3 link, also drivers driving style.

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by propit21 on 12/10/10 at 2:14pm

why do you think there are so much limits on 3 links in most track or series rules? i really believe most rules favor leaf cars.

but as lee says and seen in person he has one of the most competive cars out there and there are alot of cars like his,

a pro of coil is for someone who is thinking about moving to a higher class or racing from a hobby stock type class or a pro stock type class can learn alot on setup on coil car that can be carried over to modifieds or latemodels, you really don't see that many leaf mods or lm, the difference is when you start running birdcages and 4 bars and z links, where the 3 link with soild mounting points doesn't nearly get the rear roll up drive that mods and lm get.

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by jrtracing on 12/10/10 at 2:54pm

propit21 wrote on 12/10/10 at 2:14pm:

a pro of coil is for someone who is thinking about moving to a higher class or racing from a hobby stock type class or a pro stock type class can learn alot on setup on coil car that can be carried over to modifieds or latemodels, you really don't see that many leaf mods or lm, the difference is when you start running birdcages and 4 bars and z links, where the 3 link with soild mounting points doesn't nearly get the rear roll up drive that mods and lm get.

I think the above is probably true. I guess you just have to decide what you want out of it. I'm getting older, I enjoy going around and talking to people about as much as racing, but I still want to be fast when I get in the car. I enjoy the ease of the leaf cars. It also helps that David Hays at A-1 Springs will rework our springs any time we think they need it. We rarely go more than 3 races without having David re-arch at least our RR springs.

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by propit21 on 12/10/10 at 3:08pm

how do you get rear street and wedge with leafs?

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by jrtracing on 12/10/10 at 4:26pm

Lowering blocks in both cases. They make an adjustable one for the rear steer, and then we just put a bigger or smaller one in for wedge. As I said I do very little adjusting, so at the track I just use the front Bite Bolts.

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by hogracer3d on 12/11/10 at 11:45pm

when we ran a leafer, we put in a new right rear spring every other race

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by prochampion on 12/13/10 at 4:42pm

seems like alot more work and money to run a leaf car competitvely vs. a coil car. but my opinion is probably one sided considering ive never ran a leaf car. imo a coil car is easier to adjust to a track but you can easily adjust yourself out of competition easily to

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by high4x4 on 12/23/10 at 3:08pm

just look at what is winning , leaf's are

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by SawyerRacing98 on 12/23/10 at 6:36pm

why dont you guys leaf spring the left side, and coil the right side? just an idea

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by JC12 on 12/23/10 at 7:42pm

I for 3 years now been wanting to build a 4 bars car with leafs for springs. maybe this year i`ll try it..
Joe

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by bb49mod on 12/23/10 at 8:29pm

SawyerRacing98 wrote on 12/23/10 at 6:36pm:

why dont you guys leaf spring the left side, and coil the right side? just an idea

I did the opposite several years ago. I had a leaf on the RR and a coil and trailing arm on the LR with a long panhard bar. Worked very well in all conditions. Would have been even better if the RR had been a Mono leaf and not a multi leaf

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by propit21 on 12/23/10 at 9:58pm

4x4 who won the memorial day show @ SMS? oh yeah chris smith in the 3D car (coil)
who won the turkey classic at cocopah speedway? oh brent ashurst in the 21 car (coil)
both major shows with over 25 plus cars. i believe the 3D team got quite a few wins this year.
not saying that coil cars are win them all but if you look at all the national series of auto racing its all coil cars (nascar,arca,ect)

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by jrtracing on 12/23/10 at 10:31pm

propit21 wrote on 12/23/10 at 9:58pm:

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by jrtracing on 12/23/10 at 10:40pm

propit21 wrote on 12/23/10 at 9:58pm:

Seems like you started this thread with a question and ended it with a statement. There's always food and beer in our pits, however it ends up. See you next year.

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by hogracer3d on 12/23/10 at 11:00pm

That pic probably aint goin away very soon huh?- lol

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by jrtracing on 12/23/10 at 11:16pm

hogracer3d wrote on 12/23/10 at 11:00pm:

That pic probably aint goin away very soon huh?- lol

Dave, I'm sure it will go away sooner than I'd like it to.

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by jrtracing on 12/23/10 at 11:32pm

I guess in the end, it doesn't matter if your running a coil or a leaf car. When you show up at a WCSS event you better have your A game on. I'm lucky, Chris brought out the sign at the end of the year, so I get some air time with it over the winter. Unfortunately that air time may run out at any minute when racing resumes!

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by propit21 on 12/24/10 at 7:51am

statement?
the thread was started to to understand why people choose what they run and why. but good old 4x4 wanted to make a comment about leafs winning all the time so had to correct him, of course all in fun ;)
lee at the turkey classic we were already content on second place to you, there was no way we were going to be able to get by you. brent did say he really thought it would have been a good race if he was able to catch you but then bad luck struck you. anyway i guess the statement here is luck and good driving and setup, not leafs or coils.

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by Popeye on 12/24/10 at 8:28am

propit21, I have run both coil & leaf type cars. I use to think the leaf cars were favored in the rules as well, however I run a leaf type suspension now and feel very different now. The leaf cars do very well on heavy/tacky and sometimes rough tracks but when the track goes dry it is a different story, there isn't much adjustment to a leaf car @ the track as lee pointed out, I will add that stagger is also a quick remedy for a leaf car @ the track. The coil cars seem to do well on both heavy/tacky/dry and smooth tracks but don't like the rough, however they are much more adjustable @ the track when you can change bar angle/length, spring rate, rear bite in just minutes IMHO.
The coil cars are very forgiving to a drivers style as well & the leaf cars are very sensitive to a drivers style & not very forgiving, it always seemed to me that I was searching for LR bite in a coil car with solid/clamped links & I am always trying to gain RR bite in my leaf car, Maybe it's just me ;) anyway that's my 2 cents ::)

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by jimss21x on 12/24/10 at 9:19pm

Interesting topic, For years I have watched leaf spring gurus like Mark Allison and his leaf spring mods march straight to the front when the track went slick. When the track was real rough they also seemed to have an advantage. The leaf car's advantages have been pretty much dismissed with the 4 bar cars of today's Mods. But SS/PS aren't allowed to run bird cages, so it seems to Me, that puts the advantage for rough or dry slick tracks back to the leaf cars. But as We all know it takes a lot more than springs and motor to win. Got to bring the A game, tough for a C student like myself...

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by hpman on 12/26/10 at 2:55pm

WOW GREAT POSTS
I HAVE RAN BOTH ON TRACKS BIG AND SMALL ,SMOOTH AND ROUGH
MY TAKE IS THIS WHEN IT COME TO THE
( A )TEAM THEIR IS NOT MUCH DEFFERENCE
LEAF CAR YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH A BACSIC SET UP
MINOR ADJUSTMENTS AND RUN WELL
COILS YOU NEED TO PAYMORE ATTENITON TO THE
DETAILS OF YOUR SET UP
BUT IF YOUR A FRONT RUNNER DETAILS ARE YOUR BUSSINESS THATS HOW YOU GAIN AN ADVANTAGE
WITH A COIL CAR YOU CAN ADJUST THE CROSS ,OR RIDE HEIGHT IN THE REAR MORE QUICKLY AND EASY OR CHANGE A SPRING
IF YOUR GOING TO DIFFERNT TRACKS THATS AN ADVANTAGE IN BEING ABLE TO TUNE YOUR CAR TO THAT TRACK JUST MY TOUGHTS THANKS RICHARD HAMILTON

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by ninjaforce1 on 12/26/10 at 6:19pm

I have seen guys back east run monoleaf 4 link cars, super bad fast machines, they have birdcages for them through coleman i believe :D

Title: Re: pro & cons leaf vs. coil
Post by over4t on 12/27/10 at 9:06am

Properly setup leafs good, coils good. Leaf advantage less time laying under a muddy car at the track changing, moving stuff. There's usually enough other stuff to do at the track.