HotBits coilovers

jf1sf5 said:
Hmmm…

I have no body lift. But I have 1" trailing arm spacers and SG lateral links for a wider rear track (+3cm) to keep the springs from rubbing the frame at full droop.

I too have a custom length of the DT2 version but a DT1 version is enough for the use.

Rear SG top mounts are easier to modify for the springs to sit nicely (ID 60mm or 2")
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gotcha, its Jeremiah thats running sub frame spacers not you and not a bodylift my mistake.

I have a few more questions if you dont mind, sorry if they seem stupid but how else a fool gonna learn!?

1. Both you and Jeremiah have custom length DT2's. Is it the extended length that gives you more wheel travel or will a set of DT2's straight from the factory give more wheel travel vs stock suspension.

2. this strut setup will give ~2" lift?(as you replied to Teni)

3. You mention modifications to the top mounts(i assume you are referring to strut mounts), is that because you have a extended length or thats just necessary to install the DT2's. Either way what sort of modification is made to the top mounts?

4. I see that you said that you have the exact same set as the pic that roosmsg posted, are you then running the springs that came with the struts as opposed to Jeremiah who got longer struts and had to go with the swift barrel springs.


Again i apologize if my questions are ridiculous or repetitive but i am very excited to learn and both of your suspensions make me drool allover my key board:raspberry:
 
1. I have DT2's and Jeremiah has DT1's. Yes, the extended length of the rod/shaft is what gives you more travel (theorical, see n°4).

2. It gives me about 2" lift because I don't need to go higher, its my DD. But if I put more preload on the springs (threaded spring seats) then I can have more lift.

3. I had to modify the rear SG top mounts to fit the 60mm ID springs (pic to come)

4. I am running the exact set on the pic but changed the springs since (softer and longer) because I wanted maximum wheel travel. HotBits springs are not long enough.

If you look closely to my set and Jeremiah's set, you can see that my springs go much lower on the strut and that allows more articulation because I am not limited by spring block on maximum compression. I use the whole length of the rod/shaft.

Actual spring rates and lengths front 20N/mm and 550mm, rear 18N/mm and 600mm.

Your questions are not ridiculous at all, I had to ask a few too but had no one to answer me except google !
 
jf1sf5 said:
If you look closely to my set and Jeremiah's set, you can see that my springs go much lower on the strut and that allows more articulation because I am not limited by spring block on maximum compression. I use the whole length of the rod/shaft.
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Just want to interject real quick; I went with the 2.5" ID 14" long barrel springs for two reasons:

1. Because they allow more travel than non-barrel springs, so the fronts being 175lb/in, they allow for 10.3" max stroke which is more than the rod length. The rears are 125lb/in which allow for 10.7" max stroke which is only .3" less than the rod length (rod length is 12" minus 1" because of the SG top hats). So with the bump stops, my springs aren't killing any usable travel.

2. Normally, long springs like these don't like to compress straight, but the barrel design gives them the support so that they do compress straight.

Macksterminator, you had asked about putting spacers on top of these coilovers, and to that i'd say you can, but it wouldn't make sense. The reason for that is because there is no extra cost to get a custom length set, so for example, what Jf1sf5 did was order his 2.5" longer than the factory struts because it's known that 2.5" is the max amount that you can lift a totally stock forester (just like strut spacers or lower strut lifts). In doing so, he gained something like 2 inches of travel, which you would be throwing away if you get factory length coilovers and put spacers on em. Does that make sense?

The SG top hat modification that has to be done to run the spring perches that come with the coilovers is either what Jf1sf5 did which hopefully he gets a picture of, or you do what Hotbits Canada told me to do. Cut the bottom part of the top hat off which holds the factory dust cover, then drill the hotbits spring perch out to match the rod diameter so you can slip it down the rod, then bolt the hat on, and the spring perch sits against the top hat. Seemed crude, but it was simply and effective.
 
Jeremiahs22 said:
there is no extra cost to get a custom length set, so for example, what Jf1sf5 did was order his 2.5" longer than the factory struts because it's known that 2.5" is the max amount that you can lift a totally stock forester (just like strut spacers or lower strut lifts).
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I have a full body lift on my SF Foz, I'm currently running 3.5" lift front & 4.5" rear, do you know if you can get them that length?
 
jf1sf5 said:
If you look closely to my set and Jeremiah's set, you can see that my springs go much lower on the strut and that allows more articulation because I am not limited by spring block on maximum compression. I use the whole length of the rod/shaft.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should've added statically/very slowly like when you're sort of "rock crawling"

Sure that dynamically/with speed, you can compress the springs more, like on jumps or bumps. For that purpose, I turn the compression knob to make the damping firmer but it still gives me full stroke/wheel travel.

Jeremiah, I'm not sure that with your spring rates, the spring preload and the weigh of your Forester unless fully loaded you are able to get full compression but I might be wrong...
 
NachaLuva said:
I have a full body lift on my SF Foz, I'm currently running 3.5" lift front & 4.5" rear, do you know if you can get them that length?
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Nachaluva, I have maximum stroke possible without body lift. If you have a 2" body lift, you can add 1" stroke to the front coilovers (1" for the shaft and 1" for the housing) and 2" stroke to the rear coilovers (2" for the shaft and 0 for the housing or same as front).
 
NachaLuva said:
I have a full body lift on my SF Foz, I'm currently running 3.5" lift front & 4.5" rear, do you know if you can get them that length?
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Yeah you can, mine are 5" (actually 123mm) longer, which is about the max. But yeah they can do it. Max travel for front is 10", rear is 12" with stock arms. These numbers based on cv's, tie rod and ball joint angles.

Jf1sf5, I understand the confusion now; I'm not running any preload on the rear, and about 3/4" in front. So I'm able to use all of the springs travel, and I chose 125lb and 175lb because the weight of the Foz on two wheels compresses them almost all of the way, leaving just an inch of spring left, but the bump stop is ~65mm so it hits that before maxing the spring out. So basically, it uses full travel statically.
 
Jeremiah, there is maybe another difference between our sets. My housings are certainly shorter than yours. I have 370mm front housings and 440mm rear housings thus why your sets are also longer in total length.
 
jf1sf5 said:
Jeremiah, there is maybe another difference between our sets. My housings are certainly shorter than yours. I have 370mm front housings and 440mm rear housings thus why your sets are also longer in total length.
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You are right about that! Since I was installing 3" subframe spacers, I wanted them 5" longer overall. So what they did was this:

Stock rod length (rear): 248mm
New rod length: 316mm (~12.5" travel)
Difference: +68mm (this is the additional travel as well)

Stock Housing length: 445mm
New housing length: 500mm
Difference: +55mm

Sum of Differences: 68+55= 123mm total additional length over stock.

Stock rod length (front): 185mm
New rod length: 253mm (~10" of travel)
Difference: +68mm (additional travel as well)

Stock housing length: 380mm
New housing length: 435mm
Difference: +55mm

So simply put, they took what I wanted (+5 inches overall with max travel) and with their math, figured out where they needed to add length to make that magic happen.
 
This explains that !

What shocks did you have on the Forester before the HotBits ? I don't have the same measures, mine were oem SG's with 190mm travel front and 225mm length/200mm travel rear as 25mm are "lost" in the top mounts.
 
very good read here. went to take a look at the hotbits catalogue and was bummed to find that they dont have an aplication for my BH body style unless Im looking at it wrong... Would love to do this to my SF but my BH has more room for the wife and I when we go fishing.
 
The rear suspension on the BH is very different thus you don't find any HotBits for your car. If you had a BG though...
 
I had to take the Hotbits off of the Forester for the rego. Now its done for 2+ years so I will change the seals for polyurethane (oem are nitrile) and probably change for Eibach XT 16" barrel 125 lbs/inch (22 N/mm) at all four corners.

This will give a nice and smooth ride and will still allow full flex without any spring rubbing on the strut housing even if I did make some custom protections with Geberit PVC tubing with the actual setup.
 
Will be interesting to hear how the new springs perform.
 
I only did a short drive in town but first impression is...same as the previous setup but without rubbing !

The real improvement should be the new PU vs NBR shaft seals.
 
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