Quote Originally Posted by SlowPro48 View Post
Ldub - I see what you're saying - had to do a little more visualizing there. You're right. I'm wrong. As long as the torsion bar is not pre-loaded to the point where the suspension is topped out, it doesn't matter if the lift is achieved by reindexing or by cranking the torsion bar - when ride height is increased, suspension travel from "baseline" to bump stop is increased - therefore max torque the torsion bar can experience is increased the same amount no matter which method you use. If you crank past the point you're topped out you would increase the max torque seen by the torsion bar, however, as each ft-lb of preload at the top of travel is a ft-lb added at the bottom of travel. But I doubt if anybody would keep cranking after the VX stops going up. There's probably not that much adjustment range is there? You'd have to re-index to do that! OK I gotta get back to my crack pipe now. Thanks for the mental excercise!

Tom - Yeah there's no problem with safety - I wasn't saying that. It's just that the VX won't handle as well if you crank so much preload in that you're riding way higher in the stroke than the designer intended. At three inches higher than normal ride height you're probably not that far from being topped out. When off-road racing on two wheels you want race sag (that would be the equivalent of VX ride height with you and your gear in it) to be set so that you're about 1/3 down into the stroke and I imagine it's a similar setup for best suspension compliance when you're in the four wheel realm too. It's not good for handling/traction if you're topping out all the time. But then I guess the aim here isn't good high speed off-road handling anyway is it? Nobody's running in a rally or a SCORE desert race or anything - they just want more ground clearance to prevent getting hung up and keep from ripping stuff off the bottom of their VX as they crawl over rocks!
That's mighty gracious of you to say, & truth be told, I was starting to think that I might have been looking at from the wrong end of the pipe...
But no matter how I tried to get my head wrapped around how reindexing would change the force needed, I couldn't do it.
IMO, a good discussion isn't about who's right or wrong, it's about getting to what's really going on, & I think we might be there...
Of course, there is still room for further views that might not be exactly the same.
I was kinda hoping that one of our members with a broader understanding of mechanical engineering than I have, would step in & splain it better.
Here's to you, for being a good sport & playing nice...