Dudes... Publish your spring specs.

[Pescatoral Pursuit]

Complain about a brand of springs and complain when people give you info. Then complain more when someone points out something that strikes a nerve, sounds like you need to drink a beer and rub one out.

You complain too much.

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[Free2roam]

Don't forget ACME springs

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

I don’t think spring rates should necessarily be published, but the info should be available to someone who calls and has specific questions about their setup.

 

[Dickster]

There are actually more than a couple. And for after-market, there are quite a few - and they DO make their own springs in most cases. Some send specs to Mexico and get springs and then pass them to you, but others actually make them in-house in their own facility. Eaton-Detroit is one such company, Espo, General Spring and others. Order springs, they make them and you have them that week. If you need custom coil springs, tell General Spring and they'll make them to the rate you request. If your stock springs are 100 and you want a 120, you tell them you want them to add 20 to the rate. (they likely won't do Jeep, though)

This may be a bit different for Jeep - but for other cars - Camaro, Mustang, AMX and so on, other companies make springs.

Didn't take long to find over a dozen actual automotive spring manufacturers in the midwest. It's not a complex business once set up.

However, my bet is that many of those companies selling springs for Jeeps buys or sources from one of the real manufacturers. These other companies make springs for pretty much any car or truck.

And the list goes on - concentrated on manufacturers, not "suppliers".

Ok let me rephrase that. Very few manufacturers make custom rate springs. It's not cost effective to do in house the over head is a lot to make them. Equipment is not cheap and sourcing good material and keep stock is another large cost. Even big time companies like Carli and Thuren use Eaton for manufacturing.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Don't forget ACME springs

These days, ACME would be sued by Coyote.

I don’t think spring rates should necessarily be published, but the info should be available to someone who calls and has specific questions about their setup.

There can be a problem if they publish certain things because spring rate is only part of the story.

But if you know the mean spring diameter, number of active coils (not those at the end that can't "spring", wire diameter and the material of the spring. If it's steel, that's always going to be the same number.

G = Shear modulus (11,385,500)
d = coil wire diameter (inches)
n = number of active coils (free to move - complete coils)
D = mean coil diameter (inches)
Spring Rate = (G x d4) / (8 x n x D3)

Doesn't work for progressive springs. The calculations only work if the wire size is the same end-to-end. Progressives use different wire diameters.
Which brings up something I figured a couple of years ago when measuring Rubicon springs - they aren't constant wire size end to end so appear to be progressive springs.

Also - the rate calculation is only the final answer for straight mounted coils. If they are at any angle there's a factor you use to correct the effective rate.

Rate is the weight needed to compress a coil 1"
So a straight rate spring with a rate of 100 compresses 1" with 100 pounds on it.
It would compress 2" with 200 pounds and so on (assuming not progressive rate)

Gonna be really hard to take some simple numbers and compare all vendors springs.
How does one compare the many coils of a multi-rate Synergy spring to say the MOPAR 2" lift kit springs?
You will have very different behavior. Same for some other brands I would suspect.
Someone with some experience could do it, (I'm not suggesting me! unless I took a ton of time and figured it out.............) but the typical spring buyer won't know what the heck to do with some of those numbers.
Some springs have a lot more coils than others - and yet work out to the same rate. What's the advantages? Disadvantages? Are people just going to compare rates and buy the cheapest springs?

I dunno, Pandora's box for spring sellers, maybe??
The longer/more I think about it, the more I see possible negatives for spring makers of better quality springs as people will compare length and rate and buy what's cheaper?
I have a very specific purpose in my case, didn't want to cheap out, and talked to people for a while on the phone.

 

[MPMB]

There are actually more than a couple. And for after-market, there are quite a few - and they DO make their own springs in most cases. Some send specs to Mexico and get springs and then pass them to you, but others actually make them in-house in their own facility. Eaton-Detroit is one such company, Espo, General Spring and others. Order springs, they make them and you have them that week. If you need custom coil springs, tell General Spring and they'll make them to the rate you request. If your stock springs are 100 and you want a 120, you tell them you want them to add 20 to the rate. (they likely won't do Jeep, though)

This may be a bit different for Jeep - but for other cars - Camaro, Mustang, AMX and so on, other companies make springs.

Didn't take long to find over a dozen actual automotive spring manufacturers in the midwest. It's not a complex business once set up.

However, my bet is that many of those companies selling springs for Jeeps buys or sources from one of the real manufacturers. These other companies make springs for pretty much any car or truck.

And the list goes on - concentrated on manufacturers, not "suppliers".

Slight necro bump 'cause I'm researching...

Y'all know about RCS? I'm sure there are a few more like it, but it has an excellent pedigree. Originally and primarily aerospace (Boeing, et al), they got into racing a few years ago. Their springs blew competitors out of the water with reliability and longevity. And you paid a pretty price for them.

RCS - Renton Coil Springs. If you're going to dump $10k+ in a King suspension, might as well go the whole hog and get some RCS. 15 years ago automotive springs were about $600/each.

The bargain-basement spring company for racers? Swift. About $125/each. And you can throw them away after about 2-3 races.

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