Springs, braces or swaybars? Which is best?

[J_BadWOLF]

+1 on the swift springs. Been on them a few days now and I won’t ever go back to progressive springs (personal preference). The ride is so much tighter.


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Good info! Thanks Forum Fellows

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[Zombie]

I am now leaning towards the swift springs as my next upgrade move.

Will I see a significant improvement with the bilstein shocks at the same or will the OEM ones match well with the Swift’s?

 

[dailybean]

I am now leaning towards the swift springs as my next upgrade move.

Will I see a significant improvement with the bilstein shocks at the same or will the OEM ones match well with the Swift’s?

Swift matched the springs to the OEM shocks and struts. Not saying the bilsteins won’t be awesome but the Swift’s and factory stuff work very well together. I have 0 plans on upgrading shocks until these ones are shot. You’ll see a huge improvement just with the springs trust me.


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[J_BadWOLF]

I am now leaning towards the swift springs as my next upgrade move.

Will I see a significant improvement with the bilstein shocks at the same or will the OEM ones match well with the Swift’s?

It really depends on roads. Straight asphalt is fine, but if you have what I refer to as 'whoopie' roads, the stock dampeners don't have the rebound to keep up for long, once the oil gets hot you will lose a fair bit of control. My mountunes do this, and swift it seems will be worse. All depends on your driving style and surface

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[dailybean]

I don’t ever plan on driving spirited with 40 profile tires on bad roads. I’ve cracked enough rims here in jersey lol


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[danbfree]

+1 on the swift springs. Been on them a few days now and I won’t ever go back to progressive springs (personal preference). The ride is so much tighter.

Yeah, that's the thing, it's personal preference, you just have to determine which models are progressive vs. linear... I want progressive as I feel the drop will make up for the bit of initial softness and in fact does handle better than stock, it's 1 part better handling and 1 part softer while the Swift are 2 parts better handling.

 

[danbfree]

I am now leaning towards the swift springs as my next upgrade move.

Will I see a significant improvement with the bilstein shocks at the same or will the OEM ones match well with the Swift’s?

I know others have replied, but I personally think the OEM struts are fine, they will just wear out faster than a quality Bilstein...

 

[danbfree]

It really depends on roads. Straight asphalt is fine, but if you have what I refer to as 'whoopie' roads, the stock dampeners don't have the rebound to keep up for long, once the oil gets hot you will lose a fair bit of control. My mountunes do this, and swift it seems will be worse. All depends on your driving style and surface

Well, keep in mind that the Mountune are progressive and will technically wear out your struts slower with less sudden dampening needed, so a quality Bilstein strut will wear out much slower than an OEM with linear springs... in your case, your OEM struts may be the problem, not the spring... I just said it in an earlier reply, but you have to think of progressive springs like Mountune as 1 part better handling and 1 part bit softer: lower COG more than makes up for being a bit softer, while linear will be straight up 2 parts better handling, but will also wear out your struts a bit quicker with that more sudden dampening.

 

[danbfree]

I don’t ever plan on driving spirited with 40 profile tires on bad roads. I’ve cracked enough rims here in jersey lol

Well, you could go progressive, which just has an initial bit of softness but still a bit better handling too with a lower COG, move up to 45 series tires, or even going to a 215 wide tire adds a bit more sidewall staying at 40 series too... I'm going to go with progressive spring with 215 wide personally, I have a fair share of rough roads myself.

 

[dailybean]

Well, you could go progressive, which just has an initial bit of softness but still a bit better handling too with a lower COG, move up to 45 series tires, or even going to a 215 wide tire adds a bit more sidewall staying at 40 series too... I'm going to go with progressive spring with 215 wide personally, I have a fair share of rough roads myself.

No I went with swift specifically because I hated the progressive springs on 2 previous cars I ran on tracks enough to go to a linear set on both of them. Complete personal preference of course but I will always go with a linear rate after that. I did the same thing with my prerunner Frontier build with custom coilovers. Takes the guess work out of hard turns when you know exactly how the car should react with the set spring rates. Of course I also prefer a stiffer ride and rarely ever drive on bad roads now because my commute is much different. After I beat the stock shocks to crap I’ll be going koni yellows after loving them on my MS3


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[danbfree]

No I went with swift specifically because I hated the progressive springs on 2 previous cars I ran on tracks enough to go to a linear set on both of them. Complete personal preference of course but I will always go with a linear rate after that. I did the same thing with my prerunner Frontier build with custom coilovers. Takes the guess work out of hard turns when you know exactly how the car should react with the set spring rates. Of course I also prefer a stiffer ride and rarely ever drive on bad roads now because my commute is much different. After I beat the stock shocks to crap I’ll be going koni yellows after loving them on my MS3

You run on tracks, enough said... Mine is a daily driver that I will drive spirited on back roads and whatnot but will see very limited track duty, so that's where the difference is... For me, the lower COG alone more than makes up for it and it's not like the progressive springs for our cars adds a whole bunch of big soft whooptiness, lol, it's still pretty dang firm.

 

[dailybean]

You run on tracks, enough said... Mine is a daily driver that I will drive spirited on back roads and whatnot but will see very limited track duty, so that's where the difference is... For me, the lower COG alone more than makes up for it and it's not like the progressive springs for our cars adds a whole bunch of big soft whooptiness, lol, it's still pretty dang firm.

Definitely. And if someone wanted slightly less roll with progressive springs there’s always the rear sway bar option (and possibly a slightly larger front) that shouldn’t stiffen the ride much but will help under a hard turn. If I had to take the same route to work I did for my last job my factory shocks would be shot after 10k! Hence a pickup truck being my daily drive before this haha.


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[BRGT350]

I would make no mechanical changes, but invest in driver education instead. The biggest improvement I have made to the handling of my ST was spending a day at the Team O'Neil Rally and Car Control School.

The ST is so very tail-happy that I would not want to add a rear sway bar and it is balanced so well that adding a front one would take away from the balance. I was shocked at how changing my braking points and technique greatly altered the handling of the car.

 

[dailybean]

I would make no mechanical changes, but invest in driver education instead. The biggest improvement I have made to the handling of my ST was spending a day at the Team O'Neil Rally and Car Control School.

The ST is so very tail-happy that I would not want to add a rear sway bar and it is balanced so well that adding a front one would take away from the balance. I was shocked at how changing my braking points and technique greatly altered the handling of the car.

Very good point. I’ve been through several courses and I agree the FiST was setup very well from the factory. But I’m not a fan of the roller skate look and it definitely benefits from a lower COG and less body roll (I’m not a fan of 3 wheeling). This car unlike some of my previous will not see that much track time. Couple of times a year maybe on a road course. Like many have stated suspension is pretty subjective when it comes to enjoying how the car feels. But the driver mod should be done before anybody attempts track time or even spirited driving for the sake of both safety and performance.


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[BRGT350]

I did the Mountune springs and a good set of summer tires. I find it perfect for the 99% street/1% autocross use. I got rid of the tall factory ride height, stiffened the springs just enough to balance out the factory dampers, and took out some of the pitch/roll. I can't get anywhere close to exceeding the level of grip on the street with this setup and the ride quality is very good on poor quality roads. I noticed that the rally school made a huge difference on the street as well, mostly in the winter and in the wet. It is more about proper techniques, eye control, understanding what the car is telling you, and how to shift weight around the car. Those lessons work all the time. In the 20 years of messing around with suspensions, I have found that throwing parts on the car typically just masks a driver issue.

 

[dailybean]

I did the Mountune springs and a good set of summer tires. I find it perfect for the 99% street/1% autocross use. I got rid of the tall factory ride height, stiffened the springs just enough to balance out the factory dampers, and took out some of the pitch/roll. I can't get anywhere close to exceeding the level of grip on the street with this setup and the ride quality is very good on poor quality roads. I noticed that the rally school made a huge difference on the street as well, mostly in the winter and in the wet. It is more about proper techniques, eye control, understanding what the car is telling you, and how to shift weight around the car. Those lessons work all the time. In the 20 years of messing around with suspensions, I have found that throwing parts on the car typically just masks a driver issue.

I would disagree only because the best drivers I’ve known have had more than springs on their track cars. Guys with dedicated track setups don’t run stock vehicles for good reason, they’re slower on any track with an equal driver. I’m not a professional driver by any means, but I’ve been through enough advanced defensive and offensive, on and off-road, and Moto courses to know when a stock vehicle has reached its limits or what I simply prefer my daily driver to be setup like. To each his own, but modifying a vehicle does mean the driver is incompetent.


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[J_BadWOLF]

Well, keep in mind that the Mountune are progressive and will technically wear out your struts slower with less sudden dampening needed, so a quality Bilstein strut will wear out much slower than an OEM with linear springs... in your case, your OEM struts may be the problem, not the spring... I just said it in an earlier reply, but you have to think of progressive springs like Mountune as 1 part better handling and 1 part bit softer: lower COG more than makes up for being a bit softer, while linear will be straight up 2 parts better handling, but will also wear out your struts a bit quicker with that more sudden dampening.

Yes, exactly. That's why I was pointing out the correlation between my own experience with the mountunes vs what he can expect with a more linear set-up, it will most likely aggravate the rate at which he experiences dampening fatigue. Hopefully this helps clarify

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[J_BadWOLF]

I may have missed this, so if it was brought up previously I apologize. But another aspect to consider would be stroke length of the shock. Considering the vehicle will be lower with the springs this can be a major shortcoming of staying with OEM shocks.

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[danbfree]

I would make no mechanical changes, but invest in driver education instead. The biggest improvement I have made to the handling of my ST was spending a day at the Team O'Neil Rally and Car Control School.

The ST is so very tail-happy that I would not want to add a rear sway bar and it is balanced so well that adding a front one would take away from the balance. I was shocked at how changing my braking points and technique greatly altered the handling of the car.

Agreed, Ford tweaked the suspension, thicker/stiffer rear torsion from factory in later models, etc, that's why if anything some bracing so that the suspension can do what it was designed to is a good to start with, I just want a smidge of give that progressive springs will give me and the lower COG will more than make up for, but otherwise I agreed at how well balanced it is to begin with...

 

[dailybean]

Agreed, Ford tweaked the suspension, thicker/stiffer rear torsion from factory in later models, etc, that's why if anything some bracing so that the suspension can do what it was designed to is a good to start with, I just want a smidge of give that progressive springs will give me and the lower COG will more than make up for, but otherwise I agreed at how well balanced it is to begin with...

That’s exactly why the chassis bracing, rear motor mount and springs are on my car. Everything only compliments the balance, not change it, and gets rid of the torque steer and wheel hop that it had from the factory so it can do what it naturally does, only much better.


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