Ride harshness

[utopian201]

Hi
When it comes to suspension stiffness, what does this graph indicate:


The bump is dealt with about 0.4 seconds, does that mean it will be felt as a sharp uncomfortable jolt? Or a comfortable one because the 2cm obstacle is felt as less than 2cm in the body and the body stops moving after 0.4 seconds?

[Cheeseman]

Am I wrong by saying that you have asked this question before in another thread, or was it somebody else?

Anyway what that shows me there (and I can only guess) is that the suspension is quite stiff and the tyre profile is really rather low. The bump is dealt with quickly with virtually no bounce afterwards. The suspension also does a rather shoddy job of soaking up the bump itself (and 2cm isn't much) and the majority of it is sent straight to the cabin. This would be felt as quite a sharp jolt.


If you were to get a car on higher profile tyres (70 or so) and put it on the comfort suspension preset you will notice that the bump will be soaked up far better (about half absorbed) and should take about twice as long to completely settle, with the bounce still being rather small (a couple of millimeters). This will feel like a slow rise and fall with an almost undetectable bounce.


If you go and set the suspension to be softer than the comfort preset and put even higher profile tyres on (80+), the bump is soaked up better, but it takes even longer to fully settle and the car bounces more afterwards, making it less comfortable.


Hope this helped

[Killrob]

Nice explanation Cheeseman!

[07CobaltGirl]

Good explanation, except you're going to higher profile tires, not lower profile tires in your explanation. (the profile is the sidewall height expressed as a percentage of the tire width, so 20 is 20% of width while 80 is 80% of width) Low profile tires are 20, 30, even 40 and are found on sportier cars. Muscle cars ride around on mid-profile tires 40, 50, 60, and passenger cars, vans, trucks ride around on high profile tires 70+. Sorry for the sidetrack of the thread. Carry on!

[Cheeseman]

*facepalm* I am having one of those days

I'll just fix that and nobody will ever know about it

[07CobaltGirl]

No worries. I just didn't want information to be contradictory.