Quote:
Originally Posted by M3SQRD
That’s a misconception that a lot of people have with dampers. A damper is basically a piston rod with a stacked set of shims, washers and orifices (valve stack) that rides inside of a cylinder (damper body) filled with hydraulic fluid. As the valve stack is pushed/pulled thru the hydraulic fluid, it creates a differential pressure in the fluid on the two sides of the valve stack. A differential pressure times an area is a force. This damping force when applied over a certain distance (e.g., 2” of suspension travel at 3 in/sec due to a large bump) absorbs energy equal to the damping force times the distance the piston has travelled. I included the 3 in/sec because damping force is proportional to piston velocity (c*v=c*dx/dt, similar to how a spring force is proportional to displacement, k*x). No where did I say anything about where the valve stack starting position is inside the damper. As long as the damper has sufficient bump (compression) travel and rebound travel then it doesn’t matter where the valve stack starting position is. Dampers use bump stops to limit excessive bump travel which is what gets reduced when a car is lowered. Bilstein B16 struts are an inverted strut design which comes with an internal bump stop. As long as you stay within Bilstein’s max-min ride height values then running out of travel should not be a concern and ride quality also is unaffected.
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Sounds good, thanks for the explanation!