Top Ways to Enhance the Performance and Longevity of Leaf Spring

Leaf springs are among the oldest form of suspensions during racing. They contain desirable suspension feature like forward bite, roll over steer, dampening, high lateral stiffness and high anti-squat percentage. There are mainly four different types of leaf spring used in the racing industry today. They are multi-leaf spring, mono leaf spring, parabolic single leaf and fibreglass leaf spring. You need to choose only high quality lead spring. This ensures that the leaf spring is made properly; guarantees arch tolerance, access to complete labs for testing and research too. A leaf spring performs a number of tasks, including holding the chassis at ride height, control the rate at which it rolls, control the rear end wrap up, controls axle dampening, control lateral forces like side load, pan hard and side bite rate, control brake dampening forces and lastly sets the wheel base lengths during acceleration and deceleration.

There are a number of ways one can enhance the performance of the lead spring and make them last longer. By dampening the shocks, the car will be tightened on entry and the life of the spring will also be increased. This way leaf spring will not get destroyed easily because the shock will help it in absorbing the dampening forces. The driving style of a person also affects the life of the leaf spring. When people put extreme lateral force on the springs when slinging through the corners, it can cause premature failure of the string. Even impact from tire hopping or grazing can cause the leaf eyes to bend or unroll leading to undesirable change in the spring rate and the wheel base settings.

Many people make the mistake of choosing too light of a spring rate that can cause higher stress situation and losing ride height in the process. In addition, the spring will absorb the entire weight transfer and not plant securely on the tracks. Such a situation also causes the rear end to lose excessive pinion angle during acceleration leading to forward bite. When you are not racing, you can unload the springs and place a jack stand under the chassis frame rail. This simple step can greatly increase the life of your leaf spring. 

When the leaf spring is not properly installed or there is misalignment, it can produce a load of stress load on the rear springs. This greatly reduces the life of leaf spring. Bushing can also affect its life and also the spring performance. When you use runner bushing, it absorbs more energy and the springs lasts longer. Urethane and aluminium bushing prevents any desirable chassis and rear end movement creating a favourable synergy between the chassis, springs and the rear end. These also control and enhance the chassis performance by resisting the torque. Solid bushing can provide your car with stability and also predict handling characteristics that can lead to more consistent lap times that is needed to win the races by the drivers.