Originally Posted by t walgamuth

You don't take MY WORD on this ? What is this forum coming to ?
Your butt is telling you one thing... me something different...

I am not a spring expert... but for this thread lets assume that I AM.

A coiled spring with regular matching coils ( meaning the same size and existing directly above each other ) .. .like most automotive coiled springs...have a variable rate of springing... starting in the free state uncompressed state determined by the type of metal, the wire size, the heat treating method , etc. and it goes from that starting point to ZERO.... NO SPRINGing at ' fully compressed'.... so there is a curve in the spring rate which nearing compressed increases very fast.

In other words.... this is a dynamic system and what your butt is feeling is the result of the suspension GETTING to that increased resistance section of the curve FASTER... thus making the spring feel stiffer...
when in fact all the result is from the reduced travel available due to shortening.

But the metal in the spring is not stiffer due to cutting them shorter.

I enjoy talking about these finite physics things... but I totally agree with Tom on the big picture... these cars are not going to do what some who have experienced firm rides in smaller cars might think is only a suspension ' fix' needed...

At the same time... if your car has old springs, old tires, old shocks , old bushings, old antisway bar..... and you are entering corners too fast and braking into them....as compared to slowing properly before hand and accelerating out of them... then there are some things which you can do to bring it back to nice MB ride and cornering you deserve.... or most of you deserve.. LOL