Why Is It Dumb To Lower A Vehicle?

[kronus]

I'm not sure what it means for something to be dumb. If you're aware that changing suspension geometry is a compromise, then you can either accept that or find a way to deal with it.

[DarkLordFreeman]

So it is not gonna be dumb to raise a vehicle either.

[kronus]

Car suspensions are designed to change camber, caster and toe during compression. The rate at which this happens is typically referred to as {camber, caster, toe} gain curves. The point of these changes is to keep maximum contact patch as the car leans.

It's not "dumb" to lower a vehicle if you're aware of this -- it just takes some extra care to bring the alignment measurements back into spec after doing it. Of course, it's possible to lower to the point of the curves no longer being correctable. This is common with e30 front suspension, after a point it actually starts to lose camber because of the strut design. Lowering a car properly typically also involves stiffening the springs and sway bars, which leads to less geometry change in corners, which makes dialing out bad geometry easier.

The rear of e30s needs to have adjusters welded in to fix bad geometry from lowering, if you want it to handle well.

[CHIF8008]

lol


ill wait

[DarkLordFreeman]

I am including a link to a video that I found searching Youtube.

My question is why is it dumb to lower a vehicle? The video is actually about why it is not a good idea to raise a vehicle. Because I could not find a comparable video about lowering a vehicle I decided to post this. The whole reason is it changes the drive train angles, or the geometry of the car. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAzl8k9S4k8

Is it basically the same idea for lowered cars, that it immediately changes the angle of the whole car, and therefore is not good for drive-ability/longevity?