Well said FJC, the part about the caster angle change is so important and is all too often forgotten about especially when dealing with the lowering and raising of a vehicle.FJCamper wrote: ↑Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:51 pm Hi Red hot,
With a driver and full fuel tank, your front trailing arms should sit nearly level. "Nearly" usually means a slight downward slant toward the rear if no luggage or load is present in the trunk.
Lowering the front ride height too much has the same bad side effects on a VW as any other car, loss of ground clearance and loss of suspension travel ... but on a VW it also affects roll, effectively stiffening it, and caster, reducing it.
Too little caster and you wander as you try and drive straight, and you lose your self-centering correction as you transition from a turn into a straight.
Lowering the front end on a swing axle car without an equal drop in the rear promotes dangerous braking and cornering instability. The effect is less on an IRS, but still exists.
FJC
Lee