madmax26

can someone tell me if their satisfied with their ground controls??!! all i hear is how bad the ride is, i just need a couple people to tell me their setup and the exact ride they are getting, everything i hear is how ruff and harsh the ride is, and makes me reconsider, pleese gimme some hope....for the good of style.....

Jane97SE

The ride is rough and harsh, but the handling is way better. Maybe you can get different spring rates and don't slam your car.

dashingMax

No Hope. Just get any springs with 2" drop or less and move on. The more you drop the more your butt is gonna sore...

My 0.02

madmax26

thanks for ur replies, but if i would get them i would only be goin like 2-2.5, its the fact that i want to be able to raise it again, and what do u mean by spring rates, could u give me examples of what spring rate causes what kind of ride and so on, i would plan on using these with kyb gs2 probably,

syc

I'm new to all this suspension thing so excuse me if I ask a stupid question. My question is that using the most ride-comfort spring (like H&R?) with this ground controls and rasie it pretty high(like no drop if possible), do you get a comfort ride close to stock's? if not, how close to the stock?
I don't drive that fast usually. just sometimes want a lower ride on my car but when I go travel of something, want a comfortable ride. I got stock tires and rims, by the way, but will get some alloys next year.
Also, is there any other adjustable that is no that harsh!
Thanks!

madmax26

u cant pick what springs u put on the ground controls, they are stiff eibach springs, and yea i guess the ride would be better if u had it only lowered like an inch but then its pointless,

i just wanna know people who are actually satisfied with the ride and not only the looks, cuz im used to a stiff ride, me SE has some sweet shocks and struts still, so its not like im used to a pillow ride, but i wanna hear from yall that like the dang ground controls, im only gonna lower it like 2.5 max, and maybe get kyb's, just TELL ME!

pawn

hey man....i just installed the weapon R coilovers.....and everyone told me that the ride was Horrible.....and not to get them.....well i got them anyway....and let me tell you......in my opinion......the ride is awesome.....they are a little stiffer than my sprints....but not bad......so if you want them.....GO FOR IT...cuz everyone has there own opinion....so don't let someone elses opinion steer you away from what you want!

NightRider

iTrader: (6)

I don't have Ground Controls, but I can tell you that you won't be really happy with any coilover setup on the Maxima for STREET USE. I have the Cattman Coilovers which should feel the same, so my input can be considered as well. With coilovers you have the burden of trying to match the corners in relation with ride height. One notch off, and you have a real problem keeping the car aligned, which can cause you to struggle to steer the car. Also, keep this general rule of thumb: The lower you go, the worse your ride will be. The reason is that as you lower the car, it causes the strut rod to compress more into the cylinder. You will tend the bottom out the strut more. There are some ways to solve this (shorter strut bodies is one), but the most common is to just not lower the car too much. My opinion is to just get a good spring and strut combo. If you must go lower, then try to find good options in modifying some shorter body struts.

Nealoc187

iTrader: (23)

I have GCs with KYB GR2s. First off, unlike someone said, you can choose any spring rate you want with Ground Controls, it just costs like $30-40 more. Second, you can't put aftermarket springs on them, the GC springs are much skinnier than regular lowering springs, it just won't work.

Anyways, the ride is very stiff. Do a search, I've gone into much more detail about my GCs in other posts, and I'm not going to type all that stuff again and again. Search and you will find my detaild opinion of them.

black019

i was just going to say talk to pawn

2DMax

iTrader: (2)

Thanks...good to know!

madmax26

HEY MAN, U GOT ANY PICS OR ANYTHING WITH URS DROPPED LIKE 2 INCHES? WHERE U FROM WHAT KIND of landscape u drivin on, and whatk ind and how much were ur weapon r's thanks, more important, pics

pawn

i have some w/2.5"

colorado

weapon rs 250 brand new.....someone had some for sale on here.....people will tell you weapon R's suck....but i think there great....there just a tad bit more harsh than the sprints....but at least my car is level now..and i can adjust it....im using koni struts if that helps...

pics will be posted by the end of the week...

madmax26

so ur not hearing noises or anything like that, and like their gonna fall apart, sorry to pry so much, but its like bang for the buck and i got no money, so if their worthy im very interested, u think i could use kyb's with them, i dont want such a koni stiff ride

pawn

nope....no noises....unless your hittin some major *** bumps.....then there is a little noise...nothing major....feels very good....i think what people might have been mistaken for is....when you install the weapon R's there is a "keeper spring" its a little tiny spring that goes on top of the main spring....you don't have to install this..and it gives you a stiffer ride...and lower drop...i didn't install the keeper springs and wow....bumpy..and loud....and i thought....."****..just what the .org guys said it would be like....but i thought...ill try installing the keeper spring and see what that does...and all i can say is wow...not sure how that little spring works...but now the ride is very smooth...a little bouncy not too bad...and no more noise..

ALL IN ALL........IF I HAD TO DO IT OVER AGAIN...I WOULD BUY THESE SPRINGS.....

UndecidedMax

I thought the Koni's had an adjustable ride, stiff to soft.
Also i have a question, as you can see i dont have a 4th gen but im looking to upgrade and was wondering, do you have to use an aftermarket strut with the coilovers, or can you keep your stock strut and just install the coilover?
thanks

madmax26

i dont know if im the best for this, but from all my research, this is the common answer, with something like SE stock suspension, u could pull it off for a little while with a coilover, but the lower ur car the shorter the life of ur stock shocks and struts, cuz the lower u go more aggressive on stocky, so if ur slammin ride, get aftermarker, if ur only gonna go like an inch or 2, id stick with stocks, but none the less they lessen the life of the shox, so most people say get it all done at once, but then i have people telling me that they have gone at least 10k with 2 inch drops and stock shox, so basically call is urs, do what u want with the $ u got,

chris j vurnis

I think what "Pawn" is refering to is a "tender spring". That is basically a soft spring that mounts on top of the stiffer main spring. In essense, its like having a progressive rate setup.

I'm not sure what happens when the tender spring reaches its full travel. Probably the spring binds together and makes some noise but it could help out the ride quality.

The stock spring rates for OEM size springs in the GXE are about 200LB/IN. But everybody with coilovers has these super stiff rates well above 300LB/IN. The main reason is that the individual turns of a coilover spring are spaced closer together unlike an OEM spring or even an Eibach Pro-Kit spring where the spacing is very large due to the wider diameter. Therefore, a coilover spring in 2.5" diameter will bind up at lower peak weight load than an OEM spring even though the OEM spring has a lower stiffness.

If you go to www.ground-control.com and look up the links for Eibach springs, you will find that a 200LB/IN spring would bind up at around 1000LBs of weight load. That is what each front corner of the Maxima weighs. So basically this spring coilover spring rate would give you zero travel.

A maxima doesn't need spring rates way above 300LB/IN but that is what is necessary to keep from binding the spring with coilovers. A 300LB/IN spring would yield about 1400LBs weight load capacity. If you are pulling around .80gs to 1.00gs in cornering, you would be binding this spring too from the weight transfer.


The above is a very significant limitation of common coilover designs using 2.5" inner diameter. A 3.5" to 4" inner diameter would allow use of wider turn spacing and lower spring rates without binding concerns.

You cannot compensate to gain appreciable ride quality with 350+LB/IN springs. Stiff springs need stiff tire sidewalls -- otherwise the extra compression loads on soft sidewalls due to the stiff springs will reduce overall roadholding ability of the tire.
So basically, you stiffen up the springs but then have to go out and buy expensive big wheels and low profile tires to get right back where you started in roadholding but with a harder ride. It all seems rather pointless. Sure, the Maxima may be an overly soft and uncomposed ride to begin with, but any coilover option will put you at the opposite extreme.

pawn

not could...it does.........

madmax26

thanks for that information i learned a lot, but so this is saying they all basically suck, so just buy bang for the buck, which is leading me to buying weapon r's after talking to pawn, what do u think