Searched the Web and here and didn't find any figures.

I have a 96 SE and have been bottoming too easily in my opinion (stock springs and replacement struts).

Most of the time, I'm hauling around my kids and their baseball equipment bags or other stuff they need for sports (baseball stuff is the heaviest). If I had to guess occupants and equipment weight, I'd say roughly 800-950 lbs depending on occupancy (majority over the rear wheels).

I have D2 coilovers that I haven't installed yet - my question is two-fold:

• Is that kind of weight too much for the Maxima structure/suspension
• If I put the D2's on, am I going to destroy them in short order due to the excessive weight? (driving fewer kids/less weight isn't an option)

 

sounds like your rear struts are bad. I regularly drive around with 2 people plus my self in the car (each 200+ lbs) and about 100lbs in the trunk. Im also lowered on tien springs and on OE replacement struts. Only time I bottom is over potholes and others, but thats usually just my front lip dragging. Only actually bottomed once (pothole on an agret driveway..very hard to see)

 

i dont have more than 30 lbs in my trunk though.

 

With the D2's you should be fine. Set them on the stiffer side.

 

This....
Plus this
Don't go together.

A sport suspension setup is NOT designed to carry much more load then the gross weight of the vehicle.

You don't see NASCAR driving around with the family, do you???


Get a firmer strut for the rear, leave the stock springs in there as they will give you the necessary suspension travel for the weight your carrying.
I would suggest KYB-GR2's for the rear as they are about 10% stiffer then then the original shocks. (that info can be found on KYB's web site)

 

Thanks for the posts - seems I'm getting varying opinions (which is fine).

What this helped get to was the "curb weight" vs "gross weight" discussion (I had forgotten how to get to the payload value - it's simply gross weight less curb weight).

With that said, I've found varying curb weights and only one gross weight that seems to be correct.

Gross Weight: 4273
Curb Weight: 3001 (although I found a range of 2873 - 3097)

http://www.lyberty.com/encyc/articles/car_weights.html

All things considered, I'm within the curb weight (89% of capacity at quoted numbers - worst case I'm at 92.4% which is infrequent). I'm sure being @ 90%+ isn't ideal, but within the manufacturer's numbers assuming they are correct. With just me in the car, I'm at 76.3% of capacity.

Sounds like I should be OK, but I certainly don't want to destroy brand new coilovers (I think the comparison of a D2 equipped Maxima to a Nascar rig might be a little extreme).

Anyone running c/o's (D2 or similar) using their car the same way or have a big sound system (=weight). I've purposely kept away from a big system since they can get heavy (used to compete in IASCA so I know)

 

Sounds like worn struts to me also. Look on the underside of your armrest. Shold have tire pressure requirements and vehicle weight rating. Mine shows 900#.

 

Another vote for struts. Too many people think that their struts are good because the car doesn't bottom out at all or very infrequently. But watch cars as they drive over small dips in the road and observe how some seem to have exagerated movement. These cars need struts, the drivers don't seem to notice this because the struts effectiveness diminish slowly. If you carry more weight, the seals in the struts will wear faster and the car will bottom out earlier.

 

Don't CO's give just as much suspension travel as stock or at least close to?