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Originally Posted by z12358
I spoke with a guy who stores all his Corvettes up on jack stands and takes the wheels off for the winter. I told him that that's bad for the suspension to be left hanging like that. He said that he's well aware of that. He apparently uses points on the suspension itself (very close to the wheels?) to carry the load of the car, so the suspension is sprung exactly the same as it would be if the wheels were on -- nothing is hanging on the springs. How is this possible? Are you familiar with such jack stand points?
Thx,
Z.
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Hi,
Yes, it's called
loading the suspension. Older cars without a Chapman Strut (think leaf springs and shocks) benefitted from being raised to prevent spring sag. But, this isn't true of cars with independent, strut mounted suspensions. It is not recommended to raise an IS car.
The springs aren't the only reason not to have the car up on blocks unloaded. The rubber bushings have a
memory and won't repond well to proplonged periods in a different position, causing them to loosen or wear prematurely.
Another reason is that you don't want to
hyper-extend the Piston Rods in the shocks as these can then either corrode or accumulate dirt on parts of the Rod which isn't normally protruding from the Strut Body. If this happens, this part of the Rod can tear or otherwise interfere with the Sealing Ring on top of the strut when it reinserts itself, increasing the seal's potential to leak and fail prematurely.
You could install adjustable stands or wood blocks under the bottom of the struts at ride height (raise the axle higher, install blocks, and lower) to keep everything in it's nominal state. But, the only benefit is that you reduce the potential for flat-spotting the tires which you have already done by over-inflating them. Won't hurt to do it, but won't help either and it's a lot more work (both at hibernation and reawakening times), + it makes it very difficult to move the car in the event this is needed. Hope this helps...
Happy Motoring!... Jim'99