do you agree with the following generalizations, and if not, why not?

compression damping higher than rebound damping:
-advantage: crisp handling
-disadvantage: upset by big hits (ie, hitting the curb)

rebound damping higher than compression damping:
-advantage: smoother over big bumps
-disadvantage: can pack up (run out of travel) on extended bumpy sections (ie, braking bumps), sloppy handling

and are there any circumstances where you would have your dampers set one way on the front, and the opposite way on the rear?

http://www.lfsforum.net/showth ... p;highlight=damper+tuning

If I don't have access to a fancy shock dyno, which I don't, here's how I tune my dampers on my own car...

1. Set dampers to full soft on bump and rebound.
2. Do a lap or three, note how the car absorbes mid corner bumps.
3. If car is "choppy" over mid corner bumps, +bump
4. After adjustment, repeat until car rides smooth over mid corner bumps.

5. After setting bump, note weight transfer speed.
6. If car rolls too quickly, and feels "floppy", +rebound
7. After adjustment, repeat until the car's weight transfers in a controlled manner

I haven't tested this in LFS yet, but it's worked quite well for my own car and is basically Koni's recommended method for dialing in double adjustable dampers. I'm not a fan of constantly changing my damper settings, so I consider this aspect to be mostly "set it and forget it." Obviously they get readjusted if I introduce different compound tires or spring rates to the equation.

My real world experience suggests that it's not entirely worth trying to adjust the car's balance with the dampers. I personally have had better luck with this by tweaking spring rates, bars, and tire pressures. I have played with the damper settings to adjust my car's transient response, but the difference is often negligible and can introduce other negative side effects that go along with too much or too little dampening than what the spring actually needs.

I do it like this.

If the back of the car is too loose when I turn in to a corner then I add front bump. If the steering feels all light and floppy then I add front rebound.

The back is more tricky though. If you reduce rear rebound it can have the same affect as reducing front bump.

If the car slides at the back over bumps I may try reducing rear rebound. If this results in the back not settling down then I will increase it again though.

I try and run as little rebound as possible without ending up with either floppy steering or a car that doesn't settle quickly enough.

but saying reduce this/increase that is kinda silly because it all depends where you were to start with.

Quote from Mykl :

If I don't have access to a fancy shock dyno, which I don't, here's how I tune my dampers on my own car...

1. Set dampers to full soft on bump and rebound.
2. Do a lap or three, note how the car absorbes mid corner bumps.
3. If car is "choppy" over mid corner bumps, +bump
4. After adjustment, repeat until car rides smooth over mid corner bumps.

5. After setting bump, note weight transfer speed.
6. If car rolls too quickly, and feels "floppy", +rebound
7. After adjustment, repeat until the car's weight transfers in a controlled manner

I haven't tested this in LFS yet, but it's worked quite well for my own car and is basically Koni's recommended method for dialing in double adjustable dampers. I'm not a fan of constantly changing my damper settings, so I consider this aspect to be mostly "set it and forget it." Obviously they get readjusted if I introduce different compound tires or spring rates to the equation.

My real world experience suggests that it's not entirely worth trying to adjust the car's balance with the dampers. I personally have had better luck with this by tweaking spring rates, bars, and tire pressures. I have played with the damper settings to adjust my car's transient response, but the difference is often negligible and can introduce other negative side effects that go along with too much or too little dampening than what the spring actually needs.

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Ahhh, I wish Koni made DAs for my car... alas, only SAs, and the ones I have now must be removed to adjust. What do you drive?

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