Looking for a way to adjust the ride height of the car without the huge cists of a coilover conversion and came across this setup from a company called Ground Control Systems that make setup that is not a coilover but does utilize some of the same features along with the ability to change weight bias through their jack system built into their product. Anyone here tried them out? I have sent them an email to ask questions concerning my setup since I use BMR tubular front arms, KYB adjustable struts with Founders strut plates. I will be curious to see what they say. I would love to use their product since it would give the ability fine tune each corner of the car.

 

I've run the Ground Control Weight Jacks for years & love them. Wish I had done it sooner & not messed with cut or aftermarket set height springs. What the GCWJs amount to are shorter springs with adjustable perches to fit between the spring & the chassis. If you can get over the cost of them, you'll love them. If you ever decide that you want higher or lower rate springs, your only out $50 (a pair, iirc).

 

I am really considering them since it will give me some adjustability which I need. I am just waiting for them to let me know if the items I now have under front end will work with them. I have the BMR tubular a-arms that use the stock coil spring location and I use the Founders strut plates and want to be sure before I place an order. They are 459.00 right now according to their website.

 

I see zero reason they will not work with the parts you have, since they fit in place of stock springs. Your Founders strut plates will have zero to do with the GCWJ, since they have zero to do with stock fitting lowering springs. Since your BMR a-arms use stock springs, they should have no problem with the GCWJs fitting.

I picked mine up used for half that, but if you wait for used you may have to wait quite awhile. I just happened to find the & grabbed them even though I was really wanting to buy at that point.

Have you figured out what height & lb rating you are wanting?

FRONTS-weght jacks are upside down in this pic and fit on the top of the spring


REARS-springs are upside down for this pic & the adjusters fit under the springs

 

I put GC weight jacks in my 92 camaro this spring. I think they are the best option for performance and getting that perfect stance. here is a link to a thread on weight jacks.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...ol-weight.html

I only have my front suspension done so far and i have 850 front springs. It's been a busy year and i've only made it to one autoX event so far and i found that my koni yellows worked best turned all the way up so you may want to rethink the KYB's if you get a spring rate as high as mine.

i have J&M hotpart strut mounts, delalum bushings, new moog balljoints and steering linkage, Koni yellows, 850# weight jacks, TDS wander bar, and 34mm sway bar with energy suspension bushings and end links. I really like it. I can't wait to see how it handles when i get the rear put together.

Hope this helps!!

 

With shipping they were $499.?? at my door. DO YOUR RESEARCH on spring rates so you make sure you get the rates you want for you driving style/use of your car and can get the ride height you want cause there are two lengths of springs also. KNOW what your getting.

 

For future reference, they will not work without modification for tubular cross-members that use the inside diameter of stock springs to center the springs.

The DC weight jacks are the same outside diameter as stock springs. I had to weld spacers to the inside of mine to keep them centered in my Spohn cross-member.

Kevin D.

 

I've been reading the posts past and present on these parts and I am going to order these for my car. Sounds like most have the 8" front springs, any body wish they had done 9.5"? According to their website the choices seem to be street, aggressive, racing, auto-x, I thought I'd go with aggressive not really sure of what height springs, 8" or 9.5". I have a set of lowering springs from Suspension Tech and with the BMR a-arms and Founders plates my car is too low and hits the fender when I hit any dip that would compress the suspension so that is why I am leaning towards the 9.5". I see that Plum92 has the 850 lb springs, what height are they? I really appreciate the replies to this topic would like to see more pics of your cars with them installed.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...derpriced.html
Read Rawley2's post (#5). his set up is almost identical to mine. what i'm trying to point out is if you run higher rate springs your suspension won't compress as much over bumps and through dips. your car will follow the roads ups and downs.

I have the 8" 850# fronts and i am happy with that cause they can go higher and lower. right now my fender height is 25 5/8" and it never rubs.

Here is the best pic i have of my car with they weight jacks, post 636.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...rd-gen-13.html

 

When you order i recommend ordering by phone, and i don't remember them using those terms to choose springs. when i ordered we only talked about spring rates. i did tell them i wanted to take my car to the line between street car and race car without crossing over to race car."

DBLTKE, midnightfireWS6, and Rawley2 all have weight jacks too. They are cool guys and i'm sure would give you the benefit of their experience. See if you can contact them.

Just some references, IIRC stock and hotchkis (front) springs are in the 650#range, Eibach springs are 700#, and i have 850# springs and i don't think they are too harsh at all for the streets. i have not done my rear suspension yet so i don't have and input on rear springs. but i can tell you they set me up with 250# rear springs cause the extra weight of my subs, amps, and firewall to rear well dynamat. I'm a lil nervous that it will be too much.

Ground control has so many options I really want to see you get the springs you want the first time.

 

Thanks for all the great info, I am going to call the so that I can talk to them to place the order. I run 235-45R-17 tires up front and I want to get it right so I am not buying parts I don't need or can't use. Everything under the car is aftermarket front to rear most all of it is adjustable to fine tune things and these weight jacks system will finish it off. My car handles really great now but I would like to get a 1/2-3/4" more height. I measured my front height and it comes in at 25 1/2" on the passenger side and 25" on the drivers side with a difference of a 1/2" between the sides and it is the same at the rear with one side being 1/2" higher. I've had the body checked and it is good but it has this difference which appeared when I changed everything from stock to aftermarket. I am hoping the weight jack system will allow me get things leveled out. Again, thanks for input. Here's a couple of pics of the front.

 

Looks good!

 

Question for you, what's the material that is at the top of the weight jack? Is it metal or rubber or some other material? It is the gray colored part that would sit at the top. I was looking at Speedway Motors catalog and looking at their weight jack parts possible trying to make my own, just a thought since I could get parts do it a whole lot cheaper. Thanks.

 

In the first pic? That is steel. There is no rubber anywhere on any of the GCWJ. just steel & aluminum.

 

Do you still use the rubber isolator at the top for the front setup? Yea, in the first pic with the fronts, it looks like a chunk of aluminum or other material. I can buy most all the pieces to construct it and was wondering it was. Thanks for the reply and like I said, I'm just researching what can be done.

 

No rubber on mine but I think some people do use rubber hose split to slip over the edge to prevent the metal to metal wear of the edge of it. Not a bad idea to slow rubbing & exposing the bare metal to eventually rust, but I've also never heard of anybody having the mounts rust out because of the lack of rubber. Sen lots of northern cars who have the strut areas rust out commonly even on stock height cars, so if you were in that kind of climate (snow/ice/salt) then yeah...It would be a concern to have.

 

Ground control told me not to use spring isolators in front, only in the rear. My front adjusters came powdercoated red (threads of course were bare)

 

Thanks for all the info.

 

So, how do they determine springs now? I was going to order a rear set about a year ago and they needed your desired spring rate but now they list options based on your driving needs.

 

I believe it's an educated guess. There's no exact science to it. Search read and research what springs and spring rates other people are using and what they are using their car for. For best results you really need to have a good idea what rates you want when call to order. If you have a good idea and its close to what they recommend then you'll will probably be satisfied. Just remember the higher rate springs will need better struts and shocks to control them . I have koni yellows.

 

Well, here's the latest update on what I did with the front suspension, I was about to pull the trigger on the Ground Control System when a friend of mine who is an old circle track racer suggested a little different route but with same basic idea and approach. We went through Speedway Motors circle track catalog and what I bought was a pair of adjustable shims spacers that have adjustment from 3 1/8"-5 1/2" and a pair of 8 1/2" tall 700lb rate Afco springs for the front. I took the old springs and rubber isolator out and determined my starting height that I was looking to get which was 12 1/2" total height. What's nice is that this winter I will pull it back apart and we are going to weld a plate to the bottom where we can weld a 6 point nut to the center and by inserting a socket with an extension up through the bottom of the lower control arm I can effectively screw the shim up or down to increase of decrease my ride height. Instead of nearly 500.00 I spent 200.00 and the rears are fine, I didn't need to do anything with it. I now have the clearance I needed to keep my tire out of the wheel well and I have the rake from front to rear that looks good and now the car handles even better now with the 700lb rate springs, not to harsh.

 

That is kind of how the GC units are. A square hole just like a socket has for the ratchet extension to fit in. But since you have to adjust them with the weight on the car, they are VERY difficult to adjust up. Even going down isn't the easiest. Your arms will definitely get a work out adjusting them!

 

Very true .. It's best to adjust with weight off wheels .. As there's a possibility of damaging thread and its easier

 

I agree with you guys, I would definitely put the car up on the lift to get the weight off the front to simplify the task of raising or lowering. As it is now, it sits where I want it so I don't think I will be changing anything for the time being.

 

But with the weight of the car off them, it is going to take 3x as long to adjust, with all the jacking up/jacking down plus the test drive to settle the suspension. Personally? I'll do the little extra effort to turn the adjusters vs messing with the jack & jackstands plus doing the adjusting.

The rods & threads are plenty strong to handle adjusting under weight. If they weren't, I would trust them to hold the car during driving much less the hard cornering on course. IIRC, GC even tells customers to adjust them while the suspension is loaded.

 

So these are a direct bolt in... My car doesn't sit level so I'd like to correct this but I'd like to also lower my car to 26" front (I currently sit at about 27 to 27.5" ground to fender height and that is with MOOG 5662 springs and 0.75" extended ball joints) with 750# front springs and 26.5" rear (I currently am around 28" with cut MOOG 5665 springs and 4th gen thicker rear insulators) with 175# rear springs (my PHB is lowered 4" plus I have battery in the back). AFCO makes 5.5"x9.5" front springs and 5.5"x11" rear springs.. Would those fit or are they too short? (I know that may be impossible to answer but with above mentioned aftermarket parts perhaps someone might have some insight?) I'm also considering that a shorter spring would be less unsprung weight which would offset the added unsprung weight from the weight jacks.. Thnx in advance.

 

Found this deal if anyone's interested: http://www.sparktecmotorsports.com/gc-2505-01.html

413.10$

 

Yes, ground control weight jacks are direct bolt in. they go directly in place of your factory springs.
The photo in that link i think is a generic photo cause the front weight jacks for our cars don't look like that and the part # does match the ones on ground controls site. Depending on shipping that is a good deal.

 

My on adjusting. They aren't intended to be adjusted frequently. Every time they are adjusted it effects the alignment. so why not take the time to jack the car up, put jack stands under it (there's always time for safety right?) and adjust it easily? Take the time, set your ride height and forget about them. i measured the adjusters with a digital caliper, my car was level (side to side) each time i set it down to check ride height. the front adjusters are within .002" of each other. Doesn't get much more even than that.

I hope this helps.