Wally, I think that your analysis of the relationship between springs and damper is right but I think the starting point is 'why have springs?' The spring isthere to allow the car to maintain an even keel across any bump/hole. It needs to be soft enough to allow the wheel to follow the road surface that is hard enough to stop the wallowing and soft enough not to be thrown in the air. The damper is there to moderate the rate at which the spring reacts, too hard a setting means that the bump energy is transmitted to the chassis that can be upsetting, too soft a setting allows the wheel to overtravel and lose traction.

The adjustments on a damper are there to fine tune the spring reaction, mostly in rebound and that is a function of the speed of travel and the type/magnitude of bump encountered. On a billiard table smooth but of tarmac the damper shouldn't be necessary at all.

Clive

Thanks Wally and Clive for the enlightenment.

Is anyone running a beam axle bug with these sizes? I have mocked the front of my bug up with 225/40 R18's but they are seriously tight even with the shock towers trimmed.

I am considering the following:
205/40R18 popular enough size but only in runflats :(
215/35R18 popular and cheap for an 18" tyre
205/35R18 very difficult to get, but plenty of clearance.

Any opinions? I also need to decide on what brand of tyres to go with.

I want them to be very grippy, so I'm thinking of Yokohama Parada Spec2's. Any alternatives to consider?