Because now the car is my daily driver year round I got different tires/wheels for winter and for the first time I'm puting weight in the hatch.

I bought 5 bags of play sand today from work because it was snowing bad when I left (later cleared up)

I put 3 on the shelf (over the rear wheels) and the other 2 in the T top holding area.

I think it might be too much weight 250lbs since the rear was squating some, I took them out when I got home of course because it cleared up but Is this too much weight?

I was also thinking of folding the rear seat down and putting it on that so the weight is more forward rarther then hanging off the back of the car.

Any idea's?

~Chris

 

Well its not to much for the car to deal with. It will just sag out back due to it.

 

Well if you put the weight toward the center of the car you aren't doing much but killing your mileage, last winter when i drove the z i had 140 lbs in the lower hatch and it helped, i don't think you really need 250 lbs though.

 

Although it is probably different on the car being rear of the axle like it is. 250lbs is just a little more weight than a standard male passenger. I can't imagine it has any detrimental effects on the car at all. FYI when I had 4 Bridgestone Blizzak's on the car about 4 winters ago I didn't have a single ounce of weight in the car and it handled like a tank through the snow. Was actually better with about 6 inches on the ground. By far the best tire to serve it's purpose that I've ever used. I just mounted them on the stock salad shooters.

 

My tires are 235/50 R16 Good years only because I had 2 good ones already so I replaced the other 2 with new ones and their on the rear on Trans Am wheels.

I'm going to return 100# if it when I go to work thursday, I think 150 should be sufficient now that I look at it. Thats the one good thing about sand- I can always buy more as the winter progresses.

~Chris

 

i put about 250lbs in the t-top area of my car last winter. This year i was comparing my car to my buddies and his car was over 1.5 inch higher in the rear. I went out and bought some 02 Z28 take off springs. My old springs were 1inch smaller with out even a load on them compared to the 02's. I put the new springs in the rear and it now rides back up where my buddies stock Z is.

 

I upgraded the factory shocks to Bilsteine shocks last year, I thought about springs since I liked the firmer ride of the Z28 but at this point I dont know how much longer I'll have this car since I'll be out of school in the spring things might change so I dont want to invest any more into it.

~Chris

 

The most usefull use of weight is to put it in the rear hatch area. If you look at the dynamics of it, the more weight you put futher to the rear, the more that is going to be on the rear tires. If you put 100 lbs perfectly between the front and rear tires, you will have added 50 lbs to the front tires and 50 lbs to the rear. If you put it past the rear wheels, you will amplify the effect of the weight. I can go into the dynamics if you would like.

 

you cant spell bilstein