dave22

A lot of the Cusco stuff still has pivot points, though.

I had this one on my S2000:





No adjustments anywhere, but the damn thing was almost $400.

Any Cusco bar cheaper than $350 will likely be "adjustable."

For under $100 I still say Neuspeed all the way. They're steel, but they're designed to be as stiff as tubular steel can possibly be. And the mounting points may not look beefy in pics, but they're VERY thick.

Fabrik8

Pivots don't matter. That's not how strut braces work.
The bars that mount ot the firewall also are nice, a little triangulation never hurt anything.
Pretty much any triangulated bar will kick the crap out of a non-trian. bar unless your strut towers are really close to the firewall already. Depends on the car obviously..

dave22

That might be true, but it makes absolutely no sense to me. If the chassis flexes and the mounting plate pivots how is anything being braced?

GOOKY4U

okay so its being bashed..understandable...but i still see people with the spoon struts and the DC strust and theres no complaints about that...so is it juss cuz of the brand?

Fabrik8

You're not bracing the towers to anything but each other. One side flexes more than the other in a corner, (I don't remember which one) and tying it to the other tower keeps it from moving. That's what's keeping it from rotating, if it can't move because it's phyically being restrained, it can't rotate. Like I said, it's all under tension or compression, there is no rotation about the top plane so the pivots don't matter. Also, the chassis itself is plenty strong around the plane of the top of the tower, but the whole side of the engine bay isn't that stiff. That's the movement you're trying to stop. The bars that tie the towers to the firewall go one step further and keep the towers from moving front to back, not just side to side. The more directions that you can prevent motion, the stiffer the structure.

Just as an illustration of the pivot concept, there is a type of truss called a space truss that is used a lot in big pavillions and stuff like that. All the truss joints are ball and socket joints, so the members can move around and expand/contract with temp. Everything is all triangulated though, so even though the whole thing is made from pivots, nothing can rotate or move in relation to anything else when there is a load on it.

Hold a broomstick directly out in front of you, put the end on the wall, and lean on it. Even though you haven't rigidly attached the broomstick to the wall, and it can pivot in a whole range of directions (assuming it doesn't slip on the wall) it can still support your weight. It's no different than drilling a deep hole in a stud for the broomstick to post into, it will still support your weight. You're not trying to keep the wall from rotating or keep you from rotating, all the force goes in one line between you and the wall.

dave22

No. Read the thread. Has anyone said anything about the brand?

GOOKY4U

cuz im lookin at cars and stuff and if u compare the megan struts to like neuspeed and cusco...there are obviously different...but they are both doing the same job. Sure..maybe Neuspeed's quality may be built a little better...but as a daily driver going from point a to point b....is there a DIRE need for a completely stiff chasis?

GOOKY4U

so basically itll still help if i were to get the megan ones Vs. another one. Itll still do the job right?

dave22

Damn. I knew that but I said "chassis" to keep it simple. But I see your point.


I just didn't think a strut tower brace would have that much engineering. I can see pivots for a large building that may expand and contract but I just figured the pivots on an STB would be to make them more "universal."

So do you think a completely rigid brace would have no benefit over a brace with the pivot points?

JKim

No.


And while you're at it...you might as well get their coilovers too.