How to Lower A Super Beetle
(The complete history)
At first glance, you would think that just cutting the spring would do fine. Or perhaps grinding the spring cup off the strut, and re-welding it a couple of inches lower, perhaps? We investigated all this in 1978.
Since you need to keep a normal amount of ride travel, you must first think about how much travel a stock strut has available. In most cases, it's around four inches. If you lower the spring holder by two inches, you only have two inches of travel left. Even if you cut the bump stop in half, this makes for a very uncomfortable ride!
What needs to be done is to make a shorter strut housing as well. After lowering the spring holder, you could cut off the top of the strut to make it shorter, thus restoring the ride to near normal. Quite a bit of shop labor! In fact, this is how we made our first struts in the 1980's. Most of the lowering market back then was for the early (71 to 73) Supers. For those cars we used the 74 to 79 insert, which is a couple of inches shorter than stock. In later years, we started using the USA Rabbit shock inserts, which were shorter still than the late bug one. After cutting and modifying many struts, we began making our own housings from scratch.
John Dean and Me
At first we just offered early struts in 2, 3, or 4 inch fixed drop models. After several years of this production, we developed the Adjust-A-Strut.
Fitted with a Rabbit shock insert (it must be modified for proper bearing mount fitment), it had a short body for great ride, and an adjustable spring holder.
The adjustment system used a reliable two inch snap ring, similar to those used on circle track race cars. Adjustment range on these was from two to four inches. The adjustment range on the late model (74 to 79) model was from one to three inches. The three inch limitation on the late suspension is because of clearance between the control arm and steering box. Not being locked into a certain inch range of lowering was a bit hit. We have sold hundreds of these units, and now it is widely copied by many other companies (made in China of course).
The Super Beetle strut normally uses external threads on the top, but the Rabbit has internal threads. The only failing our Adjust-A-Strut had was occasional thread damage. Also, since the shock manufacturer supplied the closing nut with the shock insert, we were at the mercy of their sizing and quality control. We thought, surely there must be a better way!
One other problem was with the need for repair or replacement of the snap ring or spring holder assembly. Since the threaded top of the strut was bigger, you couldn't slip the pieces off the top of the strut. In some rare cases, we had to cut the top off for repair, and weld it back on. It was a solid design, but something new was needed.
In 2002, we introduced a new strut tube. It had a slimmer profile, with a custom
billet aluminum closing nut. This meant that we were no longer at the mercy of the shock manufacturers for a quality fit. This also made the piece completely
MODULAR and SERVICABLE in every way.
You could change snap rings, spring holders, and even convert our
Versa-Strut into a slimmer German look
MaXX strut. The
MaXX strut has the slimmest and most compact design of any setup on the market, making it easier to fit big German Look tires and wheels under your fenders.
Since the system uses an industry standard 2" snap ring assembly, you can even set up the system to work with adjustable coil-over threaded adjusters, such as the Coleman Racing conversion parts.
Over the years, we have introduced many unique items to the VW industry; some of which have been copied, but never duplicated in quality. We invite you to take a look at some of them on our website.
Camber Bolt (with non-twist design)
Sway bar for lowered Super (by Sway-A-Way Corp)
Return to Product Index