Help w/ vehicle suspension

[DreadRandal]

I always see LBP vehicles with nice springy supportive suspension, but when I study their designs and replicate their set up on my own vehicles of the same aproximate weight (or lighter), mine are always inferior. Mine droop, shift too much and break under stress levels that other ones I've seen can handle.

Can anyone help me fix this?

[Ironface]

I've only ever seen them with very evenly spaced springs on the chassis (with equal length) to give them those pimped out hydraulics that we can all appreciate. Perhaps lots of springs hidden within the car, attaching the top half to the lower half can distribute the weight so that nothing is crushed, or shifted.. I'd probably have to make my own to see all the problems that can occur.

[Ostler5000•]

I've been doing a lot of LBP1-esque vehicles in LBP2 lately, but I'm sure the fundamentals with springs and such are identicle in both games, so perhaps I can help.

There are 3 rules I follow when trying to set up my simple suspension -
1) Springs should be at 100% strength, but not set to be stiff.
2) Use a Piston with 0% strength, that is stiff, to limit how far the wheel can move to and from the vehicles body. Pistons seem more reliable at remaining stiff than Springs. If issues persist, using more than 1 Piston can help.
3) Most important rule, and something that will likely benefit you elsewhere in level building -
All connectors are stronger or weaker based on the material types they're connected to.
Build your vehicles body from cardboard so it can be as lightweight as possible, but have the pieces of material the wheels and springs are attached to made out of a stronger material like stone, wood or metal. Wood is likely the best way to go as it's not quite so heavy, but it is indestructable all the same.
To test out this certain-materials-are-stronger-than-others deal for yourself, try taking a vehicle with working suspension and turning the wood/metal/stone parts into cardboard, and watch it hit the ground when you test it out.

For the sake of explaining things a little further, regarding connector strengths -

Light material body + Light material suspension = floppy, easily broken.
Light material body + Heavy material suspension = Best setup to go for.
Heavy material body + Heavy material suspension = Too much weight, and will likely break.