V-Max coil overs....Help me understand?

So...the whole reason for thinking i should use coil-over shocks is because I thought it would buy me 1" or so of ride height adjustability. 

What came out of my research is that you can buy adjustable body coil-overs or fixed body coil overs and use the pre-load to set height. The advantage of a fixed body is that you would have more suspension travel.

OK..so the V max seemed like the answer to the question. Got them home today and got them assembled.

The fronts kinda make sense. When I compare them to the Factory Bilsteins that I have installed at full droop, the lengthfrom the bottom mounting bolt centerline to the bottom of the top-hat  is not too far off.

The rears I don't get. At full extension they have about 2" of travel. They are 1.5" shorter than the factory Bilsteins.  So if I put a load on this, I get less than 2" compression and a remainder of droop?    Ride height will be 1.5" lower than the bilsteins?  Is this right

I need to toss the things on the car and see what is what, but it would seem that the rears are going to be putting the car on the ground .

And what is with the offset lower  mounts?

Pete

Does this seem right?

The VMaxx are designed for a lower than stock ride height on a Miata.  On FM's site, they recommend 12-12.5" front and 12.5-13" ride height in the rear (measured from hub to fender lip).  

I just installed a set on my NB that I had removed from my NA and they maxxed out at 12.25" in the front.  I can probably get the rears to 13", but that's too much rake, so I set them at ~12.625".  

Yours look to be the Extremes?  Also the helpers should go on top, I believe.

Mine are the classics, and the rears were about the same length as the stockers that came out of my NB.  They did about 14k miles on my NA, and I'm wondering if they've suffered significant spring fatigue as I've run out of threads just to get them in the bottom of their designed ride height...

I'm considering seeing if I can order up new, or slightly longer springs to get an additional .5-.75" ride height for my NB.

Not really sure how you are doing this but if you need more Height with  what you have and then you need to adjust it some You May need a stiffer or Longer Spring, But I kinda got lost in the Question. Is the 1.5 inch lower what you wanted. Honestly having 3-4 inches of travel / Ability/ is to me better than just two inches . Of course things like weight transfer and wheelbase could come in here as far as travel goes and I am most familar with 108" WB cars and then I need to adjust my thinking from there.

Total shock travel is about 2" from fully extended to fully compressed to the bumpstop.  Is that about right?

When installed, I expect that the rear a-arm is going to be lowered past level with the ground with the outer pivot above the inner pivot.  I was told never to lower a Miata to the point where the lower a-arm went uphill from inner pivot. 

I need to put them on the car and see what the realities of the situation are.

Pete

I mean Keith will likely reply but you can also email him, he is always super helpful

My stock NB Bilsteins have a 5" gap from the top of the shock body to the rim edge of the top hat. Hard to tell what yours are from a picture, but they don't look far off that and they're intended to lower the car so should be shorter. Pull the dust cover up on the stock strut and look at how far it is to the end of the bump stop, not far I'll bet. Miatas corner on the bump stops routinely.

You've got the perches right at the bottom. You're going to slam that car if you install as-is. There are recommended perch positions in the instructions, I don't recall what they are exactly. And yeah, the shorter rear body to give a scootch more rear travel means less droop. Mazda did us no favors with that packaging.

You could cut down the rear bumpstops a bit - V-Maxx keeps shifting spec on us there, and they're a little longer than I would choose.

The offset bushings prevent your spring perch from fouling the rear halfshafts. It was a change made because of customer feedback.

Rodan, we can definitely supply longer springs for the front and/or new springs for the rear. We have a long front spring that's used on the later NBs due to their weight. When you contact us, we'll want to know what the numbers on the main springs are - 185/46, something like that. If you want to check for fatigue, measure the free length of the spring. It should be the larger number in mm.