I bought my box about 3 months ago and have almost 4k on it. I love the car except for one thing. The highway I drive on is concrete and has those 1" gaps between concrete. Will springs help even out the choppiness when I hit those gaps. Sometimes after like 10 miles I swear I get a headache....

 

Yes, they will. IMO, the stock springs try to absorb the bouncing too slowly and you get that feeling I call hobby-horsing and each bump just adds to it. Instead of trying to absorb the energy on 3 bounces, it seems like the stiffer springs absorb it on one or two bounces if that makes sense. They absorb the bounce quicker which causes the ride to be a little rougher, but smoother overall when you eliminate the extra bouncing that can be even more annoying. Plus they really help the car's cornering when you lower the center of gravity and stiffen the springs. I'm not even going to mention how good it looks, cuz that goes without saying...

Sorry, not the most technical answer but hope it makes sense...

 

the car def rides much smoother ever since i installed my hi-techs.

even with my friend's s-techs they are still smoother than stock

 

Second that. I just installed a set of TRD springs. Not the lowest, but definitely makes the ride more comfortable by absorbing the smaller bumps/jolts.

 

scionicman put it best with what he said.

tein htechs are amazing btw. i'm rolling on those and loving every mile on em. my main reason for htechs was for the more reponsive/smoother ride.

 

Let me put in a bit differently: springs have natural rates of rebound that, undamped, can toss passengers in the air.

-Shock absorbers- are more correctly thought of as dampers. That is:

Springs absorb shocks
"shocks" damp down the boing boing of the springs

Shocks work by converting kinetic energy into heat


modern shocks work on the hydraulic or air principle of forcing a compressible or non-compressible material through restrictive orifices.

very early shock absorbers worked on the mechanical friction principle.
In fact, leaf springs still do get much of their damping through sliding friction between the leaves

you may see now, that coil springs do not have any inherent self-damping. Without rebound dampers any sort of coil spring is apt to gallop the car under some conditions of evenly spaced bumps. When the bumps come in sync with the natural period of vibration of the loaded spring: whoa, Nellie!

If a stock-sprung car gallops over a particular kind of spaced bumps then either of these changes will improve the that particular situation:

-new springs of different "rate" (all are different)
-differently adjusted shock absorbers-

Are tunable shocks still made? Surely they are (am out of date here) In which case re-tune the shock's damping and the fix is made.

hope this helps.