PLEASE DELETE (REPOST)

I have a technical question that I'm hoping some of you more knowledgeable (engineering background) guys might be able to explain for my dumb ass.

If it's common for most of us King guys to be preloading our coils so that we can adequately clear our 33in tires, is it possible to use a 1" longer spring (which king manufactures) of the same 600lb/in spring rate to decrease the amount of preload we're using? I've heard that too much preload negates some of the benefits of the valving kings shocks have when you are set up for full spring travel. I've also heard if you want less preload, go to a 700lb/in coil. So I did some simple math using a spring rate equation: F = -kx. I found how much force was on my coils now by measuring the total spring compression with my 600lb/in springs. I then substituted 700lb/in springs into the equation and found that these stiffer springs would only provide roughly 0.08in less preload. I like my ride now, not too harsh; and for 0.08 less preload, the super stiff 700lbin springs don't seem like a good solution.

I've heard that increasing the length of the spring would not reduce the amount of required preload, but for the life of me I can't wrap my head around why this would be true?

Any insight would be appreciated.