Pedders Top Hat w/ Camber & Caster Offset - Anyone with experience?
 

I came across the product below randomly and contacted them about the amount of camber this can add (ceteris paribus) and they said it was about 0.75. In addition they say the mount is designed to be stiffer than stock. Has anyone had experience with these? Curious as to any product feedback as I couldn't find anything, for our platform or the WRX...

https://pedders.com/collections/all/...-camber-caster

I would just go with camber bolts. A much more affordable and simple (regarding install) solution.

Agreed if you're going from zero to 2.x. But if you're trying to land in the 3.x range, camber bolts along ain't gonna do it.

Depends on the bolts used, and shocks. On my KW V3's, with SPC lobed bolts in the lower holes and the stock lower bolts in the upper holes I hit -3.8* maxed out (dialed back to -3.2* using the bottom bolts). The KW upper holes are slotted, but I don't know how much the slotting gives alone. I would think you would be in the 2.75* range with the bolt combination I have and non-slotted struts.



Camber added at the knuckle is more favorable from a geometry perspective as well.

This is with 2 set of camber bolts. I believe its -3 or more... Only other suspension mod is 1" drop springs. (in this pic)

https://i.imgflip.com/2mo6ha.jpg

Lowering helps tremendously. Otherwise with the camber bolts alone you won't be able to achieve that much from my experience.

Um, You don't get camber in the front from lowering, only in the rear.


With Eibach Pro Kit springs I got -1.8 and -2.2 of natural camber in the rear.


I was able to achieve the amount above with 4 camber bolts. I only drove 50 miles with the setup above, did not get an alignment, so don't have hard numbers of what the camber is...


Now, I'm just running one set in the bottom hole, with the lower bolt in the upper hole on me new FA500 coils w/top hats.

Using both top and bottom holes I maxed out at 2.7 on stock dampers. With B8 and Tarmac springs I got to 3.1. However, I'm still wearing the outside of my tires by a decent amount (varying pressures at the track). One solution is obv to get camber plates, but those aren't cheap and may be more than I need. Another solution is to swap tires, but it's 20 bucks a tire and it can add up over time. I'm reasonably happy with the suspension set up for now, so don't plan on swapping for coilovers.

I've never seen these before so just trying to figure out if anyone has real experience.

This ^^


At about 1.25" lower I actually lost camber under compression. When the car was on the alignment rack I'd lose about 0.1 to 0.2 degrees at the left front wheel when is sat down in the car compared to without my weight in the car. Yay mac struts :( Definitely need roll center adjusters for next year.

I just installed a roll center kit. It made the car feel "new" again. I would suggest installing one. I got the Whiteline kit.

How did I forget that :bonk: brain fart

So... any experience with the top hats anyone? :)

It's probably fine and it's cheap. If you do your own labor.

Would be a nice purchase tonhave fun with your car and provide some feedback to the community. :)

If it were me.... I would go with a quality adjustable piece over an offset mount.

I dont know if pedders as a company has improved overall, but they had a very rough patch for a while, bankrupt in the USA, and just look into the rebadging / markup controversy.

I had bad experience NVH wise with camberplates. IF these will work well without bearing binding, they might be nice part to be used together with camberbolts, for total front camber to reach more trackworthy values, thanks for bringing these up.
Just that i'm not sure if these are not something rebranded from whiteline (whose com-c of similar purpose/design frequently failed when used on twins, and after several revisions they delisted twins from compatibility list of those).
As for which car .. click around product page. I see there BRZ & FRS listed too in Applications tab.

What camber plates did you have?

With Raceseng cascam I didn't have any issues with noise but it did make the ride a little rougher in the front end.

Raceseng too. I used them with stock shocks and local roads are terrible though. It's possible that with good aftermarket shocks and on roads with less road pavement defects they should work reasonably well, but i got tired hearing heartbreaking sounding hits on front of car/suspension on several occasions or minding to steer around most known bad spots on routes i frequently drove or to try different ways to try to fix (like double ensuring tightened strut top bolt, dialing most camber at lower mount, and only some at plate), so i gave up and reverted to rubber topmounts. On good roads/track there was acceptable/only very slight increase in harshness, thus i guess that they will work well for most living in civilized world :). But whenever pavement had defect that would make wheel move up quickly (eg. bumps around some drainage hatches, some metallic pavement "connectors"(?) on bridges, some roadholes with sharp edges, a bit higher new pavement patch beginning in road construction area), i got loud hit sounds like dropped toolbox on concrete floor, even if pavement defect seemed not high enough to hit bumpstops.

Hmm this is interesting. I never knew that a similar (same?) product was offered by Whiteline for the WRX and that they were advertised for the twins previously... The fact that the Pedders' product fits WRX then gives me a lot of pause.

Will likely pass on this. Thanks #Churchx and #Summerwolf for the background info! Very helpful and what I was looking for.

Jamestl: search via google for Whiteline Com-C adding to search terms site:ft86club.com , there well be several threads on it.

In short, maybe due strut angle on twins that made unacceptable sideloads, maybe due spring perch touching outside of bearing (but people tried with washers/modified spring perches and they still failed), bearings had tendency soon to bind (sooner for those that tracked), thus resulting in noise when turning wheel, as spring on turn skipped, making worse steering, and wear on spring/strut. Whiteline tried some revisions with different bearings, but none was confirmed to fix issue in long run. People ended up with refund and delisting twins from compatible applications. Those that wanted rubber top mounts, reverted to stock, or group N ones, both non eccentric unfortunately. Those that needed camber adjustment at topmount, got camberplates. Both options fixed binding topmount bearing. Some shops still list/sell W.Com-Cs (KCA335) as for twins, but you've been warned. Supposedly they work with more success/less failures on imprezas (maybe due their heavier front, maybe due different strut angle, who knows), providing extra camber for those that want to compromise NVH less.
At the end i ended up using rubber top mounts + camberbolts in both holes + powerflex eccentric bushing in front LCA, with ~-3dg front camber at stock height. But would have preferred Com-Cs + camberbolts .. if they had worked :(.