[sybir]

Just edited my post. Put it on the bottom, with either strut type - the body of the strut and the spring perch is in the same place on both and that's what matters. Putting it up top is asking to get something misaligned or off-kilter and causing more strut/top perch damage. Remember, with a hefty spring with no uncompressed travel, you have no issues - as soon as you add a helper/tender and a joint, you've added one more thing to move up, down, around, etc - put it on the bottom where it won't affect anything.

If you're running a tender that is soft enough that the weight of a 20 pound spring on top of it is going to significantly affect managing spring travel, you're trying to fix the wrong problem. Get a firmer tender. Even a 100 pound tender is more than enough to control the spring in the right location.

And, because I'm usually an opinionated asshole with no frame of reference, or whatever, my current rear setup on my STi is a 390lb rear spring with a *gasp* 100 pound tender, mounted under the main spring. The tender is still difficult to compress by hand with a 10" spring above it and the car lifted (so that's all the weight of the spring on the tender). I swear it's ok.