Hi Greg,
Once the spring is mounted you'll need to wind the adjuster up at least untill it's holding the spring in position. That way at full extension the spring won't come loose. hopefully
My Classic Revival uses long travel shocks/Suspension. To use the heavy spring rate and still maintain the ride height I have a tracking spring on the shock. this is a relatively light spring under the main spring. It's job is to keep the main spring under tension when the shock length extends past the length of the main spring. Most of the time the tracking spring is fully compressed and only comes into play when you jack the car up or the wheel drops into a hole or something.
Here's a pic
Cheers