Is this the best way to create and animate a spring?

I have an offload vehicle modeled in modo, which implements NHW vehicle physics. It's now time to get the suspension/chassis working as I need the truck to move like a solid axle vehicle with springs. I have never done rigging so I'm thought it be best to start with a simple spring and see if I could get it from modo to Unity.

I managed to make the spring in modo and as a quick test weighted it from the top, using a locator for manipulation of the mesh. I have no idea how to get things working in Unity. The model imports with a skinned mesh renderer applied. Hierarchy looks like this:

FBX asses (root)
-> skinned mesh
-> transform effector

When I manipulate the transform effector nothing happens to the spring in the scene view
Do I need bones to make this work? Would a spring joint be a better option?

Not sure why I can't get my brain around this. I did search this Animation forum for springs, but nothing I found helped.

So am I doing this completely wrong?

Thanks.