castor plates - acco waiting to happen ??

[xy_ute]

Hi everyone,

i have a 5 inch coil lift and 1 inch spacers in the front of my wags, i am running the offest bushes, and it sux, especially when the roads are wet!

i have acquired some 5deg plates, so was going to ditch my offset bushes and put in gu slotted ones to get better drivability and flex. i know that my mushroom bushes will be binding to buggery, but im not too keen on getting boxes at this stage cuz im not sure if or when il be getting superflex arms...

now my questions are; are castor plates weak? can the bend and cause accidents? do you lose much diff clearence with 33s? any opinions or advice is welcome, especially if you are running this setup

cheers tyler

p.s. i have searched and read up on some interesting info, but just after a bit more from ppl that have them or had them.

[Auto-Craft]

Put some well designed boxes that dont hang to low, and forget the arms, they fix castor, but they dont give the correct geometry for the front mounts like drop boxes do.

Castor plates dont either.

[coxy321]

Put some well designed boxes that dont hang to low, and forget the arms, they fix castor, but they dont give the correct geometry for the front mounts like drop boxes do.

Castor plates dont either.

x2

Thats why i went with boxes over arms/bushes/plates. For the 2 odd inches of clearance you lose from the boxes hanging down, you regain full travel of the radius arms at the chassis end, correct castor, no "fancy" radius arm bushes - and my car drives like new. It handles the bumps soo much better now, can't beleive i put it off for so long!!

[turps]

Put some well designed boxes that dont hang to low, and forget the arms, they fix castor, but they dont give the correct geometry for the front mounts like drop boxes do.

Castor plates dont either.

So why are the drop boxes better?
As the way I see it. With both you get a flat radius arm and the caster is correct.
So why does it make a difference if it is a std arm 4inches lower or a aftermarket arm with a 4inch drop built into the arm?

[coxy321]

As the way I see it. With both you get a flat radius arm and the caster is correct.
So why does it make a difference if it is a std arm 4inches lower or a aftermarket arm with a 4inch drop built into the arm?

Price. There's a big difference in price, plus drop boxes are a straight bolt in at a fixed price, whereas dropped radius arms will require new bushes at the diff end (unless you're happy to reuse your old ones).

[Auto-Craft]

Put some well designed boxes that dont hang to low, and forget the arms, they fix castor, but they dont give the correct geometry for the front mounts like drop boxes do.

Castor plates dont either.

So why are the drop boxes better?
As the way I see it. With both you get a flat radius arm and the caster is correct.
So why does it make a difference if it is a std arm 4inches lower or a aftermarket arm with a 4inch drop built into the arm?

Go look under a patrol with boxes, and you will see the mount at the rear has been dropped to get the arm mount at the rear of the front arm, and the diff closer to parellal, then look at a set of arms and you will see they have been made to create the illusion that the arms are horizontal, but the difference in mounting position still means the arm has to pivot up and move the wheel forward in its arc from the rear mounting point, instead of putting it at its closest point of pivot with least for and aft movement, like drop boxes do.

This is what makes them "thump" back through the car, when you hit a bump, as the arms are still having to try and make the wheel go forward, to go up, and why drop boxes drive better.

Arms will fix the binding bush problem, but they dont re align the mount position to be truly a straighter more horizontal line between them.

This makes arms into very expensive castor plates really.

[turps]

Mmm I might have to draw some pictures.
As the way I still see it is that the arm moves thru the same arc. Its just that the caster correction is made from a different point.

Actually I think I know what you mean.
On a drop box setup, the arm is straight with only the std bend in the radius arm for where it attaches to the axle housing. So the radius arm is pretty much horizontal. Thus in travel either up or down. Results in the wheel moving slightly rearward.
Which inturn makes the wheel/axle climb ledges etc better?

Where as on a drop arm setup. The arm has that approx 4" drop/bend at the housing end. This creates a another leaver point. That on up travel has to move forwards slightly.

[Auto-Craft]

close,

get a pen on your desk, tape one end and draw a 1/8 of a circle as it pivots the other end, and you will see the further from centre it gets the more it moves behind the furtherest point, the arms do the same thing, regardless of how you cast an arm to look, it isnt really making the rear mount parallel with the diff mount, its just making it look like it is, so the arm point still means the diff has to go forward to go up, the more lift the car has.