God of Suspension -please help??

[1MadEngineer]

OK at last i got my finger out and finished gathering all the links for my rear 3-link (ala modified RR similar to sam's), but my front end is still in need of attention. I have always liked the "SafariGard" 3-4 link front design as it corrects pinion angle as it travels through the arc of motion, but the standard radius arm front is really easy to set up, any ideas on a front setup would be good, from people with true experience in this area not just "my friend said?.."
(sam ideas??? are you happy with your front?)

[bj on roids]

is thgis just three paralell links and a panhard bar?

[Wendle]

I am running the simplest of simple 5-link set-up in the front (nissan) and am very happy with the way it behaves. The links are parrallel and mounted in a vertical plane from the side and front (does that make ay sense??) The links are almost equal length. The difference in length being the castor adjustment.
From memory the front end on a zuki has the springs outboarded from the chassis?? so there should be plenty of room for the same sort of set-up..

[OVERKILL ENG]

Carlton is correct as long as you get a wide track sierra as the diffs are 100mm longer which will give you enough room for your links. If your upper and lower links are the same lenght then it will correct pinion angle as it travels.
cheers

[bj on roids]

Carlton is correct as long as you get a wide track sierra as the diffs are 100mm longer which will give you enough room for your links. If your upper and lower links are the same lenght then it will correct pinion angle as it travels.
cheers

greg, 1madengineers springs are definitely outboarded, and WIDER? its well and truly over 100mm wider

[Damo]

5 link front with coilovers is what I want!


But I gotta get all the sh*t i'm working on at the moment out of the way

:(

[Strange Rover]

The standard rangie front radius arms work OK but if you were going to do something totally custom I wouldnt run this setup.

Although with the drilled bushing mod you can still get a lot of travel out of them. By mounting them closer together or kinking them to mount the chassis mounts closer together you could easily get all the travel you would want out of them but this may not be the bast in terms on ground clearance.

Heres a pic of mine on a ramp which does have a fair bit of travel. Its got stock front radius arms (with drilled bushes) and stock rear setup (with longer lower arms)

Sam

[Zookymatt]

Sam,

You mentioned in posts on pirate that with the holey bushes you were getting 12 inches of travel (at the shock I think). If you could optimise the chassis mount bush angle and perfect the holey bushes, do you think that this travel could be increased by much?

In other words, what do you think is the maximum possible travel from a tweaked rover radius arm setup (with standard length arms)?

Also, do you happen to know what the distance across your axle is between your shocks, or more precisely, the distance between where you measured the 12 inches of travel?

Aside from approach angle and better axle location, what do you think is better about the radius arms compared to a pair of long, soft leaves?

Thanks,
Matt.

[Strange Rover]

Sam,

You mentioned in posts on pirate that with the holey bushes you were getting 12 inches of travel (at the shock I think). If you could optimise the chassis mount bush angle and perfect the holey bushes, do you think that this travel could be increased by much?

In other words, what do you think is the maximum possible travel from a tweaked rover radius arm setup (with standard length arms)?

Also, do you happen to know what the distance across your axle is between your shocks, or more precisely, the distance between where you measured the 12 inches of travel?

Aside from approach angle and better axle location, what do you think is better about the radius arms compared to a pair of long, soft leaves?

Thanks,
Matt.

12in would be the absolute maximum with heavy wheels and tyres (like 42in tsls)

To get better travel from radius you really need to kink the radius arms so that the left and right chassis mounts are closer together. If the L and R mounts were the same point then there would be no binding at all.

Distance between shocks would be about 900mm.

If you look at what all the top US comp rigs run in the front end they run multi links which dont bind (ie triangulated three links or 5 links) or leaf springs. Radius arms are a big compromise which limit articulation but only require a small amount of room to mount them.

So if it was me and the choice was to run leafs or radius arms then I would run leafs.

Sam