Birth of Long John

[old round fart]

With your mobility issues I would try to keep the kick up out of the passenger compartment for legroom considerations.

 

[Zandoz]

With your mobility issues I would try to keep the kick up out of the passenger compartment for legroom considerations.

I'll only be loosing around 2" of the 8" stretch, and I'm a short legged old troll. Plus, I've allocated the space behind the seat for an eventual air ride compressor

 

[Tjbucket]

As the plan stands now, mine will have a wheelbase around 92"-93" and an 8" stretched body. Powered by a GM 60V6 and a 700R4. My target weight is 1500 lbs.

The way I'm getting the short wheel base is a combination of things. A spring over axle front suspension...the shorter V6...and radically channeling the body over the kick-up.

Got it.......I have a spring behind front end. I like the suicide front end on a T bucket........

 

[Zandoz]

Got it.......I have a spring behind front end. I like the suicide front end on a T bucket........

I have nothing against the suicide configuration...except in this case that configuration would be counterproductive for meeting my target 92" wheelbase. I will be cleaning up the typical spring over setup by going with a tube axle and a mono-leaf spring

 

[old round fart]

I'm probably going to take a bunch of flack for this one but here goes. I'm thinking about a single coil over in the center of the front axle and single rods to control the top of the axle. With wire wheels there won't be much torque applied but the only thing I'm concerned about is roll control. Sway bar would be stupid looking. Engineers help?

 

[choppinczech]

I'm probably going to take a bunch of flack for this one but here goes. I'm thinking about a single coil over in the center of the front axle and single rods to control the top of the axle. With wire wheels there won't be much torque applied but the only thing I'm concerned about is roll control. Sway bar would be stupid looking. Engineers help?

Single rods with 2 attachment points at the front? Like split wishbones? That would control the roll.

I saw a photo somewhere where a guy used a single air bag at the center.

 

[old round fart]

I was thinking about the shock arm being used as the bottom fore/aft control and the single rods controlling fore/ aft on top. I don't want a slotted hole in lower bar to account for different arch from different length bars if I had traditional readies rods.

 

[Gerry]

With unequal length RR, so long as there is no bind when the front axle 'tilts' (one wheel is higher than the other and the axle is no longer parallel to the road), the only thing that happens is that the caster angle changes. I have a 3 bar set up and the caster changes about 1* over the whole of the front suspension up and down movement. Mind you I only have about 3-4" of travel. My 2 outside RR are about 3 feet long and the lower centre bar is around 10".

My front end took a lot of experiments to get it working correctly and I used hemi's on ever thing. I do have the advantage that the bellcranks control side to side movement so no need for a panhard. If you look at a Woods front end they used a drop link from the bell cranks to the axle.

I have wondered about using a cross tube with metalstic suspension like some trailers have. This set up normally does not have dampers as the metalastic is self damping. Sort of like a torsion tube set up. There is a theory that the front end could be mounted to give no 'tilt' and all the movement would be taken up by the rear end, but thats another thing.

I could go on for ages but that's the bones of it.

You can see the set up in this pic, although its a little in the background.
G

 

[old round fart]

Thanks Gerry. I'm feeling better about my design with you and Choppinzech check in' in. This is kinda what I'm thinking ( if I can get it to work. Lol)

 

[Gerry]

Not sure there is any allowance for tilt on that set up. Dragsters can do without as the chassis has enough flex for the flat surface of a strip.
As it has to RR with batwings you could put a hemi in the centre bracket on the axle.

 

[choppinczech]

Thanks Gerry. I'm feeling better about my design with you and Choppinzech check in' in. This is kinda what I'm thinking ( if I can get it to work. Lol)View attachment 12248

That's cool! There's two rods per side, correct?

Maybe a short heavy duty shackle at the bell crank/axle point?

 

[2old2fast]

There's a spherical joint that's used in the off-road group that doesn't have a shank [outside is round ] that can be pressed into a fixture that might be the ticket for that center arm/axle connection..
dave

 

[Gerry]

There's a spherical joint that's used in the off-road group that doesn't have a shank [outside is round ] that can be pressed into a fixture that might be the ticket for that center arm/axle connection..
dave

My last post should have read "two" RR per side. Out of edit time...


Got a few of them on mine. The RR have one each end.

 

[old round fart]

Gerry, good catch on tilt! Haven't thought about that.
2old, didn't know about those. I'll try to find. Could weld it through the axle and use double shear on bellcrank.
Chopp yes that one has 2 but I think he is not concerned with binding or has a slot in bellcrank.

All this input is exciting. Thanks guys. John

 

[2old2fast]

jounny joints , currie makes them , in summit catalog as well..

 

[old round fart]

jounny joints , currie makes them , in summit catalog as well..

Found them. Thanks

 

[Zandoz]

jounny joints , currie makes them , in summit catalog as well..

I'll be running the smaller 2" Johnny Joints on the frame ends of my Granatelli rear suspension control arms. I got mine from Summit.

 

[fletcherson]

With unequal length RR, so long as there is no bind when the front axle 'tilts' (one wheel is higher than the other and the axle is no longer parallel to the road), the only thing that happens is that the caster angle changes. I have a 3 bar set up and the caster changes about 1* over the whole of the front suspension up and down movement. Mind you I only have about 3-4" of travel. My 2 outside RR are about 3 feet long and the lower centre bar is around 10".

My front end took a lot of experiments to get it working correctly and I used hemi's on ever thing. I do have the advantage that the bellcranks control side to side movement so no need for a panhard. If you look at a Woods front end they used a drop link from the bell cranks to the axle.

I have wondered about using a cross tube with metalstic suspension like some trailers have. This set up normally does not have dampers as the metalastic is self damping. Sort of like a torsion tube set up. There is a theory that the front end could be mounted to give no 'tilt' and all the movement would be taken up by the rear end, but thats another thing.

I could go on for ages but that's the bones of it.

You can see the set up in this pic, although its a little in the background.
I have an old trailer that used to be a pop up camper and it has one of those torsion type axles on it. I was skepticle of it at first, but it has proved to be durable and works fine for the application. I've had it for years and it was old when I acquired it.

 

[Gerry]

This came up on a UK site and I like it a LOT.

 

[choppinczech]

Yeah, that's nice.