instant center?

Originally posted by Gangsta Boogie



basically the advantage to properly placing the instant center would increase traction during acceleration and decelration? when the vehicle is at a constant speed does a suspension with no instant center perform any different than a suspension with an instant center at the front of the truck?

Yeah, the simple use of (a foward facing) instant center adds traction, but moving it around makes more and less traction available. If you set up a system that has am much traction as posible, you will end up with a lot of roll-steer issues. So you need to ballance the system for what the vehicle is actually going to spend it's life doing.

As for the constant speed question...If you were to never hit a bump, accelerate, brake or turn, you wouldn't even need suspension. Hell I'll even go out on a limb and say that in that case you could happily run a reverse 4-link with and ic that is in your ass and it wouldn't make a difference.

A wise man once said something like this..."The less a suspension moves, the better it works."

what exactly is roll-steer? and would a suspension with an infinate instant center eliminate it?

Roll-steer is a dynamic effect that is caused when the suspension has one wheel up and the opposite wheel down (like in a corner.) In some cases it will create over-steer and in others it will create under-steer. There is NO WAY to eliminate roll-steer, but by having the link bars near parallel to the ground at half travel, it will keep roll-steer to a minimum.

instant center is actually the sweet spot in the middle of a see-saw at the playground, but nobody likes to talk about it

DUDE! How am I supposed to baffle these guys with bullshit when you are giving out all of my secrets?!?