Front susp. question

max in your opinion what are the pros and cons of a front suspension with equal length control arms?

say your building your own frame and have the ability and space to run equal length, would you?

wow i was designing a front susp.set up yesterday and i was wondering the same thing

NO WAY!

Does that answer your question?

Equal length arms mean no camber (typically) but no camber isn't good. If camber was bad why would every single a-arm car have it? Camber is meant to keep the tires flat on the ground when cornering. If the suspension did not generate any camber then the tires would lean out in a corner leaving you with almost no traction. Tune to Win has a good piece on it.

haha that's what I was thinking, since most front end susp theory is revolved around racing and not street driving, what kind of specs do you think would be ideal for the average weekend cruiser that will never see a race track?

Originally posted by BioMax



NO WAY!

Does that answer your question?

Equal length arms mean no camber (typically) but no camber isn't good. If camber was bad why would every single a-arm car have it? Camber is meant to keep the tires flat on the ground when cornering. If the suspension did not generate any camber then the tires would lean out in a corner leaving you with almost no traction. Tune to Win has a good piece on it.

Off track but what about strut cars? They typically only suck the wheel in or push it out from full bump to full droop. I used to have a Dodge Neon with a 2 pump setup on it and remember watching it suck the tire in, dragging it across the ground as I laid it out.

maybe somethin like this.....i dont have the LCA built yet but you can see they are unequal in length therfore giving me camber...also the 3 pivot point (UCA, Tie Rod, & LCA) are located in line with each other....basically draw a line connecting the UCA and LCA pivot and the tie rod pivot is located on that line and the tie rod intself is parrallel with the LCA....this should minimize bumpsteer......Max has been a huge help on mine and i hope it turns out to work as well as i hope it does

sweet frame tony! I want to do something very similar and use a rack and pinion, my only problem is I need a lot of usable lift while minimizing the camber change throughout the travel, max is the shiznit!

That frame does look VERY nice! When I design A-arm systems for vehicles on air I will typically run the arms close to parallel (never parallel though, A-arms need instant center too) and the upper arm is close to the same length as the lower arm. I don't do that on purpose, that is just how it all comes out when I design it all on paper. Make some "paper dolls" with poster board and use thumb tacks for pivot points and just play around with it, you will see how moving the upper arm up and down and longer and shorter makes a LOT of difference in how the suspension cycles.

My rule of thumb, on an air bagged vehicle is 1/2

right, what I'm trying to figure out is how you keep the camber at 0 at half travel and full travel?

because in theory the upper arm gets short at both ends of the travel to create camber right?

It's too tough to explain, you'll have to play around with some paper dolls and see what you come up with.