Another Instant Centre Question

Hey Max,
 
 i've been looking around and i cant seem to find a height to set the instant centre at, you say set the IC at about the grill in length but does mean the IC should be around the height of the grill or should it be the height of the front lower link mount??

 
cheers
Gilly

I've been asked this question a few times recently. The reason that I never give a height for the IC is becuase if you set your bars up near parallel to the ground at ride height then your IC will be somewhere between the height of the upper and lower bars and that works out well. If I gave a specific height then someone that is running an extra tall or short tire would complain that their bars aren't parallel when trying to achieve that specific IC height.   Make sense?

makes sence.   in a perfect world should ur IC of the front and rear all meet at the same point?? pretty much the top/front of ur motor??

I'm not sure I understand. Can you elaborate? What do you mean "front and rear" front and rear suspension or front and rear 4-link mounts?

cool yeah i understand what your saying, im setting my bars up so the uppers are parrallel or close to he ground.   what Stu means is the front suspensions IC should meet at the same point as the rear suspensions IC or very close to it     cheers for the help Max!

If that is what he is talking about then you are thinking about it wrong. The IC is only a measuring tool for calculating roll center, anti-squat and other things that are measured by relationships of theoretical points. The front IC is found in the front view while the rear IC is found in the side view, so having them meet isn't really possible. What you would concern yourself with if you were to be that worried would be the front and rear roll-centers. You wouldn't necessarily want them to be the same height, but their relationship to the center of gravity is a concern when designing a performance vehicle.

another question would having the top arms longer than the bottom arms so that the pivot points are in line with each other (from the side view) be benificial? im running a V8 in my toyota so i want it to all work properly if i give it a boot full   sorry for all the questions but they are helping me get my head around it!   thanks again

Longer or shorter bars don't really change much unless you are really trying to dial in a vehicle and then you would need to drive it and make changes to decide what is best for your application.

cool as   thanks for ya time max, i'll buy ya a beer if ya ever come out to Australia.