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Air Ride Suspensions \  Drop Member: Nissan Hardbody

Drop Member: Nissan Hardbody

Air Ride Suspensions Q & A
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replies 74
following 25
 
lowkid37   +1y
hey man im diggin the work. if you are building this truck for yourself i say do whatever the hell u want man if if fails you know to make it different and better next time. The way i see things is build your truck for you not for what everyone else wants, im so ick of people judging other peoples work cause its not like what everyone else is doing so go for it man, hopefully we can meet at a show around here this year??
ChadCrissDesign   +1y
of course bro, I think ima have a booth at sittin pretti
lowkid37   +1y
well thats the one show im not planning on going too. are u gonna go to lowdown??
TwistedMinis   +1y
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Chopped Mazda said:

Edited: 3/23/2011 12:07:56 PM by Chopped Mazda

Regardless of how you have it plated and gusseted, its going to fail, and it just looks scabbed together. It will fold, count on it.

i dont have a problem with plate arms at all, I personally love them. I make them every single day. I deffinentally do not agree with tube being the only way to build a "proper" arm, But that example your putting forth is a terrible representation of what they can be.

In your application, it almost seems to manipulate around the bag like that, you will need to make a tube arm. Or, a flat plate arm with a pocket in the arm for the air bag so it can sit how i needs to. I do my C10 lower arms in this way, i pocket them so the bag can sit at a different angle then the arm.

I agree with jeremy on the uppers as well, you gotta find a way for them to not be standing up and down. Raising the uppers a bit will help.

Taylor

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Taylor I wasn't trying to say a tube arm is the only proper way to make a control arm, because obviously its not. I've seen your arms and they look very nice. I was just thinking a tube arm would better suit this application due to the shape it seems to need to take. I've built arms that look very similar to yours. So that was not a stab at you in any way.

I disagree that tube arms look boring. Maybe they look similar, but they look better than what I am seeing here. I'm sorry. To me it just looks like there is a better design out there than what you have right now. This is what R&D is all about.
jeebus @ mmw   +1y
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ChadCrissDesign said:



I know your just trying to help bro, and I appreciate it all, tomarrow im going to stick a stock lower control arm in a press with a gauge, and see how much pressure it takes tell it fails, then Im going to do the same with mine, If I get to the same pressure without fail, then its good to go.

Jeremy- My suspension looks like it does because I like it. Its for my truck. The chevy that you were building with tube lowers, and flat plate uppers, im not a big fan of at all, but I still think your work is badass.

We build stuff all the time to see if it will work.

Taylor- I seen your blue bent lowers on your website, and im more scared of those then I am mine, you water jetted out all the material on your bend line.

But all thanks for the comments.



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Failure in the press is not what you need to be looking for. What a press does to a piece of metal and what the vehicle will do to a piece of metal are two completely different things. Doing that will get you no useable data. Im 100% positive this has been said before, im sure that I said it as well.

The difference between the blue arms that i make, and the arms on your truck. I can 100% tell you my arms work, and i can prove it, there are vehicles on the road, driving every day with them, I even personally have my steel running truck on the road with a set that i beat the hell out of . I know they work, ive done the research on them to prove they work. Yours are just theroy in your head right now, your assuming they will work because of a twisted notion of an arm in a press.

Where the material is removed has nothing to do with the strength, where the bend is in relation ship to where the stress falls on the arm, the radius of the bending tool, the distortion of the metal after the bend.... those are the things that matter. And like i said, i can back up my arms with going out to my shop and getting in a truck and driving on them, and showing you many others doing the same. All you can say for yours at the moment, is that the work in a press.

You dont have to take any ones advice, which you are pretty adamant about.

ChadCrissDesign   +1y
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Chopped Mazda said:

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ChadCrissDesign said:



I know your just trying to help bro, and I appreciate it all, tomarrow im going to stick a stock lower control arm in a press with a gauge, and see how much pressure it takes tell it fails, then Im going to do the same with mine, If I get to the same pressure without fail, then its good to go.

Jeremy- My suspension looks like it does because I like it. Its for my truck. The chevy that you were building with tube lowers, and flat plate uppers, im not a big fan of at all, but I still think your work is badass.

We build stuff all the time to see if it will work.

Taylor- I seen your blue bent lowers on your website, and im more scared of those then I am mine, you water jetted out all the material on your bend line.

But all thanks for the comments.



--------------------------------------------

Failure in the press is not what you need to be looking for. What a press does to a piece of metal and what the vehicle will do to a piece of metal are two completely different things. Doing that will get you no useable data. Im 100% positive this has been said before, im sure that I said it as well.

The difference between the blue arms that i make, and the arms on your truck. I can 100% tell you my arms work, and i can prove it, there are vehicles on the road, driving every day with them, I even personally have my steel running truck on the road with a set that i beat the hell out of . I know they work, ive done the research on them to prove they work. Yours are just theroy in your head right now, your assuming they will work because of a twisted notion of an arm in a press.

Where the material is removed has nothing to do with the strength, where the bend is in relation ship to where the stress falls on the arm, the radius of the bending tool, the distortion of the metal after the bend.... those are the things that matter. And like i said, i can back up my arms with going out to my shop and getting in a truck and driving on them, and showing you many others doing the same. All you can say for yours at the moment, is that the work in a press.

You dont have to take any ones advice, which you are pretty adamant about.



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Like I have said before, you know nothing of my lower arm except from what you see in a pic. You dont know what grade material, thickness's, angles, number of gussets, how hot my welder was when I was welding it. All you know is a picture from a cell phone. I know that you make flat a-arms using your design, but this is my design, not even close to yours... So before you say " Its gonna fail, Gimme a chance to test the thing out and make adjustments to it as needed. The same way you did when you started doing this for a living. "i can back up my arms with going out to my shop and getting in a truck and driving on them" Is that how you tested yours? Because other then putting them throu simulation mode in solidworks, testing there strength in a press, and driving on them im not sure there is any other way. It would be different if you had the thing in your hands and were saying all this stuff, but there is too many variables to consider.

Thanks
jeebus @ mmw   +1y
Edited: 3/24/2011 7:59:44 AM by Chopped Mazda

Anything Im saying, is from experience.

Ive been down the same road you were with making something like this. I know what worked and what didnt. I know that you can bend the metal in a press all you want, it still wont simulate real world driving. I know what material thicness your using, because you said what it was. I know what gusset material your using, because you said so. Your welder heat has no bearing on the design, or design problems.

Remember, you asked for opinions and thoughts. those are mine. apparently you dont like them or anyone elses because they dont mesh up with yours. If you wanted thoughts and opinions on your final design in the future, you should have told everyone to hold off on commenting untill you posted a final design sometime in the future..

good luck.



ChadCrissDesign   +1y
So I installed the suspension on my daily driver. Ive been driving it sense saturday with no problems. Honest to god, I live on some really bad construction filled roads. Everyday I aim straight for the pot holes trying to damage this thing, but with no such luck. I drive 45mins each direction to work and I couldnt be any more happier about the ride. Throw in some shocks, and you have a stock ride if not better. Going to Keep driving on it for the next few weeks pot hole and curb jumping and see how it goes. Then the final product will go on my show truck!

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jeebus @ mmw   +1y
Good luck man!

keep an eye on fatigue, thats what will cause the bend or break. The constant up and down force from road driving over time will cause the fatigue. I would say after a few thousand miles of abuse you should be solid on what that will do over time.


Taylor
bigjon   +1y
I gotta say they look better everytime you redo them!