trailing arm perch relocation
 

Can someone tell me some reasoning on potential CONS to placing the trailing arm saddle perches closer together on the axle. I am making my own tubular arms and I would like to run my rear bags on the trailing arm with the upper bag plate located on the inside of the frame. I am trying to get the position as far back towards the rear axle as possible, which would mean the saddles would have to come in approximately 7" on each side, from ~41" total width to 27" total width.
I dont necessarily like the idea of narrowing a triangle setup, but with a solid pan hard bar, is there some specific problems I'm not realizing. this truck is a cruiser, no aggressive driving, so "better handling with stock geometry" doesn't concern me. "unsafe because of x,y,z" does however.

any thoughts?

Re: trailing arm perch relocation
 

The closer the bags or springs are together the stiffer the rate needs to be to control body roll. You may find that the rear ends up with excessive roll with bags as the pressure (rate) to set ride height is pretty low.
Jimmy

Re: trailing arm perch relocation
 

Thanks for the response,

I'm trying to imitate various setups that have the upper bag plate welded to a boxed section of the inside of the frame, just before the rear axle, and the bottom plate welded to the trailing arm. To achieve that correct angle and distance away from the frame, the trailing arm perch and u bolt would fall right under my notch (which is not wide, or long enough) and would make contact with the perch.

I could however, make a shackle type mount under the axle in the correct location, eliminating the need for perches and u bolts, and have a bushing end on the trailing arm attach to that. What would be the difference between having a "fixed end" via trailing arm perch with u bolt, vs a "fixed end" via a bushing attached to a shackle. I hope that makes sense. I'm not familiar with all the correct terminology.