Rear custom four link pics!

[Wheelie]

Originally Posted by mknittle

LOL, Is that good?

YES!

[tech@scottshotrods]

Here are a couple pics of out coil over and air bag 4-links

[mknittle]

Originally Posted by blitz'd

The upper or lowers? The lower is the stock S10 leaf spring perch, don't remember how long the lowers I wanna say around 35". I am 1500 miles from the truck right now or I would go measure.



Nope just a fancy shock mount.

thanks That is a work of art

[Wheelie]

Originally Posted by jon@scottshotrods

Here are a couple pics of out coil over and air bag 4-links

whats that coilover length and spring rate in that nice set-up you have there?

[Scottshotrods]

In the pic you see above the coil-over length is 13 inches extended and spring rate is 300lb.Keep in mind we do have several different lengths in coil-overs and different spring rates.
Justin

[mknittle]

Isn't 300lbs kind of stiff?

[LEEVON]

I was going to use a 4-link, but got a bug to use trailing arms w/ a panhard bar. Shock mounting is the only challenge with this.

[mknittle]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

I was going to use a 4-link, but got a bug to use trailing arms w/ a panhard bar. Shock mounting is the only challenge with this.

That's interesting, I like it being not a common swap.

[Scottshotrods]

Originally Posted by mknittle

Isn't 300lbs kind of stiff?

We have been useing a 300lb in the rear for many years on the rear of trucks and we have had great results with performance and handling.Keep in mind again we have many different weights for the spring rates and we have springs as light as 150lb and we use alot of these springs on the rear of pre 34 coupes.Spring rate will change on the coil-over on the angle you have your coil-over at as well

Justin

[mknittle]

Originally Posted by Scottshotrods

We have been useing a 300lb in the rear for many years on the rear of trucks and we have had great results with performance and handling.Keep in mind again we have many different weights for the spring rates and we have springs as light as 150lb and we use alot of these springs on the rear of pre 34 coupes.Spring rate will change on the coil-over on the angle you have your coil-over at as well

Justin

Thanks Justin, I am just trying to get some idea of what works best. I know about the effects of angles on shocks and springs from modifying dirt bikes in the 1970s and recently reading Herb Adams chassis Engineering.
I just don't know for sure what the rear of the AD trucks weigh.

Mark

[c6_rob]

Nice ideas here. Im posting to keep this one alive

[renegade8720]

Here is what our set up looks like.

Renegade

[rollinrooster]

Here are some better shots of what i posted once before.

[nebdrummer]

A few of mine unfinished

[Speedbumpauto]

Art Morrison equal length 4 bar kit. Love the big bars and the excellent craftsmanship. In my 55 with a 505 BBC. It needs to see at least a couple of passes down the strip.

[Low_Life86]

bump

[nikwho]

So, This is an amazing thread! Great fabrication to all of you that have posted! I am in the process of designing my rear suspension on my '53 that resides on a '94 S10 frame. I know that there are preferred setups for best traction on the strip and others for street/autocross type of driving. I want to set my truck up to handle well on the street and I am hopeful to maybe get it to some autocross events. So, for street/autocross driving, what is ideal? A parallel four bar with Watts link? triangulated 4 link? a three link? Inverted triangulated four link (I forget the proper name of this setup). I want to determine first the ideal setup, then discuss numbers and setup. Thanks for any help!

Nik

[nikwho]

I have just started plugging some preliminary numbers into the calculator. Might be a good starting point for some critique.

[nikwho]

Originally Posted by rollinrooster

Here's what i came up with.

Rooster,
I love your air bag buckets! Very clever! I was going to fab a bridge and plates but didn't like the thought of the torsional load on the tubing with a big 5" plate sticking off of the side. I really, really dig the tubing recessed into the frame rail! I hate to say it, but I may copy you. Strong work!

Lowlife86, thanks for bringing this back from the dead! Perfect timing for me trying to figure out my rear link suspension. Very motivating!

Nik

P.S. Anyone up on link suspensions enough to know what works the best for street handling and the occasional autocross outing? I have always been drawn to a triangulated 4 link, but like the simplicity of a parallel 4 bar with a Watts link. However, I have also read about a Satchel Link (Spelling?) that is basically an inverted triangulated 4 link. Thoughts? My thoughts were to run air bags, but also be set up for QA1's, for autocross. When I wanted to play with the air bags, I would just have the springs out of the coil-overs. When we wanted to go race, we could yank the bags and air tank to save weight. Kind of a dual purpose type of build.

[47 Fasttoys]

OK, sense you asked with a reference to autocross I'll through in my 2 cents (or 20 cents in this case). I have played the autocross game for 3 years in a FFR Cobra kit car. I started with a triangulated 4 link based on the Mustang GT. later I converted to a Levi Racing 5 link, it was like night and day. The 5 link is basically using the 2 lower bars from the 4 link, removing the upper 2 bars and adding a center bar over the center section. This bar runs strait like the lower bars. At the rear of the center section a watts link is added using a rear cover from a T-bird IRS. All the bars have rod ends at both ends for total adjust-ability. This allows changing the pinion angle for different types of racing (autocross of drag). I have also spent some time driving a track with a car equipped with the same set up but it used a pan hard bar in place of the watts link. On track it was very similar to mine. For me the biggest issue with the tri 4 link is it steps over the edge with no warning where the 5 like is very predictable at the edge and can be held in a 10% oversteer condition which is about as fast as I can go. Sorry I don't have pictures and I am out of town now (like 8000 miles out). You can find pictures at Levi Racing or FFCARS.com.
Rob

[buggy5872]

Here's mine
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[wickid demon]

Nikwho,

I have ran a satchhell link setup in one of my road courses cars before and they work great, you can adjust roll by adjusting the sway bar and not have to move your links to a different mounting whole. One of the keys to a good satchell link is the upper bar needs to be as long as possible so that your roll steer or the quick edge as 47 fasttoys said does not sneek up on you just a smooth transition throughout travel. That is the biggest drawback to putting this setup in a car is packaging, trucks we can just extended the wheelbase a little to gain what we need. I am running the satchell link suspension on my truck. There are no packaging problems and your roll center is low plus I don't have to mess with the pan hard bar. Reason I mention this you can see how close my inner frame bracing comes to the driveshaft. You want the lower links as close to the center of the truck as possible to create single pivot point. But is not achievable due to the drive shaft being in the way.

[Coach529]

Originally Posted by LEEVON

I was going to use a 4-link, but got a bug to use trailing arms w/ a panhard bar. Shock mounting is the only challenge with this.

I like this set up. Did you just pull it out of a 60-66 pickup? Did you mount shocks yet?

[ccrane0044]

heres my setup so far, still have some tweeks and adjustments to go. not like some of the ones of here but it works....

let me know what you guys think, im planning on putting the bags behind the 4-link bracket and still working out where the shocks will go.

[Bagged3100]

Heres some pics of my triangulated 4 link setup. Going to have the bags installed on the lower bars.