hydrolic suspension

[bad_religion_au]

i'm no where near this field, but just asking if you guys in the states see much in the way of hydrolic (sp.) controlled coil overs, height ujustable.

there are a couple of 40's in aus that run them in comps.

 

[woody]

I've read that some people do have it...but it's hasn't appeared as a "common" mod since the competitions don't allow forced articulation. cruiserrg considered it on his current rig, and I bet researched it pretty well.

I like the concept, but the added weight is a killer. Personally, airbags would be the route I'd take...

 

[cruiserrg]

Yeah I have tossed around the idea a bunch for my new rig. As woody said the weight of the added cylinders and fluid would be a lot. Plus you would need another pump in addition to steering.

I think mounting the cylinders would take some doing just because of packaging concerns. Beauty of coilovers is their small size around the wheel. I would look at mounting the upper coilovers to a bellcrank that is controlled by the cylinder. This would allow the coilovers to still allow dampening, and have the cylinder just adjust height.

I do think you have to look at what you want to achieve with the hydraulics. Being able to adjust all corners would be nice, but I think priorities would be to dive th front in climbs, and lift the body if high centered. For me I have decided to use the winch to snug the front end down, and air bags to raise the body. Since I want to run low CG I will place ride height as low as possible and use the air bags to raise only in highcenter situations.

 

[bad_religion_au]

i got a mag article, a FJ45 that gets 30 inches of forced lift......

looks huge, and absolutely dwarfs his 44's.

he also has a setting where they sit at a relatively low (clear 44's still) setting, and they just have like 30 inches of droop

looks killer though

 

[Eskimo]

a friend of mine did an airbag setup on a D44 for his tacoma, and says it works incrediblly well. It's only on the front, but can really keep the body more upright, enhancing his stability. He *did* have to mount the bags far inboard, since they only have about 10" of travel.

 

[CruisinGA]

There was a picture in this month's Peterson's, of some guys creation that used hydraulic forced articulation at all 4 corners. His front swingarms were the opposite of standard IFS arms, they rotated at the midsection and were long. I'll try to scan in a picture. Looked very heavy and cumbersome.