Troopy

[bj70_guy]

I haven't stuck my nose in here in a long time - Holy crap dude, this is awesome!

 

[arnott1t]

Front is out and frame is getting cleaned up.

 

[arnott1t]

Well it’s hung under the front. More and more choices to make. Do I notch the frame? Narrow the axle? The pumpkin is more offset so will interfere with the frame at 3”-4” up travel. A notch would get me another inch or two....

 

[Ratpuke]

Finished yet?

 

[arnott1t]

A bunch of progress today. The front end is mostly done. For all intensive purposes anyway until I get more parts.
Gabbed brackets for radius arms. Attached them. Built lower shock mounts. Welded track bar mounts and welded in shock towers.

Pretty please with it so far. Seems to have about 6” up and 6” down travel. Which was more up than I thought I might get. So happy about that for sure.

 

[arnott1t]

When I first welded the radius arms I was pretty worried about how stuff they were to flex. They really bound up pretty good and I was a little disappointed. Once I get it welded and out together it seems to be just fine. I can almost max out the shocks with the weight of the tires alone. With some more forced articulation they’ll be very close to using all the travel.

 

[mano002]

Finished yet?

Is there a deadline or something?

 

[arnott1t]

Tested the springs again through the weekend and they are closer than I originally thought. I've now ordered a full set of spring with expedited shipping in hopes they get here sooner than later so this thing can sit on its own weight again. The good news was they seem to be right in the wheelhouse of ride height I wanted.

The more and more reading I do the mroe I wonder about the rear suspension being "to soft". They use a suspensions natural frequency to describe ride feel. It isn't the only thing that impacts ride feel but it is a big one....

For context. They say a caddilac will have a frequency of .9hz or so. A indy500 car would be close to a 3. Dessert racers would be around 1.5-1.7.
.9-1 for a slinky rock crawler
They reccoment 1.1 fir general trail truck
1.4-1.5 for a go faster desert rig


With my current springs and weight I'm 0.9 rear abd 1.1 front. The other rule of thumb I'm missing is frequency should be 10% higher in rear.... I'm not that at all...

So wait and see how it feels... I like this frequency analogy though is at puts some math to the things we feel in the butt dyno. Again two main factors are spring rate, and sprung weight. Think of how a 1 ton rides empty.... and how it rides full of weight..... much smoother and softer when full... that's because the increase in sprung weight lowers the suspension frequency.... Every bounce on a bouncy castle..... they run very low pressure (low spring rate), imagine bouncing on it with 100 psi in it..... (high spring rate). wouldn't feel as soft.

 

[Ratpuke]

Is there a deadline or something?

Nope, not at all. Just teasing him because he seems to get way more done each day than he sets out to do.

Meanwhile it’s taken me 6 months to get the taillights in on the 71 and they’re still just hanging there...

 

[decoco]

now I just want to jump on a bouncy castle.

 

[decoco]

Tested the springs again through the weekend and they are closer than I originally thought. I've now ordered a full set of spring with expedited shipping in hopes they get here sooner than later so this thing can sit on its own weight again. The good news was they seem to be right in the wheelhouse of ride height I wanted.

The more and more reading I do the mroe I wonder about the rear suspension being "to soft". They use a suspensions natural frequency to describe ride feel. It isn't the only thing that impacts ride feel but it is a big one....

For context. They say a caddilac will have a frequency of .9hz or so. A indy500 car would be close to a 3. Dessert racers would be around 1.5-1.7.
.9-1 for a slinky rock crawler
They reccoment 1.1 fir general trail truck
1.4-1.5 for a go faster desert rig


With my current springs and weight I'm 0.9 rear abd 1.1 front. The other rule of thumb I'm missing is frequency should be 10% higher in rear.... I'm not that at all...

So wait and see how it feels... I like this frequency analogy though is at puts some math to the things we feel in the butt dyno. Again two main factors are spring rate, and sprung weight. Think of how a 1 ton rides empty.... and how it rides full of weight..... much smoother and softer when full... that's because the increase in sprung weight lowers the suspension frequency.... Every bounce on a bouncy castle..... they run very low pressure (low spring rate), imagine bouncing on it with 100 psi in it..... (high spring rate). wouldn't feel as soft.

the spring rate frequency part is very interesting; got to learn something!

 

[arnott1t]

Well my steering parts arrived yesterday. That and a new tire swing out spindle. Lots to work on again. Picking up some DOM for steering links and the panhard so I can finalize a bunch of the front suspension this weekend if all goes well.

 

[arnott1t]

Real good day. Sorta not much accomplished but also a lot in the fact I have all the notching and front end work practically done. I’ll need to disassemble and weld the frig out of it all now.
Kudos to @Bambino840 for spotting a massive solution that solved a bunch of bump steer problems I was try to sort out.

this is full bump on the driver side. Frame notch to clear panhard and drag link rid end moved to top of steering arm rather than bottom.

full bump on passenger side. Notch for panhard. Need to cut a rivet on frame bottom just for a little more clearance.

pumkin side notch.
At full full bump the panhard almost hits crank pulley. Diff is now sorta drenched into frame on full bump too

 

[arnott1t]

One last maybe tweak. To move axle side panhard mount to get it more parallel to drag link.

would move from circle to X but then I mount would be as sexy as the tmr one I have now....

Bump stop location.

 

[arnott1t]

Moved the mount this am. Should have nearly zero bump steer.

before

after.
panhard is more parallel to the drag link. Not perfect but I couldn’t move it up anymore for frame interference.

 

[Ratpuke]

Moved the mount this am. Should have nearly zero bump steer.
View attachment 2549208
before

View attachment 2549209

after.
panhard is more parallel to the drag link. Not perfect but I couldn’t move it up anymore for frame interference.

Looks better.

 

[RockDoc]

Very nice! When do you expect the other 2 coils?

 

[arnott1t]

Hoping end of this coming week if I’m lucky.

 

[cody c]

Hey Tyler, Im wanting to steal peters alignment bar/jig set up soon. would you know when you will be all done with it?

Project looks good. It took me a minute to figure out the steering box and panhard are for a RHD, kinda surprised you didn't swap it, should work well enough witht he 80 radius arms though.

 

[arnott1t]

Conversion to RHD would be a lot of work for very little gain in my view. We have many RHD's so it isn't to weird to be driving this as one too. Maybe parts availbility for steering boxes but I have a spare or two anyway.... All done with bar and will likely be able to get it to Red Deer next week.... Then we can work a handoff to your buddy @cody c Hope that works...