Re: My new Rear Coilover kit
....Can someone refresh me as to "where we stand with rear suspension options?"
1.) Is this kit being made (as an updated kit) and offered by anyone?
2.) Is anyone else offering a ladder/coil over setup (ie maybe John Gerber's fab guy)?
3.) Is anyone offering a 4-link/coil over setup (didn't Jason's Ty get a makeover to this by Comp Fab)?
4.) Wasnt others looking into various setups with pan-bars, watts, or sub-chassis offerings?
Or was the conclusion that custom arrangements were required due to pricing and build tolerances?
Is the jury still out on benefits of major rear-suspension changes (with stock front ends)
vs major front-suspension changes (with stock rear suspensions)?
As last I read...
-with live rear axle configurations disadvantage is weight; ability of wheels to follow road; size; and old design.
But the main drawback is the lack of lateral location for the axle, meaning it has a lot of side-to-side slop in it.
-with 3 link or other configurations this involves complexity/adjustment issues.Variation are the Watts
and Jacobs bar linkages to replace the Panhard rod for lateral positioning. Watts links seem to be popular with the
hydraulic lowrider/truck bed dancer types. The Jacobs ladder is used on US midget and sprintcar dirt track rear ends.
-with 4 link configuration the disadvantage is lateral location control and its difficulty to achieve roll understeer with anti-squatting.
This combined with a Panhard Bar (however) does provide rear end alignment. If compared to a ladder-bar setup, you'd see that
the rear frame "kick up" of the 4-bar setup is less severe. This means that it's good for our trucks where space is at a premium.
A triangulated 4-line operates on the same principle, but the top two bars are inwards and joined to the rear end housing much closer
to the center. This eliminates the need for the separate panhard bar, which in turn means the whole setup is even more compact
-thanks
Larry Brown
