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Best Information for Building Suspension

JMT

JMT

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What are the best readily-available information/resources for building your own suspension (for offroad crawling)? I find several resources/articles online, and my purposes are mainly for learning, so any resources related to track racing, desert racing, et. al will do, but I would also like to read specifics for rock crawling. I realize I probably won't be able to go very deep into this topic since I'm not an engineer and won't be able to read an engineering textbook, but would like to pursue good pedagogy material.
 
I don't know about "best" (I assume its not the best) but here is some stuff about 4-links and how to design....and it doesn't include a calculator. It instead leads you through some of the calculations and makes some (poor) assumptions...but you'll start to learn.

https://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2007/4_link_tech.shtml#Doing The Math
If you want to learn how to actually calculate you CoG (instead of assuming its at the center of the top transmission bolt like the internet's say) you can read this article by Frank D'Allessandro

https://web.archive.org/web/20050207200600/http://www.jeepaholics.com:80/tech/cog/

Race car Vehicle Dynamics (book) is a Heavy read, but it probably has everything you need to know and then some.
 
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Mike_H said:
I don't know about "best" (I assume its not the best) but here is some stuff about 4-links and how to design....and it doesn't include a calculator. It instead leads you through some of the calculations and makes some (poor) assumptions...but you'll start to learn.

https://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2007/4_link_tech.shtml#Doing The Math
If you want to learn how to actually calculate you CoG (instead of assuming its at the center of the top transmission bolt like the internet's say) you can read this article by Frank D'Allessandro

https://web.archive.org/web/20050207200600/http://www.jeepaholics.com:80/tech/cog/

Race car Vehicle Dynamics (book) is a Heavy read, but it probably has everything you need to know and then some.
Click to expand...

Even then, the problem as I see it is the COG changes after you go from stock to extended wheel base and width. Now what? Do it again and change the suspension?
 
mrblaine said:
Even then, the problem as I see it is the COG changes after you go from stock to extended wheel base and width. Now what? Do it again and change the suspension?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it’s still not perfect. The article was written more about knowing how far you can lay your rig over before it tips vs suspension design. I still think it’s an interesting article to work through and understand.
 
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If you have never read the God Of Suspension thread on Pirate you need to https://redirect.viglink.com/?forma...spension-for-those-of-you-who-dont-know.7503/

If you are too lazy here is the thread compiled into a college term paper. https://redirect.viglink.com/?forma...ewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=theses

You will need to understand a couple things, first is that you will want to take in context that they are building crawlers and on road drivability is not as high on the priority list and more importantly packaging matters. Parts can only go where they fit and sometimes that means you can not always get exactly what you want.
 
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Blackjack said:
If you have never read the God Of Suspension thread on Pirate you need to https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_166544373191711&key=e2eee0d0dd1241da592e3a37e126fb93&libId=l93e71we0101cnfe000DLose6zac8&loc=https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/link-suspension-terms-and-reading-material.50637/&v=1&out=https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/the-god-of-suspension-for-those-of-you-who-dont-know.7503/&ref=https://wranglertjforum.com/find-threads/started&title=Link suspension terms and reading material. | Jeep Wrangler TJ Forum&txt=https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/the-god-of-suspension-for-those-of-you-who-dont-know.7503/

If you are too lazy here is the thread compiled into a college term paper. https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_166544391135411&key=e2eee0d0dd1241da592e3a37e126fb93&libId=l93eb0ka0101cnfe000DLose6zac8&loc=https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/link-suspension-terms-and-reading-material.50637/&v=1&out=https://digitalworks.union.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=theses&ref=https://wranglertjforum.com/find-threads/started&title=Link suspension terms and reading material. | Jeep Wrangler TJ Forum&txt=https://digitalworks.union.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=theses

You will need to understand a couple things, first is that you will want to take in context that they are building crawlers and on road drivability is not as high on the priority list and more importantly packaging matters. Parts can only go where they fit and sometimes that means you can not always get exactly what you want.
Click to expand...

Ok, I’d read that paper, but I think I need the pirate thread to open things up more. Looking forward to it!
 
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Lotsa info in the pirate thread!

Can't wait to read the "college term paper" version.
 
Blackjack said:
If you have never read the God Of Suspension thread on Pirate you need to https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_166544373191711&key=e2eee0d0dd1241da592e3a37e126fb93&libId=l93e71we0101cnfe000DLose6zac8&loc=https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/link-suspension-terms-and-reading-material.50637/&v=1&out=https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/the-god-of-suspension-for-those-of-you-who-dont-know.7503/&ref=https://wranglertjforum.com/find-threads/started&title=Link suspension terms and reading material. | Jeep Wrangler TJ Forum&txt=https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/the-god-of-suspension-for-those-of-you-who-dont-know.7503/

If you are too lazy here is the thread compiled into a college term paper. https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_166544391135411&key=e2eee0d0dd1241da592e3a37e126fb93&libId=l93eb0ka0101cnfe000DLose6zac8&loc=https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/link-suspension-terms-and-reading-material.50637/&v=1&out=https://digitalworks.union.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=theses&ref=https://wranglertjforum.com/find-threads/started&title=Link suspension terms and reading material. | Jeep Wrangler TJ Forum&txt=https://digitalworks.union.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=theses

You will need to understand a couple things, first is that you will want to take in context that they are building crawlers and on road drivability is not as high on the priority list and more importantly packaging matters. Parts can only go where they fit and sometimes that means you can not always get exactly what you want.
Click to expand...

The term paper link seems broken due to the viglink redirect . Can you post the direct link again please?
 

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