Underslung rods thread

I'm curious how many HAMBers are running underslung suspension systems.
Wondering it's a good way to go for a low ride height. Pictures appreciated.

 

Me too. Gary

 

Here is one I am quite partial to.





'23 Dodge by the way.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=520152

 

A local Kiwi one.



Build thread here.

http://www.nz-hotrod.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?2830-My-Project-27

 

Yeah Rich's car is very cool. I wish he was still with us. RIP buddy.

Doc.

 

Underslung front ends are visible but hard to package. Underslung rears are usually invisible, but that's where the potential lies. Historically there have been far more underslung rears than fronts: Morgan's is still in production.

The plan for the '31 includes an underslung rear axle.

 

I'd build another one.This one was a blast.

 

I've always loved the look of that little Dodge that Rich built but I couldn't make it to town without getting a scrub line ticket around here with it. Actually it wouldn't make it in or out of my driveway even with utmost care in driving.
I thought about doing it on the boat tail roadster I am building as it would go along with the look but still think it would be too low to work for me right now.

 

Educate me, brothers. Is the scrub line at its fixed lowest point at resting height?
By that I mean, does the suspension only travel upwards? If so, does that mean that larger wheels and taller tires, and perhaps a shorter wheelbase with less overhang for and aft would be a good preventative measures?

 

Scrub line means anything hard that will hit the ground in the event of a flat tire. There have been debates on this board about whether that means one flat tire or two on the same side or all three, but the short version is this: if you get a flat tire and all the sudden you can't steer because your frame is dragging on the ground, your car is too low.
Overhand usually isn't an issue on rods, but kustoms can drag rear bumpers doing in and out of driveways and such. That's a whole other issue because you're not traveling at high speed when that happens.

Yes, taller wheels could solve the problem, but only because they raise the chassis an equal amount.

If a car sits 3 inches off the ground and has tires with a 4-inch sidewall, it is a bad accident waiting to happen.

 

So I know it looks kool but what I don't get is how like on the '23 dodge if you hit a bump in the road how that suspension is going to even do anything with the spring arch going the wrong way.......or am I looking at this all wrong?

 

Not the best picture of it, but here's mine. Underslung front and Model A spring in the rear. I've had it on the road since '05, it rides pretty good. There were a lot of test drives and disassembling/reassembling the front to get it right. Its great fun on curvy roads

 

What are you talking about???!! Don't you know it can't be done!?!?! ;-)

 

Doc

Do you know what happened to Rich's cool little 23 Dodge roadster?

 

You're still bending the spring from its normal curve. It resists both up and down, no matter where the weight is located.

 

heres my underslung setup.

 

I'd be more accepting of that "underslung" look if most of the cars I see didn't look like trashy R*t R*ds - rust, pisspoor welds, sloppy (or no) workmanship.

I'm old...I was driving hot rods in the late 50s and beyond....read all the books....went to as many car shows as possible. I do not recall 'underslung' being all that traditional...on hot rods anyway.

dj

 

I don't know I'm still not too sure about that?????????????

 

Not exactly a 'rod' but one of the more successful underslung suspensions ever put together, every so often I have thoughts of pinging the Brooklands Museum folks to see if there's any dimensioned drawings extant, someone needs to replicate this thing with, oh, maybe a well-tuned Duramax in it (okay, shoot me now, but there just ain't that many Lions around) or, if one had a lot of spare change, a crankcase and crank and cam-gear train to put together three old Offy blocks on in 'broad arrow' configuration:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-history/napier-railton-114485/

Love that double cantilever quarter-elliptic-as-four-link in back.

Was trying to find the pic of Cobb standing in front of the car with all the front-end sheetmetal off, shows the front suspension to great advantage, but I can't find a link for it anywhere and don't have time to look any further (it's probably on this board somewhere, for that matter), if you really care you could pick up a copy of:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130412579365

 

Here's a favourite illustration of the Napier-Railton.

 

There was at least one early-model
production passenger car that used an
underslung suspension layout too - the
'American Underslung' - circa 1905-1914.

Mart3406
-----------------
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Underslung)

(www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z9486/American-Underslung.aspx)

(www.autos.ca/classic-cars/motoring-memories-american-underslung-1907-1913)

(www.remarkablecars.com/for-sale/g4426-american-underslung.html)

(www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3766/American-Underslung-Traveler.html)
===============================

 

Ive only seen a handful of underslung chassis cars, a few hot rods and a few early 1900's examples at shows. For me i could only imagine using this set up for a bonniville car. They're different but they look freaking sweet, maybe i should consider this for my 25dodge?

 

------------------
Back in the 'teens and '20's of the last century,
that was how racers got their creations 'down in
the weeds', with the large-diameter wheels and
tires of the time. Given the roads of the day,
road cars usually needed all the ground clearance
and suspension travel they could get, so very few
actual production cars used underslung suspensions.
But if the plan for your Dodge is to emulate an
early track racer or speedster, an underslung
suspension would be very cool!

Mart3406
======================

 

Yeah, Ive been toying around with the idea for a bit and have considered multiple frame and suspenssion set ups and it looks more and more like im going to run an underslung set up. This will be a very challenging build, ive been working out the details for the last hour or so, trying to figure it out. i cant wait to get back to the states and start work. ill definetly start a thread so that you all can watch it come together.

 

A mix between salt flats, speedster, drag and a few traditional touchs here and there

 

Yeah, something like that

 

Triumph TR3

 

Poor builds, lotta shit hanging below the scrubline.