Look at this airride set up.

This is pretty neat.

 

very slick..i like the frame kick-up gussets too.....seems like you'd be exerting a ton of force on the welds to the four link bars through....

 

the welds are under compression though so they should be fine. I bet it was a wild ride driving on those tire with all the tire wet on the tread...

 

And everyone laughs at me when they see minitruck mags in my car, These guys got that notch and bag shit down to the science!

 

Nice fabrication skills, but it's really just plain silly.... I mean really fucking silly....

 

Nice use of a pre-runner style 3 link on a lowered truck...

Otherwise, it's kinds rube-goldbergish.

Nice skills though.

 

There is no driveshaft, already a trailor queen!

 

I would have made the lower trailing arms a little beefier. With the location of the lift point there is still a lot of 'lever' left on the outside which really magnifies the forces at the attatchment point. If it were me I would have made a trailing arm similar to the CORE trucks. If you are not familiar with those trucks they have have triangular shaped control arms...a very long and squashed looking triangle.

But it is a minitruck so maybe I just don't understand minitruck physics...ha ha.

BPD

 

I love looking at the truck guys( and high end guys as well) work..they have been pushing the envelope for years now....everything from the pre runner guys to the guys who lay body.....I get inspiration from everything...Its really too bad some people are so closed minded....

 

Very creative and well built.

 

Thats good work, Ive seen alot of cool one off stuff coming out of the air ride crowd for awhile. Everybody that slammed this guys work should post stuff they have done.

 

Looking at only one pic I can't see how this will work , but what do I know. Could some one explain it to me

 

The airbag and trailing arm are connected with a lever that works like a see-saw. When the bag inflates it pushes up on the lever and causes the other side to push down on the control arm effectively lifted the frame of the truck. It is a really cool design if you ask me and it looks like the guy has some decent welding skills as well.

BPD

 

The air bag is pushing down on the frame & the trailing arm in the same direction ,down !Sorry but I still can't see it working

 

Ill bet it wasnt so wild without a driveshaft.


Crap, someone beat me to it. Neat looking design. Wonder how well it works?

 

yet he still left drums on it...

 

He should've ran the air lines through he top of the bags (flipped um)
Looks like they'll eventually get chewed up where they are now. Trout

 

perhaps. but just let this "kid" who owns it suddenly fall in love with "traditional hotrods" and his skills and creativity will blow most away.

 

Very nice fabricating. I dig it...

 

Well fabricated but terribly thought out. Not to say that I'm some sort of engineer, but even the law student can point this one out...

The rocker arm probably has a 2:1 ratio in this case by the looks of the picture, which means however much lifting force the bag makes it is multiplied by 2. But that's not the problem. There is a tremendous bending moment put on the lower trailing arm where the rocker attaches, especially with it being in a spot so close to the pivot. Not to mention how the lower control arm has been weakend by the heat affected area directly surrounding the weld on the bracket where the rocker attaches. Add in other factors such as weight of the bed (when this clown puts it on), road virbration, and the tension and compression that the lower link is under just through driving. All these factors add up to produce a huge safety risk (assuming that the builder/designer didn't do stress analysis on the components prior to build). The lower trailing arm is going to fatigue and fail at the spot the rocker attaches to.

Similiar situation happened to my SAE team 4 years ago. Our rear toe link ran parallel to the rear-most link of the lower a arm, and attached with a bracket welded to the a arm. 22 laps into the race, the a arm tube failed at the heat affected area and tore the wheel off. We dragged the car home, fixed the one that broke and kept driving it. The next time we drove it, the other side broke the same exact way. Coincidence? no way. Engineering flaw? for sure

 

This is very creative, and the work done looks top notch.

I'd like to see all the haters on this thread post their own work.

 

Nice workmanship, but have to agree with 57Joe.. about the leverage ratio on those bottom link arms just not looking right.

 

Good point. A lot of talented young guys get started with mini-trucks because of the cheap buy-in, and later "see the light"...

 

Nice fab work, agree that the leverage may be an issue, but really, this looks to be being built into a SHOW rig....and I'm SURE will be trailered.....alot of these are, or just driven short distances...IE BARHOPPERS........
With the bag where it is now, I'd think it'd have a very fast rise/drop rate.....

 

drrrrr, someone edjumacate me....

Its a cantilever setup. Judging by the rocker length, and the length of the rod and the rod ends attached to the top of the lower link....it looks very well thought out and will definately work.

I do not see any engineering issue with this setup. I actuallt dig the shit out of it because of how much of it will easily fit under the bed.

Major props on the fab work. Guy prolly does offroad/desert racer type setups.

 

I never said it wouldn't work, but the question is for how long?

Think about taking a hockey stick, laying the blade on the ground, and holding the top in your hand. Then jump with one foot on the shaft...chances are it wil break where you landed on it. In that case you have a broken stick, in this case the rear end falls out of the back of the truck

 

gotta respect the creativity and craftsmanship.

i was talking to an art car builder last night, some of them are wierd and goofy and others leave you thinking "how the hell did they do that?"

 

I agree. There's a lot of leverage acting on the lower control arm. It might not break, but a pot hole will likely bend it. This is one of those "trailer queen" suspensions - car shows only.

 

good idea, and good job for making it work. who cares if it lasts? it's a show truck. if it sees 10 miles of driving a year i would be shocked. he did it and did it well. good show.