Technical Debunking the Myth

Don't stop now, I'm enjoying the videos.

 

trains have suspensions. and shocks and some have bags.

 

Exactly! I had a long bed early 60's Chevy pickup without a bed on it. I robbed the shocks off of the rear of it for another project. Then I needed to run to town for some more parts, the Chevy was the only running vehicle at the house that day, so I jumped in it, forgetting I hadn't put on the other set of shocks I had for it, they were still in the floorboard. With no bed, the back end was light anyway, but if you watched what you were doing you could stop it without locking it up. Without any shocks though, just the lightest touch on the pedal sent the rear wheels into a hopping, skipping frenzy. Not fun! You couldn't tell which way it was going to jump. I made it to town, got my parts, and put the new used shocks on in the parking lot, finger tightened the bolts, and drove home. It was a totally different truck! Still light in the rear, but not jumping all over the road.

 

Corrrct.... damping is key part of a spring system.. you just have to find the system nat frequency, and your in trouble. There are several modes..that can get excited..just find the right wash board road...or speed.range..and you'll find your self at auto zone...or walmart buying shocks.....

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The squirrelbird burn out is cute but my guess is that the car has never been more than 50 miles from the house on it's own wheels and has never made a several hundred miles a day road trip across several states. Most of the guys who commented in the thread are used to driving several hundred miles in a weekend to an event an back and like to know that they have as much help with control of the car as they can build into it.
My T bucket had lever action shocks off some little Brit car when I built it and they were about useless and I should have run tube shocks.

 

I ran 2 600^s. It was cool....1 to 1 linkage. Only had vapor lock in traffic...under hood kinda hot. Otherwise ran good..

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I'm just glad we are 3500 miles apart...let'er rip my man!

 

OK - I meant ...Let's see, how long has it been since I drove like that ...50 some years.

 

Exactly.

This is an fine example of what I have named Russian Roulette Logic.

You can play Russian Roulette once-a-day, every day of your adult life, and die of old age.

This does not mean that Russian Roulette is safe. It means you are fu#$ing lucky.

 

That's good, I'm gonna have to remember that one.

 

Same thing with my mini-drum 21" back in the day. Here is some food for thought...my '73 fx front end would develop a whale of a death wobble over 60 mph when one tube would get just a tad low on fork oil. I wonder if some guys with incurable death wobble are having damping issues?

 

Back in the late 80`s had a buddy that ran a nice little hot 350/auto with a tunnel ram and dual 600`s . Ran good not great great. Talked him into letting me build a couple matching quadrajet carbs. We got a few laughs when we hit the street but once his foot applied liberal pressure to the gas pedal that car would come alive.

His dad was an engine machinist and builder for 40 yrs, he just laughed and said I'd never thought it'd work much less blow the Holley`s away!

Miss that car and my buddy

 

When I got my avatar with no shocks, the rear bounced insanely. I put shocks on the rear and its nice. When I installed the dropped axle, I set it up for front shocks but havent installed them. I've been driving it for 20 years now thru 4 states. No front shocks. I believe in shocks, see my previous post in this thread, but this car is doing well with rear shocks, just no fronts

 

Imagine how nice it would ride with shocks...70+ mph, here he comes!! I had my T bucket...ahem...way over the speed limit a few times. Bias plies, lever shocks on the front, tubes on the rear. Rode straight and true with no hiccups at all way up above any legal speed limit...Nowadays, I'd never do it. I guess getting old has its perks. Like common sense.

 

Seems to me much has to do with how much travel and friction is present in the front suspension. If you have leaf springs sliding against each other, short travel, tight bushings etc., it's going to bounce less than your '57 Chevy with longer travel and coils, no?

 

That is normally the case. A lot depends on the build itself. Example, when we dropped the internally balanced 355 on the Ravens roadster and pulled the factory external balance 305 his death wobble went nearly completely away. His light framed T was picking up harmonics from the poorly balanced 305, we cured some more when he went from the really cool friction shocks to tube shocks. There are a lot of factors that effect the way that a car behaves, but shocks is your starting place.

 

I think you guys saying that it has to do with friction in the suspension are correct. I would wonder if the op has ever had to panic stop. You would think 10 years in western NY that he has, but I don't know. I have injectors for my not yet built car right now. But I'll be running Quadrajets on a blower if I decide to run carbs.

 

I believe I've stated more than once I drive this car, hot, cold, rain, dry, smooth or rough, it's been on plenty 50+ mile trips. Besides what would be the difference with plus or minus 50 miles, according to most of you it shouldn't make it over 5 miles ???

As far as stopping, it stops as well as a 4 wheel drum brake setup can stop, the car weighs 1840 lbs so there's not a lot of weight to produce a dive. In fact I actually took second place in a stopping on a dime contest from a rolling 30mph start. How many of you guys can say you've even taken part in such an exercise ?

 

My uncle actually debunked the myth that you can't drive necked in a T-bucket. But since it was extra cold that day, he won't release the doubly embarrassing video. Yea, he got away with it but that doesn't mean it's a great idea.

He's the town flasher and had planned to retire last year. But he's changed his mind and wants to stick it out for a few more years.

 

They are not called "The Friendly Suggestions of Physics".

Just because you have failed to reach the uncontrollable oscillation frequency of your suspension, yet, does not mean you will not.

 

Next week, in part 2 of our series, the need for rubber pneumatic tires will be debunked by an Amish wheelwright.

 

^^^^That's hilarious because it true. ^^^^^

 

Cop stops an Amish woman driving her buggy home. He says "mam, I don't mean to be indelicate, but you have the reins wrapped around the horses testicles. " T he Amish woman's says "I thank thee sir, I will tell my husband when I get home." She gets home, the husband asks her how her trip was. She said "it was fine, but a policeman told me there was something wrong with the emergency brake."

 

What a dumbass thing to say, I bet your real proud of yourself, ever here of karma you ignorant bastard ! Really who says something like that ???

 

I think you missed the point.