Need opinions on suicide airbag setup

Ok here goes. I've seen a few airbag suicide setups that use swingarms that seem to make the airbags lopsided when they expand and contract. This setup dosnet seen very effecient to me. This has probably been done before but I havent found it yet. I want to use a drop axle with a straight bar or purch mounted a few inches behind the axle that attaches to the wishbones with shackles. This will give the airbags a flat surface and clean vertical path to operate. Now to take care of the horizontal movement I would use a watts link mounted to the flat bar or purch mounted directly behind the airbags. What do you think? feasable? been done before? any safety issues?

Sorry for the crude drawing but I think you will get the idea.

 

why are they "suicide bags" ??

 

suicide front end setup with airbags

 

Well, it's certainly a non-traditional approach to a traditional setup! I guess I need to ask why? A typical air bag setup requires a lot more vertical installation height than a low arch spring with reversed ends.

 

Looks kinda scary to me - and the point of this is????

 

Low, clean ( airbags and watts linkage inside frame and no spring mount on top of frame. Frame is 2x4 and that gives me 4" of hiding a 8" fully inflated airbag. ) and nice adjustable ride. Still trying to be close as possible to traditional and have the benifits of this setup

 

Thats what im looking for. Whats the scary part? Where do you see it failing?

 

You are overthinking it. The fact that the bags change angles slightly when raised or lowered is really a non issue. They still function as designed, ie, like on the Cenpen setup shown below. It was mounted in suicide fashion.

Don

 

Yeah, Don I saw your sons setup and just missed buying his old one. Simpler is better. How does the cen pen ride? I just figured if I was building one from scratch the design could possible be improved, or maybe not. the scary part to me is the mounting point on the wishbones.

 

He never got to find out how it rode because he changed direction before getting it on the road, but he has done a lot of bagged S10's and cars like that, and the ride quality was fine.

The Cenpen setup was originally designed to replace a spring over axle setup, like on a Model A, but it can be moved rearward and the arms mounted to the bones, just like you would a spring.

Don

 

I sold one of those years ago to a customer who has MANY miles on it. While not traditional it does ride well and has held up fine.