Ok, I tried a few searches with no luck. I bagged my '50 Chevy Fleetline pretty deep into the notch - like laying frame with L7815s deep, and with it fully aired up and jacked up with the skirts removed I can't get a tire out of the wheel well without pulling a shock mount and removing the lower bag bolt to let the suspension (triangulated four link) droop enough. I should probably mention that the wheel wells are intact still and I'm trying all this with a 205/70/15 combo I'm using temporarily while I'm building the car (not a driver yet). Will this change when I switch to the tall skinny L78s and alter my wheel wells, or should I ultimately just fab a larger skirt?
I figured it would be just something i would have to live with on my chev. but i found out if i dump one side and raise the other i can sneak them on and off.
I have to let the air out of my tires to get them on and off.(barely) I bought a really small spare so it will slide up in there with out letting air out.
I've got to pull the shocks and springs and jack up one side of the rear end to get the wheels and tires off the back of my Hudson. It's a pain in the ass, but you got to pay to play right?
and here i thought i was the only one dumb enough to lower their car so much you cant get the wheels and tire off without pulling the valve stem. being cool is hard work
not if you use your head. when i started to think about bagging my chevy, i heard complaints from others who had triangulated 4 links that complained about changing tires, i learned that a 4 link wasn't a good choice for these cars and went with the truck arm style 2 link. my car is built to drive low, lays out in the back, and gets plenty of lift to change a tire as easily as any "normal" car. i'm running arms that are about 4 feet long, with the bags right in the middle of that length. i mounted the shocks in front of the axle, to get the most out of their travel that i could. i also dug through the shock catalog myself to find the longest travel shocks i could find that were from a vehicle similar in weight, etc. it doesn't HAVE to be hard.
This comment comes from someone with the handle pan-dragger? I knew I was into a hassle when I started, I figured I was just going to hoodpin the bottom bag mount and be in 'em, but then I mounted my shocks. Guess I'll just have to deal, right now my wheel studs are a bit long and wheel wells narrow so fixing those should help, never thought of deflating the tire for some reason, thanks for the tips. Price you pay like some said, too bad I like that grounded look I guess.
First of all...What style of bags are you using? Convoluted bags do not provide enough lift to get around your problem. That is why our shop always uses tapered spring bags on the rear of an install. Shorter wheel studs should help as will tilting the axle. A larger diameter wheel will also help out your problem, it will give you more room to tilt the wheel to the rear a bit and slide it out. I have this problem on my bagged '58 edsel also. My tire is just a bit too wide to get between the drum and the 1/4 and I have to deflate it to remove. YOU GOTTA PAY TO PLAY!
its only because its air over leaf and the bags don't stretch long enough, i can do it with out taking anything aprt but i have to put the rearend on stands, air it out completely and jack the body up on the side the wheel has to come off, next time 14x6s instead of 15x7s more traditional low anyway!
the way i see it, you can spend the time to figure out how to make it work RIGHT while at home, comfy in your shop with a beer in hand, or you can put the hours in broken down on the side of the road with your rocker panel laying on the ground, in the rain with traffic wizzing by, cursing the guy who built the POS(you!) that you can't change a tire on. i like the comfort of my home shop. saying that double convoluted bags don't have the travel is a lame cop out. lots of guys run them without issue because they used their noggin to design a suspension that factors in things such as simple repair and maintainance.
Amen, even though this thing lays frame I plan on driving it......a lot, and shit happens, period. I'm kind of leaning towards the larger skirt thing, one that flows better with the rear fender shape and has a larger opening, but will try the suggestions for now. I have enough damn time into this car already, I want to drive it!
FWIW an inch or two makes a huge difference. on my car, i built it with stock sheetmetal in place, made sure that everything cleared, etc. after the suspension was done and i turned my attention to bodywork, i actually ended up raising ALL of the wheel openings about 2 1/2" for cosmetic purposes.
Hey Ray, Just out of Curiosity Do you get alot of drastic pinion angle change with those truck arms since their fixed to the axle? I know I have about 3 different ride heights for for freeway, highway, intown etc.. Just wondered if a car with the arms has to be always be locked in to one specific ride height to keep good pinion. Thanx Phil
Here's a few lame pics that don't really show much but........ Full side view: Closer shot of rear, still haven't removed stock front spring mounts and tires are touching top of uncut wheel wells here: View through rear trunk (shocks are just sitting there, not mounted, plan is to angle them in a bit): I plan on keeping skirts in the rear modified or not.
phil, i haven't measured what actual change there is. i've had no issues however. i set the pinion angle at the ride height i figured would matter the most, at highway speeds, for me that was probably slightly below center of travel, i checked it at lower heights, i never really drive all locked up, so that didn't concern me much. don't remember exactly what the numbers work out to, but it's not bad considering the amount of lift. regardless of what suspension you run, with a lot of lift the front u-joint is going to see a wide range of travel, no reasonable way around it that i know of. as for the rear ujoint, with the long arms, going nearly to the tranny, the rear joint sees very little change in angle because the suspension and front ujoint are pivoting around points very close together. a typical 4 link, with the same lift, will cause a much greater change in rear ujoint angle, with parallel bars it will be the same as the front ujoint, some triangulated 4 bars with the top bars effectively much shorter than the lowers, can cause much more change in the rear joint. i know "the book" says to set the tranny and axle pinion a degree or so off from each other, or right on according to others, but all those rule go out the window at large angles and amounts of travel. one of my non-hamb vehicles is an early ford bronco, about a 90" wheelbase, along with the transfer case, etc. the driveline ends up being pretty short on these trucks. from the factory the pinion points straight at the transfer case output, so the front joint sees a large angle and the rear almost none.
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