Cantilever Suspensions

[CodePoet]

Ok so I got bored. Started looking at some rock crawling rc trucks and thought the suspensions were really cool and seem to work pretty well. THey use a cantilever suspension, i've been looking but I haven't be able to find a full size rig with the same kind of suspension (i've found desert trucks with them but not really the same). I realize that a model truck's supension very well might not work in a fully actualized rig. But, I installed a CAD program my father has so I thought i'd give designing a suspension myself . Here are the pics of the models:

And what i've done...

Thought i'd post htem since i've been working on them for the past 4 hours when I could/should have been sawin logs. If you have any comments i'm anxious to hear them

Later
code

p.s. not intending this for an explorer

 

[EBInterceptor]

Repost! jk, saw it over at Midwest Offroad.

 

[CodePoet]

lol...yep i'm on both boards, i was really bored

cp

 

[Brian1]

First and foremost the reason the RC cars use that suspension is packaging and cost. Depending on the rocker ratio, you can use a small shock and get alot of travel thus making the shocks easier to fit tightly into the car. A smaller shock also means less material which costs less. If they would have to run a shock/coilover from the chassis to the a-arms or live axle they would have to be much longer to get the travel out of it.

On a full size rockcrawling rig there is plenty of room to run the coilovers outboard and direct to the axle. A major reason why I wouldnt want to use that suspension is because of the weight of a crawling rig and the loads it sees. To make use of that type of suspension and to get ground clearence you would have to use pushrod activation. The pushrod would have to be super beefy to not buckle under the dynamic loads that a rock crawling rig sees. Secondly, by adding the rockers and their mounts (which would need to be pretty beefy as well) and the pushrods adds alot of unwanted weight that you dont need if you run the shock direct to the axle.

 

[CodePoet]

I agree with everything you said. I was bored lol

later
cp