I am bagged and I was thinking about putting 12" hydraulic rods on the rear and use them as air struts. I am hoping to be able to do massive dog legs (3 wheel) by reverse flowing one of them to suck one wheel up into the wheel well and extending the other one all of the way out. But my question is....I looked at the rear axel and it doesnt look like it has the ability to rotate that much. Does anyone know how much the rear axel and rotate?
-Nate (ZeeTwankyFo)
Hey man I was meaning to talk to you about that. Screwing around last time I was in the shop and had the axle dropped I was looking at this myself and you really get very little twist out of it. Just out of curriosity I had a 14" hydraulic cylinder(2" bore, 1" rod) lying there and I rigeed up some quick mounts to see what it would do, well my tire Hits the sideskirt(because it swings down and forward) and also when the weight of the car was on it that 2" bore cylinder took near 260PSI just to lift the car SLOW.
So if your gona try this Make shure you have at LEAST a 3" bore and you should be OK running 150PSI, I plan to take this all back down and install some longer cylinders myself soon
Oh yea Another problem you will have is the upper cylinder mounts MUST have a "wobble" mount because when the axle swings that far it pulls the cylinder sideways a good bit.
Ill hit you up on aim sometime and keep you updated!
the torsion beam (rear axel) Is not designed to twist.
you've got 4 mounting points on that bad boy.
2 to the body, and 2 to your struts.
twisting it will most likely cause damage, and in the long run metle fatigue especially for what your looking for. Best method would be to do the IRS swap people have been talking about. Then you whouldn't have to worry about it.
-Chris
I was gonna say, fwd, rear axel? But now i get it
The rear axle is made out of spring steel. It will twist, a little bit, but you shouldn't have metal fatigue problems unless you
strain it.
Thats the only shot Ive got of mine hanging down. But I think it may have actualy been sitting on the jack in that pic.
I am all that is man
Ahh I just read your post again. You were wondering about the rotation of the thing for doglegging.
You could cut the middle connecting bar out and instal a panhard rod on each arm.
But then the rims might want to twist the arm and get some neg camber.
I am all that is man
Yeah.. If you cut it in the middle, you'd have to link them back together with a hinge or bearing of some kind. I wouldn't recommend that unless it's a show car.
^I was talking to my buddies dad and they encountered this problem on a few low riders theyve done. What they did was cut the rear torsion beam in half, but this rear torsion beam was circular, then they made a sleeve for the two ends to fit into. This allowed the seperate sides to pivot. He said it made the rear end a little squirley when driving. I never saw how it worked in person.
What is the Independant Rear Suspension swap you guys were talking about, I am interested!!!!
-Nate (ZeeTwankyFo)
Independent Rear Suspension (or IRS):
Linky
McMoney basically pioneered the swap. At least 3 people are going to do it this fall, me included. More will probably be doing it this winter after they see several people with it. We'll have all the kinks and quirks worked out. I know Lenko and I will put up many details of what we finally end up doing, and how to do it yourself; McMoney put up a lot of info there too already.
If you want to do this swap, with air suspension, you need the struts/cylinders/bags (whatever) for an N-Body (Olds Alero, Chevy Malibu, or Grand AM).
Then the sway bar would be the only thing "linking" the wheels, which you could remove if you wanted zero resistance.
Only thing I really can't guarantee is how well the rear will tuck, cause nobody has done the IRS swap with air. With our current torsion beam, when the wheel tucks, it swings forward slightly (the way it was designed). With the IRS setup, when the wheel tucks, it will swing backward slightly. I really don't know how that will effect it's ability to tuck.
But hey, you could be the first! (to my knowledge)
irs would be an advantage on bags because when the tire swings forward it hits the wheel well but with irs it will have more clearance staying centered allowing more drop before the tire rubs
