4 link triangulation?

[Rat1]

Ok I am working on my tuber but I have hit a brick wall with the 4 link triangulation.

I understand we need to triangulate both the upper and lower links.

The thing is how much angle?

I spent most the day adding stuff and building link mounts etc. The lower link mount on the chassis has the links about 1/4 inch or less apart. I ran into some binding of the links that get be easily remedied by angling the link mounts but after checking out some pics I seen some machines with the lower chassis link mounts spread out to almost the edge of the chassis.


Should I angle my current link mounts to rid the binding or just remove them, make some different ones and spread them out?

Opinions would be great and reasons for these opinions would be even better.

Thanks guys!

[gmc310]

When building my first chassis i had trouble with bind and articulation, I just looked at as many chassis as i could and used as much of that info as I could . at chassis lower ,links should be farther away from axel , upper links should be up about a 1/2 inch and a bit closer to the axel 3/8 or so, I feel that the upper triangulation is far mor inportant than lower .Obviously the chassis is more narrow than the at axel mounting point so the lower will have slight triangulation .the best bet for upper is to mount inward close to center on servo/ link mount like bender does .this is what keeps side to side play in check .also the uppers want to be either parrelel to the ground or lower at the axel ,never higher at the axel, another major binding point is the shocks. make sure that they can move freely in both directions , I used fuel tubing in front and rear of the shock eye, this gives a bit of slop but allows the axel to articulate more freely , hope this helps sorry if I didn't answer your intended question , Gary

[lostwages]

you really dont need to triagulate both upper and lower, i usualy run the lower links strait and angle the top links.

[ON THE FARM]

this the link set up on my 2.2 maxx crawler.


the upper links are mounted close together at the axle and apart at the chassis.
bothe are apart for the bottom links on the axle and the chassis.

[HYPERactive]

If I remember correctly, from some 1:1 articles, one set of links should be mounted at about 40 degrees to limit side to side movement. Most conventional set-ups angle the upper links. Most of this info, that I've got is from truck mags, mostly concentrating on low riders, but the geometry ideas should apply to off road as well.
If you want to get really creative you can run all 4 links straight and use a Watt's link set-up for centering the axle, but will require alot more engineering on your part.

[Mechanicalbob]

Well I might as well put in my $.02 on this and through in a big monkey wrench as well What about going with a 3 link set up of sorts? For the uper link use a lower A-arm off of a Maxx truck and mount it so the shock mounts face down. The reason to do this is a place to mount the shocks too You could go with a mono shock too if you waned too. With this setup the Maxx link would act like the track bar and the lower links could be streight. I will see if I can find some pictures of the one I did a few years ago on a X-Factor.

Steve

[Jneves]

Originally Posted by Rat1

Should I angle my current link mounts to rid the binding or just remove them, make some different ones and spread them out?

I would do whichever is easier.

If you triangulate both the uppers and lowers you will get less flex steer, other then that there isnt much advantage if any.

[Mechanicalbob]

Well I had another idea on this topic. It uses the lower a-arm from the Maxx trucks. Mounted in a way that is only one link to the chassis. Mount the a-arm at the bottom of the chassis with the shock mounts facing up. fab up a bracket to mount the a-arm to the center of the axle, so it can rotate, them where the shock mounts are on the arm attach links from there to the axle. With this idea the arm will also act like a skid plate and a drive line shield. I will work on a mock up to show my idea a little better.

Steve

[Unholy]

Originally Posted by Mechanicalbob

Well I had another idea on this topic. It uses the lower a-arm from the Maxx trucks. Mounted in a way that is only one link to the chassis. Mount the a-arm at the bottom of the chassis with the shock mounts facing up. fab up a bracket to mount the a-arm to the center of the axle, so it can rotate, them where the shock mounts are on the arm attach links from there to the axle. With this idea the arm will also act like a skid plate and a drive line shield. I will work on a mock up to show my idea a little better.

Steve

This has pretty much been done on here. One of Unimogers buds I think.

[hodgy_789]

Originally Posted by lostwages

you really dont need to triagulate both upper and lower, i usualy run the lower links strait and angle the top links.

personaly i like to trianglate at the bottom and top seams to be more supportive for me anyway

Josh!