Torsion bar suspension

[Hal]

Hey everybody, just did a search on here looking for any crawlers that have used torsion bar suspension. There are a lot of torsion chassis but not just torsion bar suspension. Has anybody tried or heard of anybody trying it? Just a thougt, it would probably be a lot lighter than shock type system.

[MasteroFlego]

I know what it is but I've never seen a crawler with torsion suspension. build one?

[fyrstormer]

Why do you think it would be lighter? It would still require dampers to keep the truck from bouncing all over the place over bumps, and I doubt a torsion bar would be lighter than a pair of springs. I don't think a torsion-bar setup would actually be lighter, or necessarily better-performing in any way for that matter. Of course that never stopped me from trying other projects just because I wanted to, so if you want to build one just to see it come to life, then by all means do it. This is a hobby, after all, you're supposed to enjoy yourself.

[JatoTheRipper]

If you want scale that would be cool, but if you want performance you don't want torsion bar suspension. It's not a good suspension setup.

[thewildblue77]

I have torsion bar suspension in one of my real cars, its a pain in the ass vs normal coilovers. Im restricted on adjustment unless Im prepared to reindex the whole rear. The car is a 1992 though. Plus its heavier than a normal setup. My car is based on one from the 70s though...

Why you would want it in a crawler is beyond me....

[Inspector86]

The biggest issue I see with a torsion bar suspension is limited travel. There is only a finite amount of travel available and there is no way that I am aware of to increase it easily or cheaply.

[Hal]

I was looking at the torsion style chassis and was wondering if torsion bars would be a better choice. I know it would be a totaly diferent style chassis and mounting / adjustment points would be a pain to figure out. I would bet dampers would not even be needed. Most of the guys I comp with dont even put oil in their shocks except for lubrication. I know there would be hurdles and was wondering if anybody else had given this any thought. I was thinking the lower links could even be the torsion bars. Just something to ponder during the 2 free minutes a day I get to myself.

[Bonghit]

I have serious doubts about anyone making a torsion bar especially for a RC.

[Duuuuuuuude]

A torsion bar is a spring, so you would need dampeners to keep them from being overly springy.

Shocks with no oil still provide dampening, just not very much.

I don't know that swapping links out for torsions would be beneficial, but there is no reason why you couldn't run the torsions parallel to them.

You thinking about twisting the torsions or using them like leaf springs?

[Shinchu]

This just made me realize why nobody builds a 2002 chevy tahoe scaler. I owned a 1:1 and shuddered at the thought of lifting it, dealing with torsion bars.

However... twin i beam for scale would be rad. Again, performance would suck. But a rwd scale with twin i beams... rad.

[Hal]

I was thinking of using them as a twist type bar. Possibly have easier adjustment that way. Shape like a z with one end attached to chassis one end on diff housing. Again just pondering something in my free time.