advantages/disadvantages to this?

[spookyseven]

what are the advantages and disadvantages of running the end of the links that are mounted to the truck, mounted together instead of running them apart, so in this way they are mounted in a v (<)shape instead of paralell(=)? such as the truck in this article http://www.rccrawler.com/20txt.htm

and the other question is what are the advantages and disadvantages to having your shocks mounted on top of your axle instead of running from your chassis to your links like the gecko does

[moonbuggy]

You don't need to triangulate your links if you don't mind the axle walking right out from under your rig. They are in a V, W, M, and whatever shapes you can come up with to keep them located laterally. And the reason most shafties have the shocks on the axle is to give them more leverage to fight chassis twist.

[spookyseven]

i would trianglate them when you are looking at them from the top but im wondering about if i didnt run them paralell when you were looking at them from the side

[BENDER]

That's how I run my links, it works great.

Here's a couple pics of my link set-up.

[TwistedCreations]

basically you want to have the same mounting holes on the chassis for the links right? it keeps the pinion pointed at the trans no matter where it goes. not sure on the squat/anti-squat though.. haven't ran that setup before

[Reflection]

Well,for what it's worth,I don't think it's all that great. I first tried this set up when I built my Twin the first time. I was after the fact that the pinion would always point at the tranny output. After trying it I decided to try a few things to eliminate the dreaded torque twist of shafties. After countless attemps of adjusting shock springs and oil weight I decided to play with link configurment. I did gain some with adjusting the shocks springs,oil weight and mounting locations but not near the amount I did with link configuration.

At first they used the same bolt at the chassis and about 2" separation at the axle and it had HORRIBLE torque twist. I tried running them parrellel,2" separation at both ends of the links. This worked very well against the torque twist but reduced wheel travel because the uppers were now hitting parts of my original chassis. I then wanted to keep the results but reduce the amount of separation at the chassis to gain my wheel travel back. I tried a few different spots between 2" apart and nothing at the chassis side to see where my happy medium was. I ended up with roughly 3/4" of separation at the chassis and 2" at the axle.

My links look real close to the way Benders are on his rig from the side. From what I've witnessed with my RC truck I know for a fact that you can make a rig handle any way you like and alot of the link configurement has a HUGE effect on the handling. I knew NOTHING about link set ups when I got into RC,I'm not claiming to be some kind of pro or anything,but I feel confident enough that I'd concider a link set up on my Toyota crawler without hessitation. Would they be mounted at the same point on my Toyota? Nope,they'd have roughly 4" of separation at the chassis and 8 to 10" at the axle end.

[DUDE]

Read this Vairing link separation effects
It also has to do with your squat/anti squat.

[moonbuggy]

Originally Posted by moonbuggy

You don't need to triangulate your links if you don't mind the axle walking right out from under your rig. They are in a V, W, M, and whatever shapes you can come up with to keep them located laterally. And the reason most shafties have the shocks on the axle is to give them more leverage to fight chassis twist.

oops I thought you meant from the top view . Yeah having the links teminate at the same point on the chassis makes the axle arc around that point, so the pinion will always be pointed towards the tranny, and the caster will change as the axle moves. With the links parallel or close to it, creates either a parallelogram or a trapaziod. With that the pinion angle will change but the caster won't (if it is done right). My take on this: my new rig will run a combo. parallel up front to help steering angles, and a < in back to help pinion angles (this is a front steer only truck)