here's the deal..

i am a fabricator for a company that builds vehicles for the mining industry. most are 4x2, most are solid axle front and rear , and we use a trailing arm, coil spring suspension. pretty basic, works for what we need.

but now we have a car to build that the company wants to be able to crawl over rocks with..and they want 4 link front and rear. it's still going to be 2 wheel drive, with a straight axle up front. we don't need 1000rti score but we need it to flex without binding...and be tough as hell...miners can break a solid steel anvil with a rubber mallet.

my supervisor thinks that we can just slap a couple of equal length parallel bars on each end, add a coilover and call it done...i think he's wrong.

what do u suggest? i think triangulated is the way to go out back, maybe radius arm up front..but he is pretty much dead set on what i typed above. it's also gotta be simple...we have a cad engineer, and he's good, but my supervisor don't like, nor listen to him.


pics would be awesome!!


thanks ahead of time...





wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :beer:

also....i think heim joints at both ends..he wants just one. at the frame.



i need as much information in as little time as possible as we already have the main body jigged up..



the frame is 2x6 1/4" wall tubing..and it's 18" wide, outside to outside..hope that helps....

wheelbase is roughly 96", with a 42" track, front and rear. i make sure of that tomorrow..


teh rear axle will be a d44....


also, we stock/use new hollend d45's and a smaller one, i can't remember the name.....the smaller ones weigh about as much as a d70, usually have a 6.72:1 or lower ratio, can be locked up and the steering axles have birfields joints i believe...we so sell outside the mining industry..if interested, gimme a holler and i'll see what i can do about pricing...


the sad thing about where i work..we torch d60 front axles everyday for just the hubs and steering knuckles..the rest of it goes in the dumpster :crybaby2:





wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :beer:

Dual triangulated front and rear, IMO. If weight isn't an issue, I'd do solid links, too, for strength considerations.

i dunno if triangulated will work up front due to space issues, namely the motor! we won't have but maybe 10" of ground clearance, that's to the bottom of the car, not the pumpkin.

i think tri out back for sure...


what about a radius arm, panhard bar up front? will that yeild decent articulation?

the links will be 2" schedule 40 tubing, with 1" heim joints


thanks again..





wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :beer:

the sad thing about where i work..we torch d60 front axles everyday for just the hubs and steering knuckles..the rest of it goes in the dumpster

:confused:
I assume you are keeping the inner knuckles when you say "torch that d60"?
Why are the rest of the housings being trashed? Where are you located?
Check your PM's.

Why not, not torch a d60 and make it 4x4. It will work much better in the rocks. 4 wheel drive is way easier on components too. Less work for one axle to do. But it will also get you to places where you break stuff.

lc hamma...yep we torch off the inner knuckles and hubs and weld them to 2.5", i believe, schedule 40 tubing to make our light duty front axle. the rest go in the dumpster because we have no use for it.

now, we use d44,d60,d70, and new holland for the rears and even ford 9" when it's a lil jake<---mine the vehicle goes to. some get detroits..others tru-tracks...some are left open. everything internal gets replaced as our highest ratio's used are 5.75:1 and 6.72:1 (or real close to that)...smaller vehicles get two speed auto's..larger ones, 3 spd..all get isuzu diesel.some turbo'd...a switch to mitusbishi is in progress..

rambling on here..


anyway..located in southern illinois


anymore help in showing my boss he's wrong? we need the axle to move about 6" compression and the same rebound..yeah, we ain't boulder crawling, but we need articulation.





wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :beer:

Man, sounds like a fawked up place to work. Wasting money and playing with shiat that nobody knows what to do with. I say, let him try his ideas and take bets on how long it takes him to realize he fawked up.

Man, sounds like a fawked up place to work. Wasting money and playing with shiat that nobody knows what to do with. I say, let him try his ideas and take bets on how long it takes him to realize he fawked up.

the only problem is i get to fix the screw up! :mad3:


but in the end, that is what we will probably have to do..

i did download a few diagrams from here and a pic or two showingthe correct way....our cad guy has them now and is working on a decent system..




wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :beer:

my supervisor thinks that we can just slap a couple of equal length parallel bars on each end, add a coilover and call it done...i think he's wrong.




anymore help in showing my boss he's wrong? we need the axle to move about 6" compression and the same rebound..yeah, we ain't boulder crawling, but we need articulation.


IIRC, Cherokee frontends are setup with parallell control arms and a panhard bar. I'm sure you can get more than 12 inches of articulation out of that setup.