When Triangulating your control arms why do most people triangulate the upper arms? Wouldn't triangulating the lowers keep them farther from the rocks and give the same results or am I missing something?

Originally posted by Beast40
Why do people always Triangulate the upper arms? Wouldn't triangulating the lowers keep them farther from the rocks and give the same results or am I missing something?

Well, heres the deal. One of the goals of triangulating them is to keep the roll axis on the same plane to keep the rear end from giving you some serious rear steer. so if you triangulate the uppers in to a point at the axle and the lowers at an imaginary point in the same plane at the front (or past) the vehicle you end up with controlled rear steer. Probably didnt make a lot of sense, I dont get much sleep these days :D :beer:

also eliminates the track (panhard) bar.

Yes, you guys are smart.

Originally posted by Goat Boy
Yes, you guys are smart.

Good thing I was a fine arts major huh?

actually the hot setup seems to be triangulated upper and lower links

doa search on desertoy, or Camo (4x4 general wheeling forum) desertoy is running a upperand lower, camo is ruinning upper only

check it out

The LCA's are what push the Jeep (on the rear); you want to mount them as close to the wheel as possible and on the other end as close to (directly on) the frame as possible.

On the front, the Lowers pull the Jeep. In reverse the opposite is true (the Front Pushes, the rear pulls, still LCA's though)

Imagine looking at your Jeep from the side (looking at the drivers side) In order to push the Jeep forward, your tires must rotate Counter Clockwise. As this happens, your axle wants to rotate the opposite direction, Clockwise (which is axle wrap). The UCA's are actually pulled back by the axle, while the LCA's are being pushed by the axle.

So the tire rotates forward, the axle rotates back pushing the LCA which pushes the frame causing forward motion. This is why you want the LCA's connecting (as close to as possible) the tire (what is pushing) to the frame (what is being pushed).

In theory, you want the frame side of the LCA's to be as close to the center of the vehicle as possible. But in reality, the strongest place to mount it is the frame. Then again you could build a really beefy crossmember to mount them to. Old Ford's used an A-Arm that mounted in the center of the vehicle like that.

HTH,

- Mike