For all of you cyber wheeling junkies with time to waste, I have just posted another chapter to the 45 Truggy web site. This one covers the suspension -- traditional SOA front and rear 1/4 elliptical. Same Bat Location (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jrice/Cruiser.html) , new Bat Channel (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jrice/cruiser/FJ45/Suspension/Springs.html)

As always, constructive comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. And Woody, IF this meets your exacting standards, feel free to add a link to it on your page.

Nice job Jack, and an excelllent choice of words to go with it! Keep it up! When do you anticipate this project being completed?

Next spring if all goes well. The next projects include body work and building a paint booth in my barn.

thats comming along great!! i dont know if you have discussed this, but how much of the 45 body will be retained when finished? hard top?? bobbed full sided bed??

SAWEEEET MAN!!!!

i love your work! :D

The body is still evolving in my mind, and the rigs of the competition folks keep pushing me to more radical ideas. At present it will have the original bib, hood and cab without the hard top. The front fenders will be drastically narrowed, raised to the bottom of the hood and probably tubed. The bed will be narrowed to the width of the frame, so as to completely eliminate the wheel wells, and it will be shortened. When completed, the box will measure about 30" wide and perhaps 34" long.

THAT SHOP, IS SO CLEAN, IT SCARES ME.[

DITTO ON THE RIG ;)

sweet,,,,i need to take soem pics of my 45 and show how far ive goten in the passed few weeks...im sending in my money for the red star tommorow,,so until lance gets it who can post pics for me?..its nowhere near as nice or in depth as jack's or custom, but its somewhat cool...:cool:

peter: e-mail the to me, and i'll gladly post em for ya.
georgesterer@yahoo.com


jack: :D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

very nice jack . the kind of work i have come to expect from you .
and as always the write up is very comlete .

two thumbs up keep up the good work


alan

Originally posted by Medusa
The bed will be narrowed to the width of the frame, so as to completely eliminate the wheel wells, and it will be shortened. When completed, the box will measure about 30" wide and perhaps 34" long.

Jack:

You should check out what Whitey (Georg's buddy) did to the bed of his 45 LWB - made it so the sides could be taken off for that flat bed look and save the sides from damage on the trail. Got pics Georg?

Nice clean shop! Great work Jack.

Cheers

Andy

Jack it looks outstanding! I like the link shots, and yes I am way jealous of the SHOP and space around it. I have all my gear (Mill, lathe, air compressor, flat stock bender, JD-4 bender, Plasma cuter, torch set, etc.) crammed in to a two car garage with only a 8' ceiling! The worst yet is having to knock off all heavy fab work in the evening since I live in the burbs. (Forget about using air tools)

I love your shop!!! Great write up on your web site.

Mark

BTW, let me know if you need any tube bending done for the rig!

Nice work....looks like it's coming along well! (And yes, it's now linked up to ih8mud.com! thanks!!)

Question...do you mention the length of the control arms you used for the rear links??

Woody.. thank you for pointing out that omission. The links are each 43" in length. I have added that to the writeup

now....is that the eye to eye mounting measurement or is that the rod itself? My guess is a 40" arms with the balance taken up by the rod eyes themselves?

VERY nice work....I noted that your height at the axle is a 7" spread between upper and lower links. The uppers appear to be slightly triangulated, but not significantly. The arms appear to intersect at/around the tranny input shaft? (the upper/lower arms anyways) That is set for anti-squat, and the triangulation of the lowers is set for roll center?

I ask since I've been studying arm setups and have a friend who runs all 30" arms with parallel upper/lowers with a triangulated upper arm....always curious to compare!

The uppers appear to be slightly triangulated, but not significantly. The arms appear to intersect at/around the tranny input shaft? (the upper/lower arms anyways) That is set for anti-squat, and the triangulation of the lowers is set for roll center?

Brian... you are pretty much right on in your observations. The instant center (defined by the intersection of the upper and lower control arms) changes slightly as the suspension flexes, but always seems to be somewhere within the SM465. Anti-squat is determined by the relationship between the instant center and the center of gravity. I don't know where the COG will be on the truggy, but I think it will be aft of the flywheel. I am hoping to have minimal anti-squat.

The roll axis is defined by the line connecting the intersection of the two upper links (which in my suspension is a distance behind the rear axle) and the intersection of the two lower links. The triangulation of the lower links results in an intersection in the vicinity of the bottom of the NP203. I may be completely naive but I think the roll center must lie very close to the plane of the COG and that is why the frame shows so little roll when a rear tire is raised so high. Anyone, please correct me if I am wrong.

Man i love the 1/4 eliptical suspension in the rear!! I hope someday i can do that to my FJ. Sweet Rig! Keep the pictures comeing :D