Yeah, they are all simple until you commit the serious error by going spring over for clearance. At that point getting a rear traction bar to work flawlessly makes building an awesome link suspension seem like child's play.
Anyone have a rock crawler?
- Thread starter MallCrawlOnTons
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Yeah, they are all simple until you commit the serious error by going spring over for clearance. At that point getting a rear traction bar to work flawlessly makes building an awesome link suspension seem like child's play.
Ok I've only been a volunteer at KOH and I don't build rigs like you or compete but I would notice a leaf spring passing through the check point.In case, just in case you don't wind up putting 2 and 2 together and winding up with the right answer by reading between the lines, Jerry's comments are very likely based on standing at a checkpoint to slap stickers on rigs that go through for KOH 2019.
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will he be competing as black face???
Not appropriate! we have run that course and he explained himself well enough to understand his logic.
Logic, no matter how flawless, creates no excuses. That being said, there's also no reason to derail an informative thread with excavations of past behavior.
It wouldn't be as, it would be in and I thought I was noticing a trend in how this was going.
Agreed, let's keep the black face and politics out of it.
Personally if he wants to build a rock crawler with leaf springs I could care less. It really doesn't matter what I think.
Personally if he wants to build a rock crawler with leaf springs I could care less. It really doesn't matter what I think.
Correct. This isn't about personal belief/opinion, or whether or not anyone likes/agrees-with the OP; right now, it's a feasibility study in whether or not a leaf-sprung rock buggy is feasible, practical or affordable, and it needs to be kept that way. Bringing immaturity into it serves no purpose, and isn't even very entertaining; besides, there are other threads for that...so it's game-on over there, and game-face over here (at least, we hope so).
Wow, that was a hell of a typo on my part...
No, I'm not talking about Wranglers-only; in these sort of situations I think there's a lot of danger inherent to showing preference for the exception rather than the rule... especially when the validity and purpose of the rule is known, and understood. Okay...so a couple of people have managed - through amazing skill and even-more-amazinger budgets - to make an unconventional design work, compete, and succeed: that still doesn't make it a good idea, either for them or the guy that says "They made it work; why can't I?" Naturally, this isn't an endorsement for some kind of stifling compliance to conventional design, or an aversion to innovation...but rather, a simple caution: be careful, and understand the entirety of your rule-breaking before you do it. Success demands such; failure accepts much less.
To be fair, to everyone in this thread throwing flame, did the OP mention competition? Was the original post edited and the competition part removed?
Is the quoted post above the first mention of competition level rock crawlers?
From what I read in OP’s original post, he is looking for a more budget friendly option which IMO would be opposite of any rock crawler built at a competitive level..
Am I wrong here?
Ok, Im tracking, but did OP mention competing? Im trying to figure who derailed the thread and figure out where the competition level rigs came into the picture and how they relate to a “budget friendly” rock crawler
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My read of the connection is this: the general opinion is that leaf springs have little place in a dedicated, modern rock crawler, and that this is evidenced by the fact that the most distilled versions of that build - the competition buggy - by and large eschew such suspensions. After that connection was made, a singular dissenting example was posted by the OP, at which point I made the cautionary statement about using exceptions as legitimations that you referenced and which I subsequently clarified. I then said...
...which clearly acknowledges that the OP is not looking to build a budget competition rig. I do think, however, that using the example of competition rigs to show the general superiority of the link suspension for such builds is germane to the conversation, because they do show the most refined versions of the general build theory for such pursuits. That clarity is quite valuable, and even though it's not directly transferable to the OP's erstwhile build, a great deal of it applies and should not be casually discarded.
Can you build a rock crawler with leafs? Sure. Will it work as good as a linked rig? No.
You have to go real soft in the rear to get the suspension to move, when you do you have bad axle wrap and bent springs. So one adds a traction bar to the rear, that causes very high antisquat, unless you can run a flat one like 10 feet long. That causes drivelines to break when hopping your cheap ass up a waterfall. I know this because I've done it, friends have done it.
I would rather have clunking Rough Country short arms and free coil springs than any rig on leaf springs.
You have to go real soft in the rear to get the suspension to move, when you do you have bad axle wrap and bent springs. So one adds a traction bar to the rear, that causes very high antisquat, unless you can run a flat one like 10 feet long. That causes drivelines to break when hopping your cheap ass up a waterfall. I know this because I've done it, friends have done it.
I would rather have clunking Rough Country short arms and free coil springs than any rig on leaf springs.
Wasnt try to discard any points. I do believe its a stretch to compare. I stand by my idea that competition level builds have no bearings in this thread.
I will agree, if leafs were so good, buggies would use them. Thats not to say you cant go out and have fun in a YJ, TJ, or JKU on leafs with 40s. I am confident that OP would have fun regardless of coils, coil overs, or leafs. It is in my opinion that it would be drastically cheaper to go to a YJ and do a SOA with a stretch to get on 40s.
Two points:
1) 40's aren't cheap, no matter what you do.
2) Do you want a spring-over? I've been doing a bit of research on them this evening; I don't like what I see.