This is a very important design aspect. If your Pan hard (tracbar) is not mounted on the same side your steering box is, when the suspension compresses the axle will move in the opposite direction as the drag link which will cause your tires to turn and result in "bump steer". It is also important for your Pan hard bar to be as close in length and mounting points to your drag link as possible. The flatter your Drag link the better.

 

the Drag link and Track bar should also be about the Same angle correct.

 

Correct, and for the same reason.

Sometimes, bent bars are used for clearance, so a better way to say it would be that the angle between the end points of each bar should be the same.

If you look at a system with a creatively bent rod or bar, it may not look like they are parallel, but the angle between the endpoints on each of them is the same.

 

are you meaning the same frame rail or the same side of the same frame rail?

IE my yota box is on the outside and say i wanted to make my trac bar bracket on the inside of the frame

 

same side.....but it would be better and easier to mount your trac bar to the outside of the frame.....you could get a trac bar mount off a F-150 to work that mounts to the outside of the frame....

 

Same frame rail AND the same side of that rail, lol.

 

You want your panhard bracket to be as close to the steering box as possible. When you look dead on at the front of your truck, you want your draglink and panhard to follow the same line.

 

that part i know.. just tryin to clarify the previous post.. just got off work.. not into thinkin about trucks yet..lol

 

my brain hurts just reading all this and I have the day off.

 

Double Triangulated 4 link:


I thought this was a very good picture of this type of suspension. I realize this is a Rear 4 link but its the same idea. This type of suspension will have no nominal side to side movement like a panhard type suspension. The down sides are clearance in the front and also that fact that this suspension should not be ran with a steering box, and only used with Full hydro steering. This is cause the suspension will move in a perpendicular plane compared to a drag link and will cause horrible steering effects.

 

I want to do this just for looks! lol

 

how does the rear of that flex? seems like it would bind.

 

If this hurts your brain, try reading this Thread from Pirate4x4.

Link Suspension for Dummies...

 

it just looks like it will bind, but actually the Links setup like that just limit side to side movement, but they dont fight each other in the vertical plane.

 

Once the winter is over, I'll most likely be building a double triangulated 4-link front and rear of the Jeep. I'm sticking with the steering box rather than full hydro tho because I want the option of driving it on the street. The plan is TJ springs and 4 adjustable links at each end. It should be a fun project.

 

Full hydro is not illegal on the street. Its grey area, Theres no law that says you cant run it and theres no law that says you can. If you run a steering box your going to have horrible issues. Everytime you go over a bump or anything your jeep is going to jerk the steering wheel to the right.

 

I'm running leaf springs and no track bar up front now so as long as the links are parallel to the ground when at ride height, it shouldn't be any worse than it is now on the street. Once I flex the front suspension, there may be problems but I'll have to see if I can live with it. The plan is to tube fender the front and rear to clear the 35s and lower it as much as possible to fit the 35s and have a minimum of 3" of uptravel. That should leave me with 15" of downtravel on the shocks I have now and should be great on the rocks and low enough to pass the NJ stability test.

As far as the hydraulic steering goes, I believe that NJ law states that there must be mechanical connections between components of the steering system, but I'll have to look it up.

 

just run a 3 link with panhard you get all the good aspects of the 4 link and you can run your steering box with out problems.

 

Thank you all for posting up. I think there is a tone of usfull info here. Does any one feel this is Sticky worthy?

 

I think so. Furthermore, there is so much SAS'ing going on, it ought to have it's own forum area in suspensions for info related to SAS conversions.

 

Panhard 3 links are much much easier to set up and get right. Getting the right set up for a 4-link can be really difficult when you want to get acceptable amounts of squat/anti-squat. I'd probably just run 3-links front and rear if I was going to a solid axle. Maybe with a y-link in the rear instead of a panhard though.

 

I second that John

 

ill 3rd that motion... can we get a Admin to make it so now

 

AMEN!

[oh, sorry, though you said "can we get a AMEN"... ]

 

The panhard bar will limit articulation of the axle which defeats the purpose of reengineering the suspension. Like I said, I'm not running a panhard bar with my leaf springs and on the street it's quite well behaved despite the axle being relatively uncontrolled. With the 4" drop pitman arm and lowering the suspension I should be able to get the drag link parallel to the ground which should eliminate the bump steer for street use. If that's not enough, when this is done I will likely be swapping in a D44 front axle which I believe can be setup for high-steering. Once the drag link is parallel to the ground, the 6" of total articulation I'll see on the street (3" up, 3" down with bumpstops and limiting straps) should cause very little change in distance between the steering box and the passenger side knuckle.

Once it's done, the Jeep will see very little street use, if any at all. Most likely, I will use it for winter driving only and trailer it to the trails.