Rear Radius Arm Suspension

[feerocknok]

I've been looking into radius arm front ends on MJs, when I came to wondering why I haven't seen, or have looked past, radius arm rear ends.

 

What about radius arms makes them unpopular for a rear suspension design?

 

 

BTW, I posted this on PBB too, but part of the response from the only person that responded was that Jeeps don't perform well with radius arms in the front, and that seems very contradicting to what I've seen.

The PBB link:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=533963

[DirtyComanche]

You get away with a radius arm front setup because flex steer can be corrected via steering input, and that anti-squat (well, anti-dive in the front) is not as important.

 

 

In an off-road situation it is certainly not ideal. In a street application it is workable, as there is little suspension travel to cause flex steer, and the arms are at a much milder angle which allows you to still control anti-squat.

 

 

Building a 3 or 4 link is not too much harder. Just have to plug the numbers... Or, even a 1-link.

[feerocknok]

You get away with a radius arm front setup because flex steer can be corrected via steering input, and that anti-squat (well, anti-dive in the front) is not as important.

 

 

In an off-road situation it is certainly not ideal. In a street application it is workable, as there is little suspension travel to cause flex steer, and the arms are at a much milder angle which allows you to still control anti-squat.

 

 

Building a 3 or 4 link is not too much harder. Just have to plug the numbers... Or, even a 1-link.

 

Thank you. That all makes much more sense to me.

What is a 1 link?

[DirtyComanche]

Look under a unimog :brows:

 

 

It's a triangulated single arm that actually only uses one joint - on the frame end. Unimogs use what they call "torque tube suspension" or something - the driveshaft is actually an intergal part of the single link.

 

 

There's zero-links too. Then things start getting odd.

[feerocknok]

I couldn't find any rear mog shots, but while searching I did find a G-Wagon with rear radius arms. I'm not sure if all G-wagons are set-up like this, but apparently wheel hop is a big issue.

 

I hate MJ gas tanks.

[M357.5]

Check out CAGE Off Road's radius arm kits.......they were originaly designed for early Broncos front application. But they can be used in the rear as well.

CAN4X4 magazines project 4runner is setup with this dual radius arm kit and looks like it flexes extremly well. The arms are long....the brackets for the front and rear radius arms almost touch in the middle of the truck.

[pingpong]

You remember that old saying keep it simple stupid :D This applies....