View Single Post
Old 12-03-2008, 07:24 PM   #31 (permalink)
Christ
Moderate your Moderation.
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Troy, Pa.
Posts: 8,919

Pasta - '96 Volkswagen Passat TDi
90 day: 45.22 mpg (US)
Thanks: 1,369
Thanked 430 Times in 353 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee View Post

As noted, I had been thinking along the lines of a 5-passenger car application with little reduction in payload capacity.
THAT probably won't happen with a standard swing-arm... or with a standard car tire.

Even if you could reinforce the swingarm enough to make it work, you'd have to put stiff as hell springs on it to compensate for all the weight (3 people) that would go in the back... which means it would bounce when those people weren't back there, at least without some GREAT suspension engineering and leverage tuning.

That's not including the fact that one single car tire probably wouldn't be able to deal with the stresses associated with the entire rear end of the car, plus the 3 people sitting back there. You'd have to use a load rated tire, like those used on trucks and large vans. In that case, maybe using the actual car's suspension (reinforced, even) would be optimal.

Personally, it would be my perogative to build the swing arm to whatever specs I needed, for the vehicle I was using for the project. I most likely wouldn't use a "normal" part, unless I felt that it was safe to use, and would be optimal for the project. I'd also still most likely reinforce it, and use dual shock/springs, one on each side, progressive rate.

I would chance a guess at the beginning of the project to just use it the way it comes though, for the sheer sake of seeing if it would work. It's easier to envision what needs to be fixed AFTER it breaks LOL.

__________________
"¿ʞɐǝɹɟ ɐ ǝɹ,noʎ uǝɥʍ 'ʇı ʇ,usı 'ʎlǝuol s,ʇı"

  Reply With Quote