What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Overkillz Dune Truggy Build

Not to try and start another arguement.... but.


How many of you giving this advice have actually built/used a long travel A-arm setup?

I grew up on the sand dunes with dirtbikes, 3wheelers, and sandrails. The last three sandrails I have helped my dad build have been A arm style buggies. The last revision was equal length arms, 14in travel single seater with 70hp. Negative camber was set at 2deg and did not change through the suspension cycle.

The thing rode and cornered like a zippy 4wheeler on the sand, Would dig and point wererever you wanted it to. No adverse turning issues, no "rolling over":rolleyes: or anything. It had 5in wide smoothies in the front. Sand is pretty forgiving and the small tires are as well. I have seen a few others with unequal length arms and they work well too. usually 0 camber at ride height, 3or so pos at full droop and 3neg at full stuff.

They were not any faster or more agile than the equal length one was. Figure out what you want to do and build it RIGHT and STRONG and READ on the theories of it and go for it.

just be damn sure with what you are making because with this big heavy ass truck you do not want some hacked together setup because it will break and you will most likely endo.

I think you should cage it, get the motor running good and run it with the stock suspension personally.
 
NorCal_Chris said:
Not to try and start another arguement.... but.


How many of you giving this advice have actually built/used a long travel A-arm setup?

I grew up on the sand dunes with dirtbikes, 3wheelers, and sandrails. The last three sandrails I have helped my dad build have been A arm style buggies. The last revision was equal length arms, 14in travel single seater with 70hp. Negative camber was set at 2deg and did not change through the suspension cycle.

The thing rode and cornered like a zippy 4wheeler on the sand, Would dig and point wererever you wanted it to. No adverse turning issues, no "rolling over":rolleyes: or anything. It had 5in wide smoothies in the front. Sand is pretty forgiving and the small tires are as well. I have seen a few others with unequal length arms and they work well too. usually 0 camber at ride height, 3or so pos at full droop and 3neg at full stuff.

They were not any faster or more agile than the equal length one was. Figure out what you want to do and build it RIGHT and STRONG and READ on the theories of it and go for it.

just be damn sure with what you are making because with this big heavy ass truck you do not want some hacked together setup because it will break and you will most likely endo.

I think you should cage it, get the motor running good and run it with the stock suspension personally.
Click to expand...



:bow::bow::bow:

Great advice chris.

It will have the stock till we break it. Then im tearing into it. Ive always wanted to try something like this and I have all the software available to design every bracket to go on it. Then have kert cut em out.
 
82355 said:
Why not just make it 4x4?

Martin
Click to expand...

I wanna try my hand at something like this. Always have. Seen alot of them at the dunes over my whole life and finally have something i can play with and design on.
 
I had a buddy about a decade ago that had a 90's 2wd C1500. All he did was a Fabtech set of lift spindles and good shocks and he had a great time with it at the dunes.
 
NorCal_Chris said:
Not to try and start another arguement.... but.


How many of you giving this advice have actually built/used a long travel A-arm setup?

I grew up on the sand dunes with dirtbikes, 3wheelers, and sandrails. The last three sandrails I have helped my dad build have been A arm style buggies. The last revision was equal length arms, 14in travel single seater with 70hp. Negative camber was set at 2deg and did not change through the suspension cycle.

The thing rode and cornered like a zippy 4wheeler on the sand, Would dig and point wererever you wanted it to. No adverse turning issues, no "rolling over":rolleyes: or anything. It had 5in wide smoothies in the front. Sand is pretty forgiving and the small tires are as well. I have seen a few others with unequal length arms and they work well too. usually 0 camber at ride height, 3or so pos at full droop and 3neg at full stuff.

They were not any faster or more agile than the equal length one was. Figure out what you want to do and build it RIGHT and STRONG and READ on the theories of it and go for it.

just be damn sure with what you are making because with this big heavy ass truck you do not want some hacked together setup because it will break and you will most likely endo.

I think you should cage it, get the motor running good and run it with the stock suspension personally.
Click to expand...

This is why I said to try some things out, see how they work, do some r&d.

And, your sand rail... front engine on a heavy truck frame? Probably not. Different designs for different uses for different weight vehicle etc...

The reason desert trucks use unequal length arms is to get the most possible suspension travel while still having an engine up front taking up space (do they still have front engines? :dunno:) or something like that taking up space. Plus the added weight, the camber changes help with cornering, simple as that. I'm not gonna argue anymore as I don't know all the ins and outs of suspension design.... but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night. :haha:
 
Everywhere we go in our dunes is primarily srtraight shots. The whole cornering thing at high speed isnt really a big deal because it doesnt ever happen...
 
Just like anything else, build it to suit your needs. You're gonna have fun with it no matter what you do. Build it. Beat it. Break it. Repeat.
 
496truck said:
Just like anything else, build it to suit your needs. You're gonna have fun with it no matter what you do. Build it. Beat it. Break it. Repeat.
Click to expand...


I like the way you think. Im ordering Autodesk Inventor tonight... :whistle: And soon a bitchin desktop. So the designs will be flowin soon :D
 
I think you will find that unless you have a model of the truck, autodesk inventor won't help you much when it comes to designing your suspension for your truck. Yeah, it can help, but not as much as you'd think without the proper data to start with. I had full access to computer modeling and files, and I used it very little during my front suspension build. Mostly it was just 2D sketches to see the differences in travel between slightly unequal length draglink and panhard bar.

Now, if you know exact dimensions, and have access to a cnc plasma, waterjet, or laser cutter, then making dxf files and having exact parts would be nice, but only as nice as the data you start out with. And for what you are about to spend, I would say you are probably better off buying a plasma cutter.
 
Heath, all i need is a tape measure and i can build the frame on cad. Some calipers and mics and i can design most any part in a front end. Make brackets and send dwgs to kert in a view file and have him cut them. Im gonna buy a cam program so i could write the programs and send them too. All thati would need is the machine start up codes and all that will be needed is setup and cut. :waytogo:
 
It's not that simple, trust me. I work with CAD most every day for the past 5 years, and off and on before that for 11 years, and I fab stuff in my spare time for longer than you have been. Your going to build it in cad and then realize it won't work or something you forgot about in the model etc when you go to put it together.

It's different if you already have an entire vehicle model, or you are starting from scratch with a tube frame, but you aren't. It's not going to work as well as you think, you are better off building on the vehicle with stuff like this, it will fit better, work better, and you can check clearances by moving it. I am fully aware you can do all that in CAD, but not very accurately if all you have is a vehicle and a tape measure, it's going to take way longer to do it in CAD then to do it in person that way.

There are only two parts I designed in CAD on my truck, and one of them I had a full drawing of the part I was mounting, and the other one I was starting from scratch and knew exact dimensions. The rest I cut by hand with the plasma, tacked in place ON the truck, and then removed it and fully welded them, and there is a reason for that.
 
Hey Adam,

Just go and jump this thing already.....:thumb:

Good points. But maybe start the plans for a cool sand buggy later on after you have got this going and see why a stock, heavy set up isn't used all the time
 
Thats ok. Im still gonna draw it up. If something changes along the way so be it. Ill change the model at the end to what works and then i will have an exact model that could be recreated with cnc. Im not building a space ship. If somethings off a few grand a highly doubt it will matter. And if we step it up and go full out after trial. We could use johnny joints on the a-arms giving us more to dial it in just perfect.
 
63chevyll said:
Hey Adam,

Just go and jump this thing already.....:thumb:

Good points. But maybe start the plans for a cool sand buggy later on after you have got this going and see why a stock, heavy set up isn't used all the time
Click to expand...

I think my buddy got the headers yesterday so we should be able to jump her this weekend :thumb:
 
DUDE! if you jump it, I don't care how you designed it, just video it and don't get hurt and it will be awesome.
 
folkenheath said:
DUDE! if you jump it, I don't care how you designed it, just video it and don't get hurt and it will be awesome.
Click to expand...

Win :thumb:. Sure hope this tranny works. Its been sittin for a long time but was out of a running truck. Insides looked real clean
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom