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30-05-2008, 11:43pm
Not cheap eh?
My first choice is to play with existing suspension. The ute had the same units front and back, but unlike the sedan, also had torsion bar assist at the back. That catered for the wider variations in loads it was expected to have. So I thought my cheapest way of getting it to drop it's back was to arrange some means of twisting the bars. Relieving the preset torsion should make it drop at the back and at the same time, the hydrolastic nature of the units will raise the front a similar amount. That may be enough with a load on board, but when loading the bike on, the ute won't have a load and therefore sit higher. So I thought you'd then apply "unloading" torsion to pull the back down. With some enerpac rams and a hand pump it could all be done reasonably cheaply. And of course with an electric pump, anything is possible. The next trick could be to actually pump the fluid in the hydrolastic system from back to front and use that to drop the rear end. But that would mean valves and a pump (air conditioner pump would do) but amount pumped is very low. Last option is to replace entire system with air bags. But at least then you can make it dance if you want to!
Only problem with playing around with hydrolastic is they don't make the units any more, so if you blow one, you start searching ebay for NOS or second hand units. Tonnes of second hand ones, but the youngest ones are getting on for 30years old. Rubber ages.
So playng with the torsion bars seems the best option, and probably the cheapest.
It's going to take a while to get to that stage. Lot's to do on the ute yet!
Mind you, the combination would probably go faster if I tied a rope around the Busa and towed the ute....
My first choice is to play with existing suspension. The ute had the same units front and back, but unlike the sedan, also had torsion bar assist at the back. That catered for the wider variations in loads it was expected to have. So I thought my cheapest way of getting it to drop it's back was to arrange some means of twisting the bars. Relieving the preset torsion should make it drop at the back and at the same time, the hydrolastic nature of the units will raise the front a similar amount. That may be enough with a load on board, but when loading the bike on, the ute won't have a load and therefore sit higher. So I thought you'd then apply "unloading" torsion to pull the back down. With some enerpac rams and a hand pump it could all be done reasonably cheaply. And of course with an electric pump, anything is possible. The next trick could be to actually pump the fluid in the hydrolastic system from back to front and use that to drop the rear end. But that would mean valves and a pump (air conditioner pump would do) but amount pumped is very low. Last option is to replace entire system with air bags. But at least then you can make it dance if you want to!
Only problem with playing around with hydrolastic is they don't make the units any more, so if you blow one, you start searching ebay for NOS or second hand units. Tonnes of second hand ones, but the youngest ones are getting on for 30years old. Rubber ages.
So playng with the torsion bars seems the best option, and probably the cheapest.
It's going to take a while to get to that stage. Lot's to do on the ute yet!
Mind you, the combination would probably go faster if I tied a rope around the Busa and towed the ute....