Long Travel BS Thread

Nsk is one of the top bearing manufacturers in the world. They were one of 2 manufactures used as standards in some of my engineering books

 

Timken/koyo bearings are the way to go.

We've got thousands of dirt miles on 37s between me and my buddies truck.

 

Looks like I’ll have to look into them more, people swearing by them and running +4 on long travel sounds like a winner and close setup to what I’m running.

 

I live near koyo North America and they have a great reputation for their plant. One of the only air conditioned too.

 

This would be a good move before going LT. Also make sure you tightened the LCA bushings at right height. I've made the mistake of tightening them on jack stands and it made the shocks want to top out as soon as they possibly could and shit ride quality. On that note, upgrading to whiteline bushings or fabbed LCAs that have delrin or urethane bushings is a good move too
Edit: Definitely do what you can with the rear before even thinking about LT. I know you said it's good already but if you haven't even upgraded the hangers yet, it may not be quite as good as you'd think

 

Buy cheaper ones to get access to a hub and bearing assembly, remove OEM and rebuild those with an OEM quality bearing. Once the replacements you've installed are worn, pull those and rebuild with OEM bearing and upgrade the studs if you wish. The issue with replacements aren't the hubs, they're the bearing. A Moog or any reputable brand hub will be more than adequate if it's installed with a quality bearing.

 

Saw an upright watts link on insta recently, haven't been able to find much info on anyone actually running one other than on the front of a jeep before. Thinking about doing that rather than panhard for my 3 link rear

 

Are you talking about the CRC watts link set-up?

I've considered something similar for a future build.

 

100% yes.

I haven't drawn anything up yet, but the space it takes up would get real large as you get into proper LT numbers, I'm only looking to get 14"-18" to pair with 12"-15" front from a +3.5 kit

 

If you're talking about wheel every weekend, it's pretty cool. I had no idea something like that existed.

 

I think thats the insta... I saw it via someone elses story, so I didn't see the source.

and like @DTFtacoma said, the first mainstream version was that CRC traction linkage for jeeps in 2010's...

I'm probably gonna draw something up and take a look at the kinematics in susprog this weekend, if only to see how large the pivot has to get to maintain "sane" misalignment amounts.

 

Yes It'll take up space but that's dead space that most trucks aren't using and should allow factory gas tank to remain.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfUL07PFMLv/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=


https://www.instagram.com/p/CfW9OW1PhVW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

Obviously that droop is in need of being strapped way up but its a cool set-up.


If they went with a three link rather than that 4 link set-up they could have gotten massive up travel gains.

From my understanding you want the watts link to be "neutral' centered in middle of your travel

 

that's my thinking as well; also should be able to keeping stock-ish exhaust routing, I hate having my exhaust dump under the bed.

 

I also didn't realize the link in bending is high mounted... such a strange choice.

 

I've always wanted to see someone try a watts link or a De-Dion like autocross guys do and some old italian and early prewar cars had. I feel like those are some of those things that would be way more ideal but wasn't simple or cheap enough for mass production. Similar to old hand built prewar cars having mechanical fuel injection like 40-50 years before fuel injection became even close to standard on gas cars. A De Dion would be cool cause it would keep the diff up out of the way and unsprung weight down but still have the strength and handling characteristics guys are used to with offroad stuff. Offroad guys don't seem to like experimenting much though. To me they leave a lot on the table cause of the 'ain't broke don't fix it mentality
Also see most watts links setup horizontally. Not sure how axle wrap is prevented that way but it would probably handle the load forces a lot better than that vertical setup looks like it would. And even better packaging

 

Yeah thats the conventional way, this creates a funny axle path with longer travel tho, Earlier land rovers have one in this fashion.
The watts link only replaces the panhard bar, so a link setting diff angle and controlling antisquat is still required (would control axle wrap).

I honestly had to google DeDion suspension, and need more time to form a strong opinion, but it doesn't look like it would work well if flex travel is also a consideration.

*edit said land cruiser, meant land rover

 

Me too lol

Yeah doesn't seem like it would be applicable to us froaders

 

Okay that makes a bit more sense

And yea the De Dion thing is a bit odd but the fundamentals of it as far as handling have their merit. Also don't judge it solely by the older stuff that mostly shows up if you google it. More modern setups are a lot more functional with the truss engineered to be lighter and out of the way more.
I completely agree it's debatable whether it'd be better or not, and i'd be surprised if it was anything more than on par with a well engineered solid axle or irs in an offroad application. BUT who knows until somebody tries and i think it'd be rad to see someone try or just do it on a shop truck to show off fab and suspension design skills yanno
Here's a pic and the article i got it from that has some great discussion that dig into it more:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/suspension-mythbusting-solid-axle-vs-irs/
I think it'd be possible to do this with the truss on the top