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Long travel

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Offline 93Pretracker

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Long travel
« on: July 06, 2010, 10:19:21 PM »
I'm new to the world of track/kicks and had a question about long travel and couldn't find any info using the search function. I own a 93 Tracker 2wd and wanted to build my rig in a more prerunner direction because of that and because it's mostly desert out here in Southern California.
The rear is easy enough with longer links and shocks. The front is where the problem lays. I'm looking to get between 10-12" of total front travel. I've seen mention of using 'Yota IFS parts but none actually said whether or not the 'Yota arms will fit. Anyone have any info that will help bring my idea into fruition?
Thanks, Nick.

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Offline cj

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2010, 11:09:33 PM »
The closest that i have seen to what you want is Mike Hagen's orange rig makeover where he added a second upper control arm along with a centred front diff and got plenty of travel.

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Offline Drone637

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2010, 11:03:43 AM »
I would check out the Liberty Overland rig from the Zukiworld Challenge.  Eric has put a upper control arm to give it more travel.  With the strut setup there isn't a lot else you can do.

On the plus side, you can put taller springs on it since you don't have to worry about toasting CV joints.  :)
96 Geo Tracker, x-SJ-410,  x-White Rabbit, x-Project Trouble
Crawlers NorthWest
x-Trouble Racing

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Offline 93Pretracker

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2010, 02:24:56 PM »
I would check out the Liberty Overland rig from the Zukiworld Challenge.  Eric has put a upper control arm to give it more travel.  With the strut setup there isn't a lot else you can do.

On the plus side, you can put taller springs on it since you don't have to worry about toasting CV joints.  :)

Are there any detailed pics or specs of the front suspension on his rig? I only ask because the build thread in the team into section of the Zukiworld Challenge forum didn't contain any. Either on that rig or the ZWO rig as I cant really find much info on the build threads for them.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2010, 09:11:15 AM by 93Pretracker »

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Offline Drone637

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2010, 11:27:49 AM »
Send them a message, I know Eric is still doing some tuning on his front end.  I'm not sure the ZWO crew has done much to the  other then some taller springs.
96 Geo Tracker, x-SJ-410,  x-White Rabbit, x-Project Trouble
Crawlers NorthWest
x-Trouble Racing

Re: Long travel
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2010, 05:27:42 AM »
i was going through the monroe book looking at strut dimentions and acording to the book honda pilots/ acura mdx use a strut with 13 inches of stroke. i am thinking of trying them with toyota t 100 axle shafts, longer a arms and taller coils. my 1996 sport is already going sas so i need a rig to try it out on. i live in portland oregon, anyone interested?

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Offline BRD HNTR

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2010, 07:15:36 AM »
If you do a body lift, you could get enough clearance to center the diff.  Cut down a Sammi' housing so you can use right side axles on both sides (uses the Sammi seals).
Like this only on both sides.


I was going to try this route, but with the V6 project I have going, there is no room under there.
Good luck.  Let us know how the struts work out.
93 Tracker,XL7 springs & 1" raised spring pads in front with YJ springs in back, home built bumpers rear & front (w/winch), 2" x 4" rock tubes,  ARB front & rear, converted Sami rear to IFS, 33x12.5x15  aluminum rims, roll cage, 2.7L w/5 speed auto.

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Offline 93Pretracker

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2010, 11:26:07 AM »
I will try PMing them and seeing how they did the suspension on their rigs. And to 96kicker4 x2 on letting us know how those struts work out, it might just be right up my alley.

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Offline TNTracker

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2010, 01:06:57 PM »
Here is a link to Mike Hagens dual a arm setup.                                                                                                         
http://www.zukiworld.com/month_050106/feature_hagen-newfrontend.htm

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Offline ebewley

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #9 on: July 09, 2010, 02:16:00 PM »
I got your PM about my race car's front end design... What I've done is a mod to use the stock spindle and spindle mounts and not have the strut... (keeping with the Zukiworld Challenge ruleset) In my opinion there isn't a strut at this point that will actually take 4 straight hours of high speed running. The Bilstein is very close but the OME, Stock stuff, KYB, Gabriel, Monroe all don't have the goods to deliver. The front end has 8+ inches of vertical wheel travel so it may not be enough for what you're looking for. I've been thinking of doing a build article on my racer but have been holding off until I get a solid package developed. I am there now and will be putting something up probably at the end of this season. I'm working on a "cars of the Zukiworld Challenge" article and that'll be part of it.

I'll attach a pictures. If you want to reverse engineer, the lower mounting points are 10" apart. :)

-Eric
« Last Edit: July 09, 2010, 02:17:43 PM by ebewley »
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Offline Bigzook

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #10 on: July 09, 2010, 03:14:35 PM »
I would have to agree with Eric, the Bilsteins are probably fine for dune hopping or weekend desert running. But for the racing they just get too hot. I think mine will be pretty much toast by the end of the next race.

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Offline wildgoody

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #11 on: July 09, 2010, 06:22:29 PM »
How about adding some fins to the strut body? would help to dissipate the heat,
that or a remote reservoir added to the standard struts, but I think fins would help
better, but don't weld to the shock body, that could be dangerous

Wild
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Offline ToyYoda

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2010, 07:13:58 PM »
I had tested some aluminum cooling fins on a pair 2.0 fox's. Mach. shop cut them to slide over the shocks cans. We used thermos paste between the shock & cooling fin barrel for max. heat transfer. We checked it with a shop thermal gun & did find it to to be cooler. The driver said it dampen a little better compaired to the fading it did after a 50 mile run we do to test in Ocotillo Ca. Still cost v/s gain is the question.

Re: Long travel
« Reply #13 on: July 11, 2010, 07:10:38 PM »
how much would you racers be willing to spend on some long travel struts. i am in the finishing stages of some 3 inch internal bypass shocks that i have designed. my design could be modified to function as a strut. i also designed a whole system for the sidekick but think it would be more expensive than the average suzuki guy would be willing to spend. i really like the strut front end because of its simplicity and good geometry traits(especially compared to my i beam ranger). i know the bilsteins are pretty expensive and a set of struts that would last and be rebuildable would pay for themselves  in the long run. the easily adjustable damping would also be very valuable for a racer.

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Offline Drone637

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Re: Long travel
« Reply #14 on: July 12, 2010, 01:47:44 PM »
Bilstein can rebuild the struts if you send them in, and looking at the design of the struts you might be able to convert them to a remote reservoir system.  That would be an interesting project.  :)

The only issue with struts is how to increase the travel without requiring a new mounting point.
96 Geo Tracker, x-SJ-410,  x-White Rabbit, x-Project Trouble
Crawlers NorthWest
x-Trouble Racing