Gentlemen and Ladies (hopefully this isn’t an all-male preserve) I would like to solicit a little basic help, please.
I am designing a ‘reverse-trike’ (which I hope won’t be frowned upon by you 4w guys) and hope to start building this summer - I am currently trying to source some basic items which seem to be in very poor supply in my neck of the jungle... Uprights, especially...!
I enclose two graphics of my vehicle which I hope will clarify my immediate concern.
Attachment:
mangpong-a.jpg
‘mangpong-a’ shows the basic layout, and ‘mangpong-b’ shows the front suspension in more detail. Like most designs the chassis sides converge towards the front, and I have always intended to connect the ‘wishbones’/control arms in line with the chassis sides i.e. at an angle of 8º to the longitudinal axis of the car... This will give a sort of ‘leading’ feature to the wishbones...
Now... although there seems to be nothing fundamentally ‘wrong’ with this layout (perhaps a little harsher reaction to potholes...) I have recently come across a couple of comments online asserting that wishbone mounting brackets should be mounted parallel to the central axis - but I have never seen anybody explain, Why...?
As it is possible to have semi-trailing arms, which immediately contradicts this ‘theory’, maybe it is not completely impossible to have leading arms - especially as they are only at 8º.
I should add that I am hoping to build a car that is aesthetically smooth and smart. Thus I do not want to have any suspension brackets visible outside the bodywork - just the control arms (with the ball-joints hidden), the pushrod (with the suspension inboard and also hidden), and the steering arms.
If I have to have the wishbone connections parallel I will endeavour to position the rearward mounts further inside the bodywork - but this would (I think) create a little extra complication, structurally. It would also then require two little internal ‘bumps’ (covers), the upper, rearward, one of which would be level with my knee, and the other level with my ankle - and there isn’t too much space in this area as it is...
Attachment:
MangPong-b.jpg
So, simple question (but please make your answers as complex as you like): Is it really essential to have the mounting points parallel to the car’s central axis...? and if I don’t do this, what can I expect to go wrong...?
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Part 2: I would also appreciate some assistance in deciding the diameter of the wishbone struts. Again, for aesthetics, I would like to have these as small as possible. Each individual arm will be straight. Also, am I best to use solid bar and drill & tap to take the ball-joints, or use thick-wall tubing and tap that, or insert a threaded section. I imagine 1/2” OD would be too small but 1” would be too ugly, to my eye... The perpendicular arm length is about 11”, and the lower trailing arm is about 17”... Any comments would be appreciated.
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I will probably have other questions but, for the moment - That’s All Folks...
Mangpong.