Trailing arm - 1/4 elliptical spring question.

[goose-em]

Very unique and just plain sick if you ask me.

Love the idea, now you have me thinking, something different than yours but similar in execution.

Way cool can't say it enough!

 

[boaski]

Now I'm trying to get my mind around how I want to layout the rear end. The double frame is pretty rotten on the inner rails so I'm going to bob the frame right behind the cab. I might make a set of frame rail extensions similar in design to my front trailing arms. Since I've got access to equipment that most people aren't fortunate enough to have available I'm able to do some stuff that would be hard to do without them. I know CAD designed parts cut out on a waterjet cutter is out of the norm for Rat Rod stuff, I just use it to cover for my lack of talent.

One of the things I want to eventually do with this truck is to haul our Horseless Carriage project to meets as well as pull a matching trailer of some sort.

Just another one of our projects that has been years in the making.

 

[DirtRatsSpeedShop]

ok man i gotta say that is some beautiful work i have worked at several shops and i have only used a laser which is cool but not nearly as clean as a waterjet the parts simly look amazing! do you work at a fab shop or are you just blessed with $$$? well it sure beats torch and grinder haha

 

[boaski]

ok man i gotta say that is some beautiful work i have worked at several shops and i have only used a laser which is cool but not nearly as clean as a waterjet the parts simly look amazing! do you work at a fab shop or are you just blessed with $$$? well it sure beats torch and grinder haha

Thanks for the compliment. I have to say it's great to have an idea in your head and turn it into something real. It's even better when it actually works.

We have a machine shop. My dad started it as a tool & die shop back in the early 70's. In the 90's the shop changed to mostly building and producing our own line of specialty tools. I left the family business for about 16 years and returned in 2002. We bought the waterjet cutter in 2005 to help make some of the tools we were developing. You can see some of our line of tools at www.retterer.com .

I'm blessed with many things, "$$$" doesn't happen to be one of them. As most of you that are involved with a small business know, the statement you hear on TV; "have more money and more free time" doesn't seem to apply in real life. On the other hand it's great to have a machine shop available to build things when I want to. I also enjoy (for the most part) what I do for a living.

 

[jcart]

I really like the looks of your arms, and the design has me thinking as well.Am I missing something tho ?With the arms bolted to the axle, then pinned thru the old spring hanger at the rear, there is good up and down movement for the axle "evenly" but I can't see where it will "twist" enough if just one wheel goes over a bump or into a hole.I'm thinking that will put a lot of stress on your arms. I wonder if you shouldn't have something like a rod end on the back of your trailing arm? Also like your horseless carriage project.Are those bicycle tires, or buggy tires? I have a stationary engine that would work good on a project like that as well. Haven't seen a Boaski for years.They were Hirth or Sachs engines? Jim.

 

[bob w]

You no doubt already know this, but I'll bring it up anyway. It would be especially cool if you could use many of the design elements you used in front also in the rear. It will integrate the appearance of the whole build. Your rod has the potential to be "frequently photographed". My other suggestion is to quit spending so much time on your job and put more time in the project. The waiting is killing me.

 

[boaski]

I really like the looks of your arms, and the design has me thinking as well.Am I missing something tho ?With the arms bolted to the axle, then pinned thru the old spring hanger at the rear, there is good up and down movement for the axle "evenly" but I can't see where it will "twist" enough if just one wheel goes over a bump or into a hole.I'm thinking that will put a lot of stress on your arms. I wonder if you shouldn't have something like a rod end on the back of your trailing arm? Also like your horseless carriage project.Are those bicycle tires, or buggy tires? I have a stationary engine that would work good on a project like that as well. Haven't seen a Boaski for years.They were Hirth or Sachs engines? Jim.

I've been thinking about the whole "pivoting / binding" thing on the front end. I'll probably bore out the holes in the rear of the front trailing arms and use some polyurethane bushings. I'll look at ways of allowing the rear suspension to pivot a little easier. I really don't want to bust the mounting brackets that attach the trailing arms to the frame.

The horseless carriage has cart wheels that came from Northern Tool. I just took them apart, sandblasted them and painted them satin black. That started out as a set of plans from Jimmy Woods. It's supposed to have a little lawn mower engine in it, but you know how that goes. The engine that's in it now is a 1923 ARCO (made by Hercules) 2 hp. Every time the engine fired it flexed the frame and made the front end bounce. So we started making gussets and stuff. Our goal was to make it look like something someone made back in the 30's and then left it sit in the barn. We're to the point that we can fire it up and ride up the road, so we hate to tear it back down to do little things to it.

Boa Ski snowmobiles came with Hirth, JLO and Kohler engines, depending on the year and model. I like them because that was the first sled we had back in 1974.

If I can figure out a way to do it I'll post some of the ideas I've drawn up in CAD for the rear suspension. I can get it to print out as a .pdf but I can't get photobucket to take the file.