Which trailing arms?

[Wulfthang]

Which trailing arms does everybody here prefer? My car is a rail type used for street, running Arroyos and old mining trails. The rear trailing arms are currently stock length and width but boxed. I'm going to replace them, probably with a 3+3 set.

My current choices are another boxed set or the skeleton frame type like from Latest Rage. Both are bolt in bearing housings. Which would you choose? Which is stronger? Thanks

[Wulfthang]

I was looking at these from Latest Rage.
https://www.appletreeauto.com/VW-SUSPENSION/TRAILI...in-bearing
Why are they over a hundred dollars cheaper than the others? Could it have something to do with these weighing eighteen pounds less?

[Wulfthang]

Wow! Everybody must be running stock rear trailing arms.

[66 Shorty]

I bought boxed trailing arms from buggybarn fabrication. Look him up on Facebook. He can give your insight on which ones you what for what you're doing.

[Wulfthang]

[BFB]

[Wulfthang]

[woodsbuggy]

What are you wanting to achieve by running longer rear arms and what CV joints are you using?
I run 5x5 rear arms with a microstub bearing with 930 CV joints and airbags, very nice ride and easily adjustable. With that said, my setup is built for off road riding, hills, trails and very little street time(only in West Virginia getting to trails).
If I were going to change from stock arms it would be a minimum of 3x3 and it would be for at least one of 4 reasons.
1 To run taller tires
2 To improve departure angle
3 To improve stability
4 To increase rear travel
Good Luck
Please let us know what you decide to do.
Kenric
_________________
The empty can rattles the most!

[Wulfthang]

I have to replace the stock length rear arms because one is bad. I was looking at 3x3's because I set my rear torsion's a little to stiff and was thinking/hoping that the added length would bring it down some. It's topped out now.

Now I've decided to go with the one inch over length. I've been told that my stock length axles would work with that. True or false?

My CV's are the 100mm type. I still have all of my old porting and polishing tools from when I built motorcycle engines so I "race prepped" polished them. I've had major problems with the left rear wheel bearings but the CV's have never clicked or chirped.

It's already pretty stable both on and off road. I've run it down the Interstate at 100 mph + and it ran straight and smooth although it did start to feel like to was starting to float on the floor pan. It's responsive on trails and Arroyo bottoms but does need room to turn because the front end is nine inches over width. I wonder how much worse it would be with a longer/wider rear end? Any ideas? Thanks

[BFB]

yes it should take more room to turn as you increased the wheel base length.
the only reason(s) I might have come across negative about the 3x3's is because ive seen a lot of ppl get them and seem to think they are simple swap and you instantly get 6 more inches of travel. but they want to run them on torsion bars ( which sucks and is a pain in the ass ) or they want to run type 2 cv's which limit travel greatly ( even race prepped ) . so if your not going to set them up properly to take advantage of their capabilities then why even use them, it'd be better to go with a shorter arm, be a lot less work for the same result.
and what kind of from beam do you run, how much travel does it have? not a lot of point to having 13" of travel in the rear and 6 upfront.
years a go I built an A arm sett up on a swing axle buggy, it was pointless to have 16" of travel up front and 6 in the rear but I mainly did it to see if I could and that happened to be the buggy I had at the time.

id say do the 3x3's, just do them right
_________________
Forced induction can overcome a lot of obsticles that gets in it's way
"You are the Engineer and the Mechanic.  
Build it your way not the way someone else does it. Their way might not work for you." - clonebug
An interesting thing happens in forums where everyone starts parroting the same thing and "common knowledge" takes over.
“ The monkey see monkey do mentality seems to run deep in VW people. "Gene Berg said it was so 30 years ago so thats the way it is" “ - bdkw1

[Wulfthang]

[BFB]

I dont know about +1 arms and axles needed, sorry.
I wonder how much travel you could get with stock length arms that were mini stubs ??
_________________
Forced induction can overcome a lot of obsticles that gets in it's way
"You are the Engineer and the Mechanic.  
Build it your way not the way someone else does it. Their way might not work for you." - clonebug
An interesting thing happens in forums where everyone starts parroting the same thing and "common knowledge" takes over.
“ The monkey see monkey do mentality seems to run deep in VW people. "Gene Berg said it was so 30 years ago so thats the way it is" “ - bdkw1

[woodsbuggy]

I am sure that micro stubs would be able to handle more travel, but converting to 930 cv joints(haven't seen seen micro stub for anything but 930 or 934) and custom length axles and the cost of the trailing arms seems very expensive for the small gain. I think replacing the bad trailing arm and adjusting the rear torsion would be the most cost effective solution unless you need more suspension travel.
Kenric
_________________
The empty can rattles the most!

[Wulfthang]

[jimmyhoffa]

Post up some pics when you get them, I'm shopping for the same thing now and I'm prowling the market for design/quality that I like.
_________________
1974 Chenowth 2RL #1244 Street Legal
My other car isn't ridiculous.

[BFB]

About 3 years ago i had planned to make a jig to build some different length / width arms as it was seeming that the selections were getting slimmer but unfortunately real work has been taking up too much of my time…

And yeh, micro stubs, not mini, thanks for knowing what i meant.
_________________
Forced induction can overcome a lot of obsticles that gets in it's way
"You are the Engineer and the Mechanic.  
Build it your way not the way someone else does it. Their way might not work for you." - clonebug
An interesting thing happens in forums where everyone starts parroting the same thing and "common knowledge" takes over.
“ The monkey see monkey do mentality seems to run deep in VW people. "Gene Berg said it was so 30 years ago so thats the way it is" “ - bdkw1