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Multi69s Samba Member
Joined: January 24, 2006 Posts: 5360 Location: Lefty, CA
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I Ride Sand Samba Member
Joined: June 07, 2012 Posts: 567 Location: utah
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Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 5:01 pm Post subject: Re: Ground clearence when bottomed out. |
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this gets fuzzy really fast. it depends on how much travel, what bump stops, terrain expected, spring rates.... it really involves a lot of different things. in my fairly smooth non-rocky area i feel pretty good with 3" on a lighter car, with lots of travel, and a good hydraulic bumps. the likely time to fully compress the suspension in that case is a jump, and a hard landing after. otherwise it will be only one wheel at a time hitting an obstacle. on a stockish beetle i would want 5-6, as you can cycle the full suspension through whoops and small jumps fairly readily.
of course, this all changes as soon as the terrain changes, or the suspension setup changes, yadda yadda yadda. basically, set that thing up so it has as much up travel as possible, then limit it before it starts to rub or bind. keep the center of gravity as low as possible, and aim for about 40% droop. I.E. if you have 10 inches of travel, you will have 6 up and 4 down at ride height.
this is all my personal opinion, from my experience. your mileage may vary. _________________ Just a dirty coyote playing in the desert.
now where'd that dirty badger run off to? |
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Multi69s Samba Member
Joined: January 24, 2006 Posts: 5360 Location: Lefty, CA
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Mal evolent Samba Member
Joined: March 31, 2009 Posts: 2912 Location: San Antonio, Nuevo Mexico
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Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:10 pm Post subject: Re: Ground clearence when bottomed out. |
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it obviously depends on the size of the rocks. here in central NM that would be "softball" _________________ 73 Beetle Baja, Ghia front brakes, Type 3 rear brakes, 2220 ( 94 X 80 ), Weber Progressive, Bosch SVDA, '97 Mustang seats
Baja Bugs for Volkswagen Virgins: Index |
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Cul-tech Samba Member
Joined: December 22, 2015 Posts: 49 Location: Colorado
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Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:08 pm Post subject: Re: Ground clearence when bottomed out. |
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I'm building mine so when it sits on the bumpstops there is 3" of ground clearance. _________________ I'm just trying to recreate my RC buggy's as a kid to a real life buggy. |
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Multi69s Samba Member
Joined: January 24, 2006 Posts: 5360 Location: Lefty, CA
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1fastbigguy Samba Member
Joined: June 06, 2012 Posts: 310 Location: Ojai, CA
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Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:20 pm Post subject: Re:round clearence when bottomed out. |
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Our car sites at about 4" in front
And about 3" in the rear.
The ride height is 16" under the transaxle skid plate.
Once you factor rocks, whoops and deep ruts... Well let's just say your skid plate won't stay shiny and smooth for to long _________________ Cheers!
59 Ragtop
61 Ragtop Baja
69 Squareback
@Dustydrone
#Ohibaja
Our Build
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=545394 |
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dustymojave Samba Member
Joined: January 07, 2007 Posts: 5802 Location: Lake LA, Mojave Desert, SoCal
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Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 9:05 pm Post subject: Re: Ground clearence when bottomed out. |
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Back in the 1980s, a customer brought me his brand new (1 race on it) Raceco 2 seat 1600 race buggy. I did the prep on it for a couple of years.
This picture shows the car in Mexico near Diablo Dry Lake:
I'm in the right seat and Jeff Hibbard (Baja Bugs & Buggies author) driving.
When the car came to me, it had 16" of rear wheel travel at the tire. Many have told me that is more than is possible with 930 CVs and 0 x 1 arms. They're sort of right. Because at full bump, the bottom of the Yokohama Super Digger 3 tires were 3" above the bottom of the belly pan of the car. Every race the bottom of the car was badly torn up and bottom outs were VERY HARSH. So I added to the bump stops so the tire was flush with the belly of the car at full bump. WAAAYYY better afterward with 3" less travel. It banged the bumps more often, but banged the belly on the ground WAYY less often.
With micro stub hubs allowed by the rules these days and 930 CVs, you can get 16" of travel without getting the tires above the belly.
Most Trophy trucks are built so they lay flat on the ground at full bump.
It's pretty rare that you bottom all 4 corners of a car at the same time. So bottoming one corner is not usually a serious threat to the bottom of the car, even if that brings the belly of the car to the ground at that corner. _________________ Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet. |
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Multi69s Samba Member
Joined: January 24, 2006 Posts: 5360 Location: Lefty, CA
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