Rear Coilovers?

[Paul66]

I have a swing axle trike and was wondering just what is involved in do it yourself way, ingetting rid of the torsion bars and going over to coilover shocks like the ones I have seen on light weight swing axle buggies.

[Multi69s]

If you want it to ride right, custom shocks and big $$s. What you see in the catalogs are absolute crap.
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[Vanapplebomb]

Yeah, coil over that replace torsion bars are about $300 a pop, not cheap.

What is wrong with your torsion bars? There are plenty of good used stock bars for cheap that you can replace your bad torsion bars with.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[Paul66]

Cheers for the info chap's. Although I was hoping for a bit more detail.
How do you work out the springs you need in the coil over for example? What do you need to do regarding the spring plates...etc.

There's nothing wrong with my torsion bars that I know of, but I was curious about it and you never know I might want to change to coil overs at some point simply because.

[superpro56]

As far as spring plates go, there are eliminator kits out there that can be installed in place of the traditional torsion bar and spring plate.

https://dunebuggywarehouse.com/rear-torsion-spring-eliminator-kit-for-long-travel-or-air-ride.html

The determination of spring rate is a lot more complicated, here a good article on the math behind it. Basically you need to consider the weight of the wheels you intend to suspend with coil overs, the angle the coilover will be mounted and distances between pivot points.

https://www.qa1.net/technical-support/street-performance-racing-spring-rate-tech

[Dale M.]

Another thing to consider, the shock absorber towers were not designed to be suspension (coil-over) anchor points, they probably would survive on something light like a trike but I would seriously consider beefing them up.... Adding something like kafer bar to make the towers more rigid and would probably help...

Dale
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[B Ramsey]

[Paul66]

[Vanapplebomb]

Just realize that after you spend big bucks on coil overs, at the end of the day you still have a swing axle. You can throw as much money at it as you want to, but it is still only going to be as good as it’s weakest link. I say spend your money elsewhere on something that will make your ride better.
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1800 Type 4 Berrien 295

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487021

[veeweeman]

The best handling trike will be IRS not a swing axle. ..if it were me, I'd do a IRS conversion and you will also get the better 3.88 gears. ..and the cheapest, smoothest ride will come from a set of air bags...this will eliminate your bars and give you a Cadillac ride. ..those torsion bars are designed to support a lot more weight.
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