Front beam caster

[jeepsterryan]

I bought a beetle with a 6" wider front end. It has the following components:

Beam - latest rage 6" wider for 10" coil over shocks
Spindle - Tweeds 3" raised - http://tiddesigns.com/shop/as-h-as-b-3-inch-drop-spindle/
Arms - Tweeds 2 1/4 longer 1" wider arms - http://tiddesigns.com/shop/as-335-for-coil-over-shocks/

As far as I can tell there is no caster built into the beam, spindles, or trailing arms. I called TDI directly to find out, but it just goes to VM and no one returned my message. So, that leaves me with three questions:

1. Where was the caster built into the stock beetle? Is it in the frame horn, the beam, or somewhere else?

2. When caging out the front end, do I need to build my desired caster angle into the design?

3. If the car is going to see mostly street driving and the occasional trip off-road does 8* of caster seem adequate? From what I've read in other threads, that seems right.

[TDCTDI]

The caster angle is built into the frame head/ mounting point for the beam. If you plan on using the stock frame head, you can use caster shims between the lower tube & frame head But you will probably end up having to build a new tube frame due to the inability of the stock steering configuration causing interference with the passenger side tierod.
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[dustymojave]

Stock caster is around 6-8°. That's also what I use for most beam suspended buggies and Bajas. With factory beam tube spacing, the actual caster angle at the wheel varies substantially as the suspension cycles up and down due to the difference in space at the spindle pivots (link pins or ball joints, as the case may be) compared to the space between beam tube centers.

You can measure your caster by putting a straight edge vertical on the front face of the beam tubes, then putting an angle finder on that straight edge.

As said above, that caster is set in the angle the beam mounts to the frame head. If you are adding roll cage structure to support the beam, or if the pan head is cut off, then the caster angle needs to be set when building the new beam mounts.

A wheel alignment shop may well see a different caster angle than what the beam is set at, because they measure it at the wheel. That's the correct way to measure caster, but since it's variable through wheel travel, ride height can change caster at the wheel a lot. So to keep it simple, just go with 6-8° at the beam. There are those who like far more, over 10°, but that's not real good for a car used on the highway. With stock beam spacing, whether it's link pin spacing or ball joint, that 6-8° at the beam will serve well.
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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.

[jeepsterryan]

You are awesome! This is exactly what I was trying to clarify. Thanks. I feel like reading through other threads sometimes just makes things more confusing than they need to be.

[dustymojave]

[earthquake]

You want to see some Castor on a VW beam check out this one...

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2163502

Casey
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[SamT]

[dustymojave]

Might have been converted from ball joint to link pin to get that sort of caster from bending the upper frame rail to fit.

Tip: To type the degree symbol °, press and hold "Alt" while typing "0176". When you release the "Alt", the little circle will appear.
_________________
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.

[nevadaTType]

Hi Richard,

Any thoughts on whether building/buying a 'parallelogram' link pin beam to keep caster equal as the suspension cycles is worth the effort ?

We need to replace the bent Warrior beam on our NORRA Glitter Bug and I'm thinking hard about building a parallelogram beam for the car since the extra work involved is minimal while I'm there, LOL.

As always, thanks for your advice.

Matt Wright

[dustymojave]

Matt, You must be the neighbor of Skidmark who he's being exploring with up there in Minden.

I too have a Glitterbug. Mine is a Sportsman" pickup style. I have plans for a full cage structure bumper to bumper. Kind of like a 5-1600 chassis.

What is your beam mount setup like? Is it a ball joint pan? A link pin pan? Is the beam mounted or to be mounted to the cage structure? The answers to these questions will determine whether it makes sense to build a parallelogram beam.

I like the concept. It reduces or even eliminates caster change through the suspension travel. I don't know of any negative aspects to it. I suspect that VW used that caster change through travel of stock beams, whether link pin or ball joint, to reduce effects to steering effort when a bump is encountered.
_________________
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.