Torque roll

[BIG WHEELER]

Would there be any benefit from fitting a transverse mounted shock absorber to my juggernaut crawler to stop the body rolling when climbing,i realise shocker would have to be mounted mid stroke to stop torque roll in either direction but will it affect traction or stability[?].I dont mind it rolling but would like to know your thoughts cheers[]

[Cul-Tech]

Well in my own experience there are generally three ways to combat body roll, or torque twist.

1. Sway bars, pretty cut and dry here, mount these BARS and they limit the SWAY.

2. Stiffer springs, basically it pushes the body up harder, this affects the ride of the entire truck however.

3. Angled Shocks, set up properly when the truck is level the shocks are anglen inward. Pushing down on the truck has minor resistance due to the angle of the shocks, however if the chassis leans to one side the shock begins to stand up pushing harder towards leveling out the chassis.[]

I have used all of these in the past, your idea sounds similar to #3, maybe try it on one axle first to see how it works. Remember the more gadgets you put on the truck the heavier it is going to get.

I have had luck in the past with setting up one axle on a crawler very soft so it could articulate all over and leaving the other firm to keep the body straight. I always make the rear softest.

I hope some of this jibberish helps.[]

[BIG WHEELER]

Thanks for that cul-tech it looks like im going to be goin down the shed to do a bit of experimenting i quite like the shocker idea[]

[mud4fun]

If you fancy a bit of re-engineering you could do as TWINSET did, check out his showroom and movie with regard to torque twist. He got both propshafts rotating in opposite directions.

I've found personally that by increasing the wheelbase (thus reducing the propshaft angles) also helps cut down the amount of torque twist. I had awful torque twist on my homebuilt crawler when running an 11" wheelbase but after extending it to 13.5" it was almost gone.

[BIG WHEELER]

Hmm already running a 13.5" wheelbase with quite a shallow propshaft angle,perhaps i need to fit sway bars but do these limit articulation and where do you mount i:e from middle of axle to inside of chassis legs or centre of chassis to outer vends of axles[?]

[Cul-Tech]

A sway bar will help but if it is a crawler mount only one, the other axle will still have lots of articulation. Mount the sway bar on the front axle. Look at a stock TXT sway bar setup, this seems to be the simpliest.

[DJTheo]

It all depends on the suspension geometry. You should have the propshafts as few angled as possible to the path of the suspension travel, this way the twisting torque is minimized. In common geometries this would mean that at a longer wheelbase would make things worse, as the propshaft would be close to perpendicular to the vertical suspension path, but on mud4funs unique setups maybe the arm geometry is different, or the long wheelbase felt "calmer" due to the higer weight and bigger wheelbase.

Cheers