Best suspension theory book?

[tarmacblack]

I'm in the middle of completely redesigning the suspension on my sand car, going from 5-link to trailing arm rear, and i'm moving the A-arms from outside frame mount to single spar style mount on the front side.

I understand bump-steer, king-pin inlination, caster, camber and ackerman well enough to fight my way through it, but I'd like to learn the theory behind unequal length A-arms and how to achieve the correct arc before I draw up the design.

Can anyone recomend a good theory book?

Or just as good recomend a website/page that will help me understand how to design the suspension from scratch?

thanks guys-

Rob

[fabr]

there's so many books and so many theories it'd take a year to digest it all! LOL!!The basic theory behind unequal length a arms as I understand it is that they allow camber gain as the suspension compresses. Gaining camber helps to allow the track width change without scrubbing the tire as the suspension compresses. The actual geometry can be varied to induce anti-dive and other things also.

[tarmacblack]

Thanks fabr, I guess I'll try drawing it up in some 3-D modeling software and check the arc/measure the amount of negative camber induced by the a-arm.

Are there any general guidelines to shoot for when designing a front end for a car that will mostly see sand?  What is too much camber, and what is too little?

I'm expecting the car to weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 900lbs and i'd like to achieve 18" of travel front/rear. 

This book was recomended to someone else on another site, anyone read it? http://www.amazon.com/Tune-Win-Carroll-Smith/dp/0879380713

[Admin]

caroll smith is Yoshis favorite book...Id suspect in any condition 5 degrees would be optimal IMO.... The key is to have negative camber above and below ride height tho...Dont ask me how, But people like bajatex and flyryder sure do figure it out...

[tarmacblack]

well, that gives me something to shoot for!   

We'll see how close I can get.  I'll be cutting the chassis apart tomorrow, I'll post up some pictures so I can get some pointers as to what i'm doing wrong! 

I'm a little nervous to post it on that other site..... lol

[fabr]

I'd agree with bug.You want to gain camber with droop and don't forget caster or kingpin inclination (steering axis inclination)either. Most agree that about 5* camber gain is good I think. Some people want a little camber at ride height and some think 0 is best.Myself I think for what I do 1-2* static is good.

[SPEC]

I'm with fabr,and bug...
A book that I found to be pretty helpfull was herb adams...He's of the soft suspension and stiff sway bar thinking, road race cars
IMO... I'm a caster and rake junky cuz I run 21'' tires in the summer and 19'' studded tires in the winter, in my opinion/experiences, some rake helps to take some of the jolts out of the steering while traversing rouph or rocky terrain, plus it helps to smooth out the rouph cuz the suspension moves rearward and up ward at the same time lessening the jolt

[lee1969GB]

[Admin]

wich setup? bajatex posted a cad video or some one did a yr or 2 ago and showed there suspension cycling and gaining camber in both directions of ride height....

[borris]

AS far as rake is concerned I'm of the opinion that the smaller the tires the more rake is needed and if running TALL fronts the less you need rake.As with all things buggy related it's a tightrope walk deciding what to do.