ZeroClient wrote:
scpilot66,
I measured axle angles tonight. With the current 31" Fox shocks at full extension, my axle is only angled as follows:
1. With a protractor directly on the middle of axle: 22.8 degrees
2. Add to that, the 1/4" camber angle of the tire (Which bends the outer CV up a slight ammount: 0.67 degrees
TOTAL axle angle with 31" shock is only 23.47 degrees.
Adding 1/2" of suspension travel making the shock 31.5":
1. With a protractor directly on the middle of axle: 24.8 degrees
2. Plus 0.67 degrees in camber: 25.47 degrees with 31.5" shock
Now, with adding 1" of suspension travel making the shock 32":
1. With a protractor directly on the middle of axle: 26.7 degrees
2. Plus 0.67 degrees in camber: 27.37 degrees with 32" shock
So, if you are saying that at about ~27 degrees I run the risk of bind; I should be fine then with a 31.5" shock at <26 degree axle angle.
Hello Eric, sorry for the slow reply, to much going on right now.
With my Pilot, it is setup to specifically race the roughest courses, the only way I can compete against the new machines is to out suspension them and so far that is just what she does. The new machines advance so much every year I know the time will come when they will beat me, they already kill me on power and top speed.
My suspension is so soft you would not think it works but it does, it is not the best for jumps because it is so soft but for everything else I use it for it amazes me what I can do with her. Even at full top speed across rough terrain she is as stable as a Pilot can be, I get her going fast enough to hear my tires whining over the
Engine with my helmet on, bit scary sometimes to be honest but she takes good care of me.
I run 25x12x10 tires in the rear, for more ground clearance but mainly for more top speed. It does not bottom out the frame with 24x11's or the 24x12's (my shocks bottom), I run 7psi in the rear tires and 6psi in the front, on some courses I may run a little more pressure but that is my main #'s.
I do routinely smash up my front skid, belly pan and rear skid, especially the rear skid plate mounting bolts, not because it bottoms out but because of the terrain I race on, rocks and such, my front skid also gets it really bad because I use my front bumper as part of my suspension or rather my savoir, when I am hitting the big whoops it works as a ramp to pull me over the stuff I hit going to fast.
I use 100% of my suspension, she has a true 12 inches in the rear and 13 5/8 in the front.
This is just my 2 cents and I am sure not what you want to hear but this is what I would do,
I will get my notes out and get you some better #'s this weekend
I think you need to get those axles down to 27*, I use a digital angle gauge. The big thing you need to do for all of this is to level the pilot and lock it down in place leveled, no movement. At 27* the shock should bottom before the frame. With those shocks you should get 12 inches with them straight up and down, at some point I plan to change the angle of my rear shocks, side to side and front to rear, I think you can get 13 + with the 12 inch shock, the big problem there is for one the battery box and ground clearance, I have not jumped on that road yet but hope to some day.
Next is getting the axles happy through there travel range, play with where things are at, turning it by hand you will find where the axle cv's like to be and where they give you the most travel without bind, the outer cv is where the cv bind itself will come from but you also have to pull the inner cv boots off, clean out all the grease and check and adjust plunge, the more travel you get the further out you need the plunge to be, with 12 inches of travel if you run the plunge deep in the cv cup the axle shaft itself will hit the outer edge of the cv cup, my rear upper arms are not as good as they need to be so I can not pull my plunge out as far as I would like to, for that reason I had to cut down the inner cv cup, the outer edge on the inside, I tapered it all the way back to the large outer retainer ring, I left enough metal for the retainer ring to be solid in place but also cut out as much as I could. I was able to get a new pair of 4x4 tuff axles which I have wanted for ever but I can not run them yet because they will hit the inner cup, my axles now are right there, I had to pull them back apart and cut even more metal out at one point because they were hitting/marking the axle shaft.
All of this while keeping tow, camber and BALL JOINT BIND in check, with the narrow rear and that much travel you get some serious camber changes.
Another thing I would check is the straightness of your axles, everything back there is going through enough, an axle that is out of straight even a little will wear things out over time.
I have run my Pilot as hard as you can run one, I have not worn out any front or rear ball joints, they are all tight. I do have 2 rear high quality heims that I have worn out and one bent rear lower arm, I was surprised on the 2 heims, one on each side.
The handling of her I think is as good as it gets.
Here are a few pics. (hope you don't mind), you can see in the pics. how compressed my right rear is.