Hello Pro-Touring.com!

[BallisticFab]

We wanted to quickly introduce ourselves and hopefully become a contributing part of this website. We are Ballistic Fabrication and some of our customers mentioned that we should join the forum, so we did! Ballistic Fabrication has been manufacturing builder parts for off-road vehicles since 2005. Although our core area of expertise is in 4x4s we've got a couple of guys out here who build cars to go around corners. We're hoping to learn more about the pro-touring market and at the same time try to share our experience in fabrication and setting up link type suspensions with all of you.

We're looking forward to becoming a part of the website and we hope that we can share as much with you as we are able to learn from all of you!

[rustomatic]

I've been thinking for a while that much could be taken from the desert-racing world of suspension technology and applied to the road-going car. Specifically, the idea of decent suspension travel seems to elude many of us, but it (the lack of travel) is of course an easy way to avoid surprises in a turn. So here's the thing: How do you construct a suspension with decent travel while maintaining the ability to get around a turn quickly (without sliding the rear)?

What's with the super-long front control arms in offroad trucks?

[T_Raven]

Welcome. I've browsed your site a few times when looking at suspension parts.

[BallisticFab]

I've been thinking for a while that much could be taken from the desert-racing world of suspension technology and applied to the road-going car. Specifically, the idea of decent suspension travel seems to elude many of us, but it (the lack of travel) is of course an easy way to avoid surprises in a turn. So here's the thing: How do you construct a suspension with decent travel while maintaining the ability to get around a turn quickly (without sliding the rear)?

What's with the super-long front control arms in offroad trucks?


That's a great question, rustomatic!

In a nutshell, there is no really easy way to get the best of both worlds without some compromises. As you add travel the rear end is going to want to step out. Properly valving your shocks and setting up spring rates will help quite a bit, but in the end the added travel will result in chassis roll and unwanted suspension travel during high speed corners. High speed off road trucks are designed with suspension travel in mind and less for control of body roll or cornering. The common way of eliminating body roll is to add anti sway bars but the stiffness of the suspension compromises the additional suspension travel. The best example of a car with suspension travel that can still turn around corners is a rally car. While the rear end does step out, it is much less pronounced when compared to a trophy truck or high speed desert truck. We believe that in order to achieve maximum travel and handling out of a vehicle the suspension needs to be set up in a way in which it is properly sprung and the strut/coilover is properly valved. (We are consciously ignoring the choice of tires being used on the car) Also, the angle at which the suspension is installed will have a tremendous effect on the overall stability of the vehicle.

The other unwanted effect of wheel travel is how the suspension transitions in corners. If you hit a bump, or a big transition, at the track you will unload the suspension. If that event is followed by a hard turn you will then immediately compress the suspension so if you have a total of 6 inches of suspension travel the shaft has to move the full six inches which takes time and the energy of that movement has to go somewhere, so fluid cooling can become an issue.

Hopefully this sheds some light on suspension travel and setup. We are by no means the experts, but we have set up quite a few off road suspensions.

In regards to the length of the arms on the trucks, it’s for the amount of travel that is required. The front suspension of some of these trucks will move as much as 24 inches top to bottom. Since the shocks can't readily be made this long they are installed at extreme angles allows for multiplication of movement from the shaft itself to the wheel.

[BallisticFab]

Welcome. I've browsed your site a few times when looking at suspension parts.

That's great! Hopefully you were able to find what you were looking for. If not, please let us know what parts you would like to see us have available and we can try to build those.

Thanks, again!

[rustomatic]

Thanks for the excellent response--when it comes to design and application of suspension, I'm always looking for something that might have been overlooked. While longer lever arms do allow for operation with greater suspension travel, as you've pointed out, many of the suspension setups on pro-touring-type cars have quite short arms, especially in the rear, unless a torque arm is used; it seems that in many cases, if the option is given, longer trailing arms and lower control arms might be used. While this short lever arm presence is of course a product of both marketing and available space in non-modified installation locations, it is interesting to consider what other suspension designs are getting from longer arms (like desert racers and NASCAR truck arm setups). Thanks for the education!


That's a great question, rustomatic!

In a nutshell, there is no really easy way to get the best of both worlds without some compromises. As you add travel the rear end is going to want to step out. Properly valving your shocks and setting up spring rates will help quite a bit, but in the end the added travel will result in chassis roll and unwanted suspension travel during high speed corners. High speed off road trucks are designed with suspension travel in mind and less for control of body roll or cornering. The common way of eliminating body roll is to add anti sway bars but the stiffness of the suspension compromises the additional suspension travel. The best example of a car with suspension travel that can still turn around corners is a rally car. While the rear end does step out, it is much less pronounced when compared to a trophy truck or high speed desert truck. We believe that in order to achieve maximum travel and handling out of a vehicle the suspension needs to be set up in a way in which it is properly sprung and the strut/coilover is properly valved. (We are consciously ignoring the choice of tires being used on the car) Also, the angle at which the suspension is installed will have a tremendous effect on the overall stability of the vehicle.

The other unwanted effect of wheel travel is how the suspension transitions in corners. If you hit a bump, or a big transition, at the track you will unload the suspension. If that event is followed by a hard turn you will then immediately compress the suspension so if you have a total of 6 inches of suspension travel the shaft has to move the full six inches which takes time and the energy of that movement has to go somewhere, so fluid cooling can become an issue.

Hopefully this sheds some light on suspension travel and setup. We are by no means the experts, but we have set up quite a few off road suspensions.

In regards to the length of the arms on the trucks, it’s for the amount of travel that is required. The front suspension of some of these trucks will move as much as 24 inches top to bottom. Since the shocks can readily be made this long they are installed at extreme angles allows for multiplication of movement from the shaft itself to the wheel.

[Rod]

welcome

[SSLance]

Have seen Ballistic Fabrication parts used on Xtreme 4x4 for years, always look like very well designed and well built parts.

Welcome to the Pro-touring side of customization.

[BallisticFab]

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys! We're hoping to become a resource to the on-road builders in the coming months. If you guys have ideas or advice on things we can do to help the enthusiasts please let us know!