Ok, so I need to replace my front beam and I have a bunch of questions and not much knowledge. My intended use will be trail riding, most likely at a pretty good pace, and probably quite frequently over mountainous Michigan whoops. I am not rich by any means, but at this point budget is practically a non-consideration. I just sold my Jeep for a decent pile of cash. I have no loans besides my house, it's a dump with a small payment, and no I have no intention of doing the "smart" thing and putting the money into my house instead, thank you.
It's a link pin. I intend to replace it spindle to spindle + steering linkage/tie rods.
1. Width? I learned in RallyX that having a track width wider in the front than the rear was conducive to creating that glorious over-steer that we all love so much. Having looked around at a number of them it seems like most woods buggies keep a narrow track to fit down the narrow trails? So how the hell does everyone make these things steer right? Is that why turning brakes are so popular? I know mine doesn't steer for crap right now. My intuition is telling me it's mostly because it's way too light in the front. The front tires just aren't grabbing. I'm planning to move the battery up front and contemplating a custom fuel tank of some sort centered in the footwell area between driver and passenger to help weight balance. Call me stupid, but I'm planning to put an ATV winch on the front for solo excursions too. What have you done to make your buggy steer that worked?
2. If I go wider, am I better off to gain width at the beam or the trailing arms?
3. Torsion vs Coil over vs Air? My girlfriend has back issues, so the more plush it is the more she will enjoy it and the more she will go with me. Being new to this I hear a range of opinions of what is the "best", but I don't have the experience to have seen them in action personally, and unfortunately the beam needs to be replaced now not later. Torsion seems to be the most popular, but it's probably the most economical too, so that makes sense. I don't know much about air. I know in Jeeps it was a popular and economical (in comparison to coil over) option, but that's a whole different world from buggies. No offence to the air guys, but my luck with anything air has been poor, so I'm kind of biased against it. I am kind of pre-disposed to the coil over option. Dual rate springs make a lot of sense to me considering my girlfriend's back. I know from experience that a decent set of coil-overs work awesome on a RZR too. Essentially I guess the question boiled down would be how well can a person make torsion perform in comparison to coil overs? Are coil-overs worth the extra expense in your opinion?
4. How much travel do I want? My suspicion is that I will want about 10 inches of travel in the front? I know a buggy is a different thing and the whole discussion is subjective, but for quads, snowmobiles, and rzr's that seems to be about the point where things smooth out for hard driving. Anything less and you get beat to death. Currently I have stock width/length rear trailing arms with a beef kit and a pair of old remote reservoir fox shocks doing the dampening on each side. Not sure what kind of travel I have back there. Also not sure where I'll end up with the rear suspension in the future. I suspect it will work decent enough for me to leave it alone for this year at least. That being said, I might have a bus trans cluttering my shed shortly and an ecotec isn't out of the question in the future. Frankly they'll really be sounding good soon if the carb doesn't stop pissing me off. If it weren't for that awesome sounding exhaust I'd probably already have made the call to Alphafab. Regardless, balancing the front and current rear suspension is a consideration for now.
So, if any of you want to enlighten me with your thoughts and experiences I would highly appreciate it.
Thanks!
