Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

Long travel IFS

Trailblazer and Envoy related, but not off-road related...

by Trail X » Tue Jun 23, 2015 8:05 am

Are you mounting the shock to the rear or to the front of the CV shaft?
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by v7guy » Tue Jun 23, 2015 8:27 am

It falls to the rear of the CV shaft just behind the boot.
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by v7guy » Mon Nov 02, 2015 2:19 am

I've been through a few issues with packaging when getting down to the .25 inch here and there. Found some time to work on the lower A arms. Shock mounts inside the arm, all the complicated shapes are to accommodate the lower spring mount.

IMG_20151029_173146278_HDR.jpg


IMG_20151031_170954997_HDR.jpg


IMG_20151031_190404569_HDR.jpg


IMG_20151101_175804474_HDR.jpg


IMG_20151101_221239867_HDR.jpg
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by HARDTRAILZ » Mon Nov 02, 2015 9:05 am

Nice to see you getting some time in on this. Bet you are ready to have it back out and about.
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by bartonmd » Mon Nov 02, 2015 9:45 am

Looks good!
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by v7guy » Mon Nov 02, 2015 1:47 pm

I assume the A arm looks better to you now Mike? LOL

Kyle it really is nice to get a lil time in the garage, things are moving along at an almost reasonable pace the last couple days. I'm really looking forward to getting this thing on the road.


Hopefully it's not another 4 months till my next update LOL
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by HARDTRAILZ » Mon Nov 02, 2015 1:55 pm

Make sure to add a bit of gorilla glue and fill the arm with expanding foam. Just to ensure optimum strength for the long haul long travel ;)
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by bartonmd » Mon Nov 02, 2015 2:22 pm

v7guy wrote:I assume the A arm looks better to you now Mike? LOL


Haha, yeah, that's a ton better!

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by Trail X » Tue Nov 03, 2015 4:03 pm

You don't do things the simple way do you Jason? Looks pretty sweet.

However, why is the section (nearest the shock mount) with the most bending stress the skinniest (height wise)?
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by v7guy » Tue Nov 03, 2015 5:19 pm

Unfortunately it's a symptom of burying the shock in the arm, there needs to be room for the spring perch as the suspension cycles. I'm still adding a bit of metal on the curved part of the A arm, should have it finished up this evening. I originally intended on mounting the shock on top of the arm, but I would've been losing room I needed for the shock.

Basically the never ending issue of shoving 15 lbs of shit in a 5lbs bag
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by Trail X » Sun Nov 08, 2015 11:31 am

Have you thought about doing a bending calculation of your arm in that area just to make sure your arm is strong enough to handle whatever you throw at it? It would be difficult to calculate the second moment of area, but you could probably get close enough. What's the yield strength of your materials?
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by v7guy » Sun Nov 08, 2015 9:06 pm

It's just plain ole 1018, 1/4" bottom plate and 3/16" for all the other pieces. I'm not aware of any calculators that can figure it out... And I'm kinda dumb, so there's that too lol


I believe that area is about an inch tall at the slimmest point, but it's not even necessarily a rectangle beam.

Fairly concerned about it?


IMG_20151107_145214075_HDR.jpg



IMG_20151103_180858680_HDR.jpg
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by HARDTRAILZ » Sun Nov 08, 2015 9:29 pm

Simply...


Atta Boy!
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by bartonmd » Mon Nov 09, 2015 10:04 am

Is there a way to put a piece of 1/4" material, on its edge, from one high spot to the next going up to the height of the top of the tube that holds the shock bolt? Even better, to box in to the height of that cross tube, either to the front or rear of that shock? It looks like it in those pictures, but who knows what'll happen at the different angles.

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by v7guy » Mon Nov 09, 2015 11:08 am

If you're talking about the long tube side, I could box it in a bit better. The short tube side I could do a little bit. But with the coil spring mount there's only so much room as the suspension cycles... There is room to add more, but I don't think I can make it a straight boxed in section, it gets about 7" down and 10"up with a content CV, so the spring collar gets at some pretty steep angles.

I'm headed back out in a minute, I'll check.
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by v7guy » Mon Nov 09, 2015 1:55 pm

IMG_20151109_124805714_HDR.jpg


IMG_20151109_124833924_HDR.jpg


IMG_20151109_124841779_HDR.jpg


It looks like there's room to box it in on the inside (towards the subframe) and on the long tube side I could probably do the same going out. Is it worth the hassle?
I assume the point is to increase the cross section.
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by v7guy » Fri Nov 20, 2015 5:56 am

With some helpful input from Mr Barton and Mr Downing I added 5 lbs of steel to the A arm. Built a rear crossmember for the subframe and turned down a clevis I bought for another application so it'll fit in our rack. Then started on the other lower A arm. Given the ridiculous width I've got some thoughts in mind for fender flares that will take being rubbed on everything, cause after all, they probably will be. It'll probably look like shit like everything else. But it should work.


A arm mods 2.jpg

A arm mods 3.jpg

A arm mods 4.jpg

A arm mods 5.jpg

steering rack crossmember 1.jpg

steering rack crossmember 2.jpg

turning down clevis.jpg

setting up.jpg

A arm 2.jpg




a whole lotta work and finally mister Declan gets to rest... who am I kidding, that's all he did.

take it easy.jpg
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A arm mods 1.jpg
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by HARDTRAILZ » Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:22 am

Holy Beef Batman!

Cant wait to see all your hard work come to fruition! Keep up the good fight!
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by bartonmd » Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:27 am

Lookin' good!

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by MKETrailblazer » Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:44 am

I'm curious to see how you're going to match the rear spacing with the front
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