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Long Travel Ifs


blueSE89
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mods, move this if its in the wrong spot. I'm thinking about starting a company building a long-travel IFS system for WDs and possibly R50s if the interest is there, but obviously I need to know if anyone would be interested in such a thing. It would be similar to a total chaos system, but available for pathfinders. A friend who would go in on the business with me is a skilled welder and is able to weld titanium/aluminum/steel. I have very little experience myself (I would do NO fabbing) but my friend is an aerospace engineering major and is quite knowledgable. I would be handling marketing/real life product testing. We would also create tube doors and internal cages probably. Obviously we would have to test some things out, so it would be a year until the first actual prototypes would be available, but the parts would be high-quality. Let me know what you guys think......

 

-Ben

Edited by blueSE89
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the parts would be high-quality like calmini stuff Let me know what you guys think......

 

-Ben

 

I think that is BS, Calmini is crap.

 

Aside from that, go for it. The major stumbling block for Long travel on our trucks is the CV angles. Even lifted and within normal movement range the CVs will grenade. The only other issue is the T-bars, if you can engineer them out of the picture then it would be great even if it was normal travel.

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I think that is BS, Calmini is crap.

 

oops, lets assume I never mentioned other brands; that was a bad idea. Back to our products. We would be building very functional, very high quality components. The torsions are the first thing that I would want to eliminate in a new kit and we would be using custom CVs. We are going to create a prototype front end on my pathy and if all goes as planned it should be up and running by spring time. A visual might pique someone's interest. Hopefully we can get a set of tube doors created for both WDs and R50s soon as a prototype. For the R50s though, I am going to need help from those familier with the vehicle as they are a unibody and I haven't dealt with those.....

 

Also we want to price the stuff kind of mid-range as the point of this is not to get rich but possibly finance part of my hobby and have fun.

 

-Ben

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he he he he, he said long travel and ifs in the same sentence.

 

well now to contribute something useful.

the biggest thing i think is, like gg said, getting torsion bars out of the equation. coil overs would be pretty sweet but there price tag isnt

 

having just looked at that total chaos thing im assuming you will be removing the front driveshafts, so cv angle wont be an issue.

 

now the other thing to think about here is the MAJOR problem with d21 steering is that the center link can rotate on a horizontal axis. letting forces act on the tierod ends & idler arm, that they were not designed to deal with. making them very suseptable to bending like a banana.

if your letting the two control arms travel more than they previously could you will be increasing the angles at which the tierod ends will be operating at, on flex. with the center link rotated & the tierods at bigger angles, they are going to be even more prone to bend. if you could stop the center link rotating i think the tierods would much less of an issue.

Edited by sw
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Just a little advice,

Do NOT mention prices until you have tested things to satisfaction, keep us up to date with how things are working though.

 

Oh, almost forgot, best of luck with this endeavor, maybe the r50 crowd will be able to buy new stuff soon!!

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The travel is not only limited by the drive components. Up and down travel is dictated by the very short length of the upper and lower wishbones. Lets not forget that a 3" suspension lift is just on maximum downward travel on a Pathfinder. Hardly long travel in my book. On the plus side of things.... You guys in the US can have your wheels sick out from the body and it seems legal to do so. So unless you intend on lengthening the wishbones to achieve "long travel" I'd say you are wasting your time. You will then have to come up with something for the arse end so it is the same width. You will have a lot of hurdles to get over if you intend to go ahead with your plans. I wish you well with it.

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The travel is not only limited by the drive components. Up and down travel is dictated by the very short length of the upper and lower wishbones. Lets not forget that a 3" suspension lift is just on maximum downward travel on a Pathfinder. Hardly long travel in my book. On the plus side of things.... You guys in the US can have your wheels sick out from the body and it seems legal to do so. So unless you intend on lengthening the wishbones to achieve "long travel" I'd say you are wasting your time. You will then have to come up with something for the arse end so it is the same width. You will have a lot of hurdles to get over if you intend to go ahead with your plans. I wish you well with it.

 

 

:) lengthen the control arms??? :) i say chop the font axle :) make it shorter (not as wide) then make the longer control arms :) :) :)

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I would be extending both upper and lower contol arms. If nothing else, the vehicle will be mor stable due to a wider stance. example: http://www.chaosfab.com/n2.jpg

 

I'm not going to rip off their design, but it is the same basic idea.

 

-Ben

 

Pumped out fiberglass guards on that? The front does look good.

 

BUT.... The front is wider than the rear, and that looks sh!t.

You can get pumped wd21 fiberglass guards, so you are OK there. But you are still going to have to offer something for the rear so it doesn't look like a hyena or a dog with worms dragging its arse along the floor. A GQ Patrol rear end, for example, should get it looking proportional to the front width wise but you will be hard pressed to get flares wide enough, that blend with the front guards, to cover the rear wheels. That said, your idea might be a better prospect for the Navara/hardbody. Fiberglass tubs are everywhere and will virtually fit anything. A tall two door would look pretty sweet all flared and wide though.. :aok:

 

Good luck with it.

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thanks for the encouragement vsicks and for the replies everyone. I will keep everyone interested posted on our progress and probably get my buddy to create a username as well. btw, he can create body panels from kevlar or carbon fiber, so we will have no problem there.

 

-Ben

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Yeah, everyone has a few of those just laying around here in the states. :angry:

 

 

That's why I only used it as an example.

 

I'd like to see what the rear flares would look like on a wagon. I have a mental picture of how I'd like them to look. I hope I haven't aimed too high.

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Not to pee in your cornflakes, but...

 

This is a cool idea and would be very neat if someone could do it, but the cost of such a project is going to be prohibitive with little advantages over lifted stock components aside from more travel. You'll still be dealing with all the weak points of the stock IFS system, only with new control arms and possibly new CV's. Long-travel IFS is good for Baja trucks and vehicles that see high-speed driving over deserts and perhaps on more difficult terrain at slower speeds, but on a 4000-4200 lb Pathfinder it's largely unnecessary IMHO. If you broke a CV wheeling, you'd have to fabricate a new one or build spares, too.

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Hats off to your ambition. I really like hearing of people willing to invest the time and energy to produce parts that make our trucks even more capable off road. '88 might be right, though. The cost/benefit ratio of a long travel IFS kit would probably be prohibitive to most of us here (I haven't done market research or anything, just a feeling) for the way we wheel our trucks. While your designing your IFS kit, maybe put some thought in an effective, sturdy coil over SAS kit that won't cost $2,000 while your at it. That might be a hotter seller. Either way, good luck on your endeavor!

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How do you plan to do that sammy?

 

hah no no no im not planning anything, but if i were trying to design a nice long travel IFS i would shorten the diff and lenthen the axle shafts to allow for lift with some down travel as well. no im not trying to do this, nor have i actually looked into the logistics of it. so dont flame me for it. all i was stating is thats the direction i would be going......

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Hats off to your ambition. I really like hearing of people willing to invest the time and energy to produce parts that make our trucks even more capable off road.

 

thanks. I love my pathfinder, but hate most of the aftermarket. I would be more than willing to go the solid axle route although I doubt I could come up with anything for R50s if I went that way (but I know precious little about them to begin with). Since this can't completly bankrupt me, I need to know which way would have more interest (straight axle/LT IFS). I think I might start a poll....

 

-Ben

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A True Long travel IFS would be great for my R50, since i hit Ocotillo and Glammis a few times a year....but for most R50 owners, i think a good solid no frills suspension lift that allows more front end travel would be great.

 

Good luck with this.....

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