First time mini rail builders
Howdy all.
Me and my Dad have started building a pair of mini rails. *We are from Canada and started going down to Oregon and the dunes there when I was 8. *Since then we have built a number of different types of buggies ranging from V6 powered to good old fashioned Volkswagen air cooled. *A few years ago now we met up with Ryan of El Toro sand cars (Actually before he was in the business and was still driving his first mini rail from Short Sand Cars). *He took us for a ride in his rail and we instantly knew what kind of sand rails we wanted. *It has taken us a number of years to come to the point of building with me in mechanical engineering school and my dad busy with other projects, but we have finally started. *The two sand rails are going to be powered by a 1000cc GSXR and a 1000 Yamaha for my dad and me respectively. *We started building over our Christmas break and have now welded together the main parts of two identical frames. *We are now trying to finalize our front and rear suspension designs and our rear axle. *So far we have hours of time invested and are having lots of fun.
Anyways most things are going quite well, but I did have a few questions to ask you. *I thought of putting them in their respective form topics, but I thought this might be slightly neater for all of you website admin.
So question #1:
On the front we are planning on buying a sets of 10" air shocks. *I have been looking around and it seems that Fox and King shocks are the two options for these types of shocks. *I have had plenty of Fox shocks on motorcycles and snowmobiles and feel that I know they should be reliable and well built. *However, on the dune I have seen a lot of people running King Shocks. *Why is this? *What are the positives of King shocks over Fox Shocks. *I have read that King Shocks are rebuildable with no special tools. *Is this not true for Fox air shocks?
#2:
We have been trying to figure out a good option for our center carrier for our rear end. *I was trying to figure out a good way of getting some splines and couplers for back there and then to machine my own bearing mounts and everything. *Is there a cheep way of getting splined couplings? *Or what do you guys recommend for transmitting the 160Hp these things are going to be putting out. *I did some simple calculations and found that you would need a keyway well over 3inches long. *I have also read some of the 3000 page bitch about the guy that sells $750 FNR's but found that document no help (haha).
#3:
When setting up your suspension how much bump steer is acceptable. *I am having a problem with running the tie rods in between the suspension rails where I get no bump steer. *Although it works in SolidWorks to run the tie rod through the shock, frame or suspension arm, my dad has told me that in the real non engineer world this doesn't work. *I have it set up such that over the course of the travel it steers a total of 1-1/4degrees per wheel. *Is this to much? *What are the usual limits that you experienced fabricators allow?
Well I think that is what I have to ask for now. *Thanks for reading and responding.
Grant
|