Belly tank rear suspention

[Fordrat31]

Hey,

Ok here is my question, does any one have any ideas on how to setup a rear suspention on a belly tank? Now some may ask why the heck I would ever want to do this, and the reason is simple...Location. I am in the process of building a lakester (Hellcat tank, V4F GL class). The main purpose of the tank will be a Bonneville car, but since I live on the East coast I thought it might be nice to run it every now and again at Maxton or that new place in Maine. From what I am told these places require rear suspention, where as Bonneville doesnt.

I have set up rear suspention many times before for all sorts of cars, but this is much different. There is basicaly no drive shaft (2-3in max). I was thinking maybe making it so the entire motor and trans moved with the arc of the rear. But after thinking it over it would just be way to complicated. Does anyone have any pics of belly tank rear suspention? Any kind of imput would surly help out.

I have posted this same question on another board and got a few good responses. From thoes I put together a sketch of a possiable rear suspention idea. My idea was to have the rear axle piviot around its horizontal center line, instead of moving in a vertical arc. As the chassis moves up and down the rear axle would piviot, with in the limits of the u-joint and the sliding spline. There would be very limited suspention travel (1-2in max maybe) a limiter would have to be used (ie. rubber blocks, straps). The entire suspention would be located inside of the tank which would cut down on wind drag.

PS. I know that the bottom bar would have to be located more towards the end of the frame, to prevent it from hitting the rail. It was late and didnt feel like making another sketch.

So, what do ya think will it work? or is it a disaster?

Mike

[SPARKY]

I would  try a pair  of the "overload" snubbers off a late model gm truck---other manufs. have similar units

[Fordrat31]

As the entire suspention or just for limits?

[willieworld]

you will also need a functional shock for each sprung wheel   page 18  2.D                         willie buchta

[Peter Jack]

The latest So-Cal lakester looks more like a formula car than a traditional tank. Using a transaxle is definitely another option and gives you lots of flexibility.

Pete

[Blue]

Remember that the belly tank is just bodywork.  You can do anything you want inside it for chassis and suspension.

For simplicity, I would run a solid axle with upper and lower trailing arms and a coil over shock on each side in the rear.  Front should be dual wishbone;  so can the rear if we want to be fancy.  Both can be set up with inboard shocks to reduce drag.  (disclaimer: anyone with actual lakester experience here is a better source than me.)

[SPARKY]

figure the reaction time for the shocks and how far you will travel in that period of time at your targeted speeds---at Bville and ELM your biggest concerns are  depressions  even with electronic shocks at 300 you are talking about several feet I have chosen to use no suspension & the Torsen system since I dodn't THINK this combo introduces as much yaw from adverse TE.  MY guess no data yet that is comming if we can ever get a TECH GUY on our team    also I believe that we are less subject to angle of attack isuses with no suspension.

on the snubbers I would run them for springs with a primitive friction shock--- that may help at Maxton---but not as much as a jack hammer 

[bvillercr]

You can lead the cow to water, but can't force it to drink.

[SPARKY]

depends on whether there is  or water in the trough