Buggy spring suspension

[danger03ranger]

Has anyone here ever built buggy spring suspension on a ranger? I have seen a lot of friends do it on toyotas but not anything else. It adds a lot of flex and lifts the rear end up a little bit. Reading the leaf spring rebuild reminded me of this.

[Toreadorranger]

Id think a 3/4 eliptical would handle weird on the road, since both springs would be compressing.

[F150hybred]

HUH??? I gotta ask just because I don't know what "buggy springs" are. If I was to guess, I would think someone was robbing Uncle Jeds horse drawn carriage.

[Jrod-13]

it works good on the RTI ramp, and thats about it... It just adds uncontroled droop..

[Natedog]

it works good on the RTI ramp, and thats about it... It just adds uncontroled droop..

X2. Waste of time, it'll only make it unpredictable off-road and even worse mannered on the street. Too much flex is worse than not enough. Just use a good set of leaves and you'll be way happier. Buggy springs often add to any axle wrap too. Just so many negatives I can't stop. Thought they were cool until I saw them in action on my friend's truck on the trail.

Lockers and good gearing is a way better place to spend your time and money.

[martin]

It can be very effective but it certainly has drawbacks. If the truck is street driven the 1/4 eliptical needs to be constrained or you will get extreme nosedive during braking and really weird body roll on cornering. It's not too difficult making it work on a toyota or jeep as the frames are box section and the springs are in line with them. I don't know how you could do it effectively (and safely) on a ranger as the springs are offset from the frame.

[Natedog]

I.... If the truck is street driven the 1/4 eliptical needs to be constrained or you will get extreme nosedive during braking and really weird body roll on cornering. It's not too difficult making it work on a toyota or jeep as the frames are box section and the springs are in line with them. ...

Yes, they should be restrained on the street for handling and safety. On the trail they are unnecessary...flex is over-rated.

[danger03ranger]

Thanks for all your inputs. I did not think that the springs are not under the frame. But i do't think that i will do it. too many negatives on it. Thanks for the help.

[McDerry]

Leave the old shackle hanger and the buggies will tuck inside it.

They work better on lighter rigs. Theres down pressure on it from the top spring. about double the pressure on the top for the number of leafs then for the bottom if it had the same.

The top is half the length in turn doubling the rate, but normally 1/4 as many leafs, so its got about 1/2 the spring rate as the normal spring pack. So in theory you'd want some long soft high arched springs, and they should ride flat when loaded with the vehicles weight. In addition you'd want the springs rates of the 1/2 elliptical (Bottom pack) and that of the 1/4 elliptical (top pack) to be the same rate and turn placing the same amount of load downward on the tire at 30" of travel as a 1/2 elliptical system with teh same springs would at 15" of travel.

In turn you'd be having a much smaller truck with much less lift then more comparable rigs, due to the suspension design and function. Unfortunately this isn't the case in most of these setups and you get abnormal results.

[F150hybred]

I'm still wondering what the hell "buggy springs" are. Seriously, someone wanna throw me a bone here!

[McDerry]

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/suspension/buggyleaf/index.html

[F150hybred]

Ok, that just defies every thread of common sense I have ever had in my mind. Why on GODS GREEN earth would someone wanna do that? That's just BEGGING for problems! I can see some poor sap cruising down the road and taking out a bus stop or something. Can anyone say "LAW SUIT"????

[dirtraider]

Ok, that just defies every thread of common sense I have ever had in my mind. Why on GODS GREEN earth would someone wanna do that? That's just BEGGING for problems! I can see some poor sap cruising down the road and taking out a bus stop or something. Can anyone say "LAW SUIT"????

since you've seen all of 4 pictures of the set up, care to enligten us why its such a bad idea?

[chico4554]

thats a wacky setup

[F150hybred]

From what I can see in the pictures... (remember here, I'm visually impaired) . How would you stop the spring osolations??? you have one spring working against the other... There is nothing holding the rear of the leafs in place other than another leaf. I can sit here and look at the pictures and VIVIDLY imagine someone applying the brakes and the truck doing some funky nose stand... and the "coup de gras"... Imagine if you will, the driver of that vehicle ascending a steep grade...hits the brakes because he or she is going too fast. Odds are, that truck is gonna wanna go ass over tea kettle to the bottom of said grade all because the "suspension" unloaded. Where ever you look at that ass o nine design, it spells disaster. I think it's safe to say that I'm not the only one out here with some sense of safety. I know I have done some crazy... maybe even insane things in my short time on the face of the earth... but if I did something like that, coming from a mechanical background and working in the field, I WOULD be stripped of ANY papers I have and taken to the nearest insane asylum and left there to ROT! PEOPLE... VOICE YOUR OPINION!!! IF THIS LOOKS ABSOLUTELY DANGEROUS, PLEASE SAY SO!

[McDerry]

From what I can see in the pictures... (remember here, I'm visually impaired) . How would you stop the spring osolations??? you have one spring working against the other... There is nothing holding the rear of the leafs in place other than another leaf. I can sit here and look at the pictures and VIVIDLY imagine someone applying the brakes and the truck doing some funky nose stand... and the "coup de gras"... Imagine if you will, the driver of that vehicle ascending a steep grade...hits the brakes because he or she is going too fast. Odds are, that truck is gonna wanna go ass over tea kettle to the bottom of said grade all because the "suspension" unloaded. Where ever you look at that ass o nine design, it spells disaster. I think it's safe to say that I'm not the only one out here with some sense of safety. I know I have done some crazy... maybe even insane things in my short time on the face of the earth... but if I did something like that, coming from a mechanical background and working in the field, I WOULD be stripped of ANY papers I have and taken to the nearest insane asylum and left there to ROT! PEOPLE... VOICE YOUR OPINION!!! IF THIS LOOKS ABSOLUTELY DANGEROUS, PLEASE SAY SO!


All the alternatives are just as bad...

Missing links
Super long shackles
Super long leafs
Super soft and long coils

If you have enough suspension travel to endo the truck when braking with one setup you'll do the same with the next. Plain and simple.

[F150hybred]

So your telling me that you would ACTUALLY do that to a truck of yours??

[CopyKat]

Ramp Queen.

Rates right up there with the revolver.

[McDerry]

So your telling me that you would ACTUALLY do that to a truck of yours??

What I am telling you is that THAT is just as dangerous as the other options.


When you are pushing the envelope on wheel travel as in like 30+ inches a wheel, theres a hole fist full of different ways, none of which will be any safer.

95% of the places you'd want to go as CK implied you dont need that much wheel travel. 14" of wheel travel will get you more Places then you'd ever go.

Its that last 5%, the places that make the billy goats afraid, then it comes in handy.

[THE WHITE RHINO]

i hate that set up with a passion i think its beyond janky alot of axle wrap and unloading going up and down hills