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Old 08-10-2007, 05:40 AM
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scott.venables scott.venables is offline
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Hi Jason. I've thought and thought about this and I'm still not convinced. My main thing is that although the contact patch will be moved, there is still a force acting vertically under the bottom balljoint. This force is always vertical (or close enough) regardless of where the contact patch is.

I think about a 'T'. If you invert it, and the vertical part (the long bit) is fixed so that it can only move vertically, and you now apply a force under either ends of the top(crossbar?) the force acting vertically on the long part will be exactly the same regardless of where on the crossbar you push. That's how I rationalise it.

Ride height should change with offest if the wheel rate does. (the same weight or a 1m lever will deflect more than a the same weight on a .5m lever). I do agree that practically it probably won't make enough difference to worry about, but if you're trying to figure out torsion bar equivalencies, you need to get the formula right. I'm a practical person so I might try and experiment this weekend with it and see.

Cheers, Scott
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