Argo Springer

[Mike]

bcsteve initially posted this but since it was lost this week I thought I would revive the Argo Springer thread. Hopefully the owner will be stopping by this week but we will see. Perhaps Martwell from sentier 6x6 forum will chime in as well.

Here are the original videos and images that bcsteve posted:

http://s1013.photobucket.com/albums/...suspension.flv
http://s1013.photobucket.com/albums/...t=141_4187.flv











You can view the entire album here: Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

[Bushpig]

We thought of this concept 20 yrs back, but due to the massive increase in weight with all the springs/ shocks/ brackets and u-joints, to gain what? 4 inches of ground clearance, while at the same time seriously jeopardising your River/Lake/Swamp crossing ability due to said weight increase, said to hell with it, it looks great and all, but my winch will deal with most everything an extra 4 inches of ground clearance would do for me,(barring deep snow, but thats what tracks are for) I don't make a habit of straddling logs length ways. Very interesting concept, i fit had any merit I'm sure ODG would have put it out years ago, as we would have at Northern Alberta All Terrain when we were open...

[LarryW]

We thought of this concept 20 yrs back, but due to the massive increase in weight with all the springs/ shocks/ brackets and u-joints, to gain what? 4 inches of ground clearance, while at the same time seriously jeopardising your River/Lake/Swamp crossing ability due to said weight increase, said to hell with it, it looks great and all, but my winch will deal with most everything an extra 4 inches of ground clearance would do for me,(barring deep snow, but thats what tracks are for) I don't make a habit of straddling logs length ways. Very interesting concept, i fit had any merit I'm sure ODG would have put it out years ago, as we would have at Northern Alberta All Terrain when we were open...

Good points but for the hardcore user like you it. It does have disadvantages. But for the the average Joe who wants a better ride on the recreational amphibious vehicle its awesome.

[mudbug3]

The places that I,ve taken my Max IV, and the unknown things that are often underneath the waters surface, is why a springer kit on my machine would not be practical. The A arms would also get snaged more easily than an axle would that runs parallel to the lower tub. Your water speed would also greatly be diminished as well, because the A arms force the wheels lower into the water. The lower your tires sit in the water, the worse your water speed becomes. In thick mud the extended width of the A arms would cause a LOT more drag, greatly increasing the chances of getting stuck. For the majority of people that own an amphib, a springer kit would be more of a disadvantage than an advatage.

[LarryW]

The places that I,ve taken my Max IV, and the unknown things that are often underneath the waters surface, is why a springer kit on my machine would not be practical. The A arms would also get snaged more easily than an axle would that runs parallel to the lower tub. Your water speed would also greatly be diminished as well, because the A arms force the wheels lower into the water. The lower your tires sit in the water, the worse your water speed becomes. In thick mud the A arms would cause a LOT more drag, greatly increasing the chance of getting stuck.

What if you could find a wide wheel with a positive offset. It would suck some of the A-arms inward.
(Positive offset is when the hub mounting surface is toward the front or wheel side of the wheel. Normally found on front wheel drive cars)

[thebuggyman1]

What if you could find a wide wheel with a positive offset. It would suck some of the A-arms inward.
(Positive offset is when the hub mounting surface is toward the front or wheel side of the wheel. Normally found on front wheel drive cars)

Alot of the hi dollar sandrails are using these now, it allows the outboard cv to be further out relaxing cv angle. Wheel manufacturers will custom make anything you want for a price. Larry you must have a thicker wallet than I do I see more clearance issues with an 8" wheel than with a 15" or 17".

[Model Citizen]

Too bad all the neat comments that got posted on this thread got wiped out when Mike started the site update.

So I'll say it again. butt & back comfort & like Whipper says " not feeling like your spine is jammed up in your skull after a hard day of riding is the #1 upside of a springer. More ground clearance is nice, but not everyone desires or needs it if they just like tooling around at 5-10 mph all day long. How this Argo Springer is driven & what kind of terrain it is driven on will determine how happy he is with the mods & costs incurred to make it happen. My personal experience says he's thrilled with the results. And he did a good job. Oh, & in the 2+ years that we have been riding our springers (& we have the videos to prove it) we have NEVER bent an axle. I consider that another plus. Now, we may not have a bunch of logs to cross out in the desert & it's hard to find mud, but if a conventional machine tried to keep up with us while riding on our rocky terrain, chances are he'd have a few less teeth when he caught up. Going fast just for recreation is fun, too. Just hope we get to see more videos of its performance.

Bridget

"Bigfoot" note Whipper's wanted to springer a 6 wheeler for 35 years. Well, I guess it took awhile, but he never gave up. 6 times already. He just did it.

[ToryG]

bcsteve initially posted this but since it was lost this week I thought I would revive the Argo Springer thread. Hopefully the owner will be stopping by this week but we will see. Perhaps Martwell from sentier 6x6 forum will chime in as well.

Here are the original videos and images that bcsteve posted:

Argo suspension :: Testdelasuspension.flv video by santaria733 - Photobucket
Argo suspension :: 141_4187.flv video by santaria733 - Photobucket
MOV0DA.flv video by santaria733 - Photobucket










You can view the entire album here: Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

Awesome work!

Are You planning to sell this kit as an upgrade to other argo owners? If so what would you be asking for the kit?

[Roger S]

Pretty cool stuff.. a labor of love.. and $ and time. I like the short arms keeping the track narrow.. but design is always a bag of compromises. Notice the pic showing vehicles side by side.. the short vehicle is a non frontier with 22" runamuks. The suspended Frontier got to keep it's 24" tires for tracks. So 1/2 the lift is tires and the other 1/2 is suspension compared to the short vehicle.

[Model Citizen]

Pretty cool stuff.. a labor of love.. and $ and time. I like the short arms keeping the track narrow.. but design is always a bag of compromises.

I can count of 1 time that I personally could not fit between 2 trees that everyone else had passed thru,( including Whipper with the Spider). This was on a trail ride in Ashtabula. At Ledges the year before, Whip said they all blazed a new trail for everyone one night. Rarely are there times you can't fit somewhere, even if you have to go a different way, which is what you have to do sometimes when it's stock. Haven't said anything yet, but when I see cars with 12 or 16 wheels on them (extensions), I think to myself what people use to say about our Springers, "That won't fit on the trails I like to ride on". Springers fit a lot more places than anyone can imagine.

Bridget