Springers, how, why and are they worth it?

[jeryshery]

Very interested in adding springs to my coot. Thinking about doing it simple and on as small of a budget as possible. I was thinking I could cut the steering arm off the outer bearing housing replace it with a stud to sit in a bearing for steering inside of a piece of channel iron. Attach the channel iron to where it's hinged outside the body build an upper mount for a coil over and use the channel as the bottom mount for the coilover. Then I'd have to redisign how the steering mounts. Doable or no?

[Nitewatch45]

I've heard someone other than Whipperag has a springer kit specifically for a max 4 can someone send me a link

[Nubs]

Had a long life anyways..

[kghills]

(Then two weeks ago my Grandfather finally passed)

Finally?

One of those grumpy old men. Actually sort of a mean old man. He was the guy that would scream at the neighborhood kids for cutting across his lawn, he would actually sort of wait for them to. I loved him dearly but might have been the only one. 98 and in the nursing home for a number of years, and difficult for the staff I might add. Everything just sort of stopped working. You kind of know its coming at that age, now he is on another journey as this journey through life is finally over for him. Just sort of hope he's not as crabby, although that seemed to make him happy.

Keith.

[Nubs]

(Then two weeks ago my Grandfather finally passed)

Finally?

[JoeMeg]

Even my Max IV trans is busted again. I put the transmission Back in my Hustler 980 pulled the engine and trans on the Max IV to find this.


Whew,so it's not just me. 2 broken left output shafts in Gizmo in as many years.

[kghills]

Keith,this Max II Springer should be off those tires now and on all 6 wheels.
I would think it would be running by now.
When will we see some videos of it in action?

Whipper

Yeah, I was really hoping to have a Max II with suspension and tracks down to the Mud Nationals myself for testing. Honestly I have not touched it since the last round of pictures. Stupid customers seem to think I should be working on their projects. I took a quick walk around the shop yesterday and took a few pictures. I tried to put descriptions on the photos as I uploaded them.




Even my Max IV trans is busted again. I put the transmission Back in my Hustler 980 pulled the engine and trans on the Max IV to find this.

Then two weeks ago my Grandfather finally passed and a week ago our new Border Collie puppy was ready to be picked up.

I'll give you one guess who is in charge of potty training.

In any case back on subject, I have made some changes and want to hand build one more tower (maybe two) that will eliminate the angle iron so the whole tower that attaches to the body will be sheet metal. I also will make the towers with multiple bolt patterns so they can potentially be fit on different machines like Argos, Attexs and others. If I can get a little time to fabricate and test fit (and it looks OK) I will send the files to the Laser shop for cutting and hope to have two machines ready for Ashtabula. That's the plan for now at least. I'll put pictures in my gallery when I get to fabbing stuff up again. Maybe if things settle down I can get a build thread started after Ashtabula.

Keith.

[whipper-ag]

Keith,this Max II Springer should be off those tires now and on all 6 wheels.
I would think it would be running by now.
When will we see some videos of it in action?

Whipper

[Outlaw1]

Koowal vids guys

[2Channon]

I love this idea. It would be great to have this as an option from the factory.

[Nubs]

looks cocky

[tbone9]

I really like the way the wheels cover up the suspension so it's not so vulnerable. Can't wait to see it in action. Nice job.

[jerseybigfoot]

Thanks Keith,
8" rims with the normal offset just fit my springer. Maybe get 1-1.5" offset out of 9" rims. It looks like 12" with 2 1/2" is the route to take.

[kghills]

what is your current hub projection from the body and what is the wheel diameter requirements and offset.

Marc, I had a chance to mock up the Max II suspension box project with the 26x16x12 Vendettas on K-Lock wheels I offset 2.5".

The width with the suspension fully extended is 65" so as the parallelogram arcs up it should be about 66" wide when the axle is horizontal. Close to 2/3 the tire seems to be covered by the body with this combination.


Hope these details are what you were after, Keith.

[kghills]

what is your current hub projection from the body and what is the wheel diameter requirements and offset.

Marc I get just over 7" to the face of a stock axle to the tub and Just under 14" from the axle face to the tub with the suspension.

with stock 8" wheels and 21" tires I am measuring 66" total width.

The upright fits in a stock 8" wheel with lots of clearance to offset the wheels inward.

The plan is to run wheels that are offset 3" more towards the body to reduce the overall width (the wheels Tim at Adair has for his Max II track kits). This would give you a total width of 60". When running tracks it should be just about the same width as a tracked Max II without a suspension.

How does that compare to the total width of the copperhead?

Keith.