Panhard bar improvement to a solid axle setup?

[Dingleweed]

Has anybody who has a solid axle rear end installed a panhard bar? They are supposed to really firm up the handling and "wiggly" nature of a solid axle in extreme cornering and slalom-style turning, but I haven't read that many reviews from people that have actually installed them.

 

[postban]

try shelby guy or toofast4u on here.

 

[ShelbyGuy]

panhard bar and a torque arm go together. since the panhard bar causes the rear end to move in a lateral arc with the outer mount of the panhard bar being the vertex, it would totally bind up wiht the upper control arms installed. so you lose the upper control arms and use the torque arm to locate the rear end fore-aft, and the panhard bar to locate it laterally.

it will cure the lousy feeling when you hit a bump while cornering and the car feels like its trying to spit out the rear axle.

if i had a SRA i would have either the maximum motorsports bits or the (dont laugh - im serious) the steeda 5-link. probably the 5-link because torque arm cars tend to hop under hard braking (and thats where i have my fun)

remember the front and rear have to work together. dont do the rear unless you intend to do the front too.

 

[Dingleweed]

So my goals with this investigation are to make my solid axle rear suspension handle just as well, if not better, than an IRS setup. From what I understand, the “sloppiness” of the solid axle suspension is due to the lateral movement of the axle with respect to the body during extreme cornering. The movement can be attributed to a combination of the flex of the control arm bushings and the flexing of the control arms themselves, with the majority of the movement due to the flexing of the bushings. On the Maximum Motorsports’ web page which describes the functionality and the advantages of their panhard bar, they state that they measured a lateral movement of up to 2” with a stock suspension. Now it is not clear if that is 2” from the neutral position to one side, or 2” from an extreme left turn to an extreme right turn… For now, I’ll assume the best case scenario of 2” of total movement which puts the deflection at 1” from the neutral position.

One piece of information that I am lacking is the total amount of vertical wheel travel for a stock solid axle setup. I will just guesstimate a total travel of 10” equally dividend between compression and extension. Is this realistic?

Using the length of the panhard bar of 38”, and assuming that the bar is horizontal with the ground in a neutral stance (as it should be installed) then the lateral movement of the axle would only be 0.32” towards the passenger side for both full compression and full extension of the springs. This lateral movement is due to the arcing nature of the bar. This would limit the total movement of the axle from an extreme right to an extreme left turn with full compression of the suspension (say a BIG bump) in that turn to only 0.32”. If the compression of the springs is less (say 3” for a nice flat and smooth turning surface) the sideways movement of the axle will be only 0.11”. This seems pretty good compared to what Maximum Motorsports measured of up to 2” of travel. Which brings me to a question that Shelbyguy’s comment brought to my head: if the lateral movement of the axle is pretty much eliminated, will there still be any binding of the upper control arms? Or am I missing something? (such as the change in the body roll axis due to the panhard bar, etc.)

Any thoughts?

 

[ShelbyGuy]

there's no binding of the upper control arms because they're not there in a torque arm/panhard bar setup

if your class requires them to still be installed, guys just hog out the bushing and replace it with roll bar padding so they're just there, but they dont do anything.

oh yeah i forgot about the watts link

how silly of me

DEFINATELY consider the watts link if there's road course happy fun time invovled:
http://www.evolutionmsport.com/

 

[pipeliner]

I have a PHB and if a 5 link was out when the PHB was installed it would of been in its place.

If your going to do anything do a 5 link. Not the 5 link2 the first 5 link. It is stronger. You also forgot to add one element to your travel numbers. The force put out by the torque of your motor as it will cause your solid axle to rotate. oke:

 

[Dingleweed]

I have a PHB and if a 5 link was out when the PHB was installed it would of been in its place.

If your going to do anything do a 5 link. Not the 5 link2 the first 5 link. It is stronger. You also forgot to add one element to your travel numbers. The force put out by the torque of your motor as it will cause your solid axle to rotate. oke:

How is it with just the panhard bar? Could you tell a big improvement in handling? Are you still using the upper control arms?

 

[pipeliner]

How is it with just the panhard bar? Could you tell a big improvement in handling? Are you still using the upper control arms?

Not the end all answer put it did make a huge improvement and I still use the uppers