Quote:
Originally posted by Chuck K.
Thanks alot Blaine for taking the time to explain this to me in such good detail and in a manner I could understand. Just one last question (I promise) is what is the penalty while climbing a hill and having the springs become "unloaded"? If you explained this in the above statement I apoligize for not fully understanding it.. Thanks again for the patience... Chuck
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Typically it's loss of traction on the front axle and forcing the rear to do all of the work. Another issue is that when the rear springs take all or most of the weight, the ride height changes dramatically and in doing so, changes the arm angles affecting your anti-squat values or ability for the rear to maintain traction.
What was once a well behaved suspension now does bizarre things. The worst would be pushing the front end of the rear arms downward and as the rear axle attempts to propel the rig forward, it instead pushes the body downwards, which in turn lifts the front higher and that loads the rear more which pushes the arms lower in the front, endless cycle which makes climbing difficult.
Ideally, in my mind, you would like the arms to be slightly above parallel as the rear loads so that they attempt to push the body slightly upwards, forcing the nose slightly downwards and maintaining some front traction.
There are a host of terms like Cog, anti-squat, squat, None of which I understand well enough to debate with anyone, but I have an intuitive understanding of what I would like suspension to do, I can see all the forces at work in my mind, I just can't explain them very well. There are also formulas, spreadsheets, and chassis/suspension books out there to help educate we the unknowing.