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Amount of travel on Flexiride swing arm...

PostPosted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:00 pm
by Dean in Eureka, CA
Question...
How much travel can I expect on a Flexiride swing arm when hitting a bump during my travels, better yet... How much tire travel should I allow for on my fender, when traveling bumpy roads.
Reason for the question is fender clearance.
There use to be a great shot of one of Cary's Camp-Inn trailers on a big spinning spit, used during their varnish application and it showed the notch they use on their skirt and the notch would give me a good idea of how much travel they allow for on the swing arm, but I just can't find the pic.
My fenders will be hard mounted to my sidewall and I don't want the tire coming up and smacking the fender when I hit a bump.

PostPosted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:40 pm
by madjack
Dean, someone will probably jump in and correct me but I believe the bump travel was 3"s.................. 8)

p.s. remeber that with a torsion axle that the wheel travels in an arc and not straight up and down like a spring axle does...MJ

PostPosted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:42 pm
by asianflava
The Dexter website shows the travel, it shouldn't be too different for the Flexride. The amount of travel is dependent on the start angle.

PostPosted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:30 pm
by Nitetimes
I used to stand a piece of 2x3 tubing on it's side on top of the tire and sit the fender on it. Like MJ said, don't forget to consider the arc. If you have an up angle your fender should be a bit forward of the center of the tire if it's a down angle it should be back of center.

PostPosted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:52 pm
by Steve_Cox
Deano,

I used a couple of pieces of 4X4 for spacers (3 1/2") I just don't remember why. It looks a little high to me, but I'm pulling with a Honda CR-V so it's level. Can always raise or lower it as needed with the splines, right?

Image

Re: Amount of travel on Flexiride swing arm...

PostPosted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 11:57 am
by angib
Here is the angle diagram from the Flexiride page at SouthWest Wheel:

Image

So these are showing around 3" of travel from 'free' to 'bump' and 1.2-1.5" from 'loaded' to 'bump'. I believe it would be wise to have at least 1" and preferably 2" of clearance between the top of the tyre at its highest theoretical position and the underside of the fender - if nothing else, this should reduce how much the fender gets sand-blasted.

The Dexter advice is to provide 3" clearance from the 'full load' position. Their axle data sheets show around 1.0" of travel from 'full load' to 'shock load', so that's also about 2" clearance on the theoretical highest tyre position.

Andrew

PostPosted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:50 pm
by Dean in Eureka, CA
Thanks ALL!!!
My earlier version of the art deco fender was 18" tall and gave me about 4" clearance. A modification to the fender, using bigger quarter elipses on the art deco part made the fender 3" taller... I liked the way it made the top edge of the fender tie in with the Indian accent stripe, but it sorta made the fender look too big. I didn't like lowering the accent stripe to the level of the original fender, because that's where my color transistion is on the dyed ply sides.... Thus, I'll leave the transistion line and accent stripe alone and revert back to the original fender.

PostPosted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:22 pm
by nubwon
as per the dexter site
"Articulation Dimensions
Dimensions are for low profile, top mount only.
Side mount is .25" higher. Allow 3" bump
clearance from full load.

I just put a little over 400 miles on my tear and I only have about 2 1/2" clearance on mine and didn't get any tire rub on the fender.