4-Link?

[Mtn Gote]

I am might be planning to do a 4-Link Front and Rear. I am wondering how much it will cost to do it myself and have it work right. What are some pros and cons of the 4-Link on the road, and wheeling. if you guys and girls can get some pics of how you did them (link positions), and pics of them flexed, if that is not a problem. Thanks

 

[Dusty]

I am might be planning to do a 4-Link Front and Rear. I am wondering how much it will cost to do it myself and have it work right. What are some pros and cons of the 4-Link on the road, and wheeling. if you guys and girls can get some pics of how you did them (link positions), and pics of them flexed, if that is not a problem. Thanks

My best advice is to start reading all the 4-link info available over on the Pirate board. That place is an oracle of info for all types of link suspensions. There are several EB buildups chronicled over there too. Spend a LOT of time studying before you start cutting anything.

Dusty

 

[Apogee]

You could lurk on www.pirate4x4.com for years and not get through all of the info on link suspensions...but you'll learn a lot. Search for the user "Triaged" and he has a 4-link calculator you can download in his signature. There are several guys on CB that should post up as well who are running them. You've got a lot of questions to answer since "4-link" is a very generic term.

Most Broncos that I've seen run an asymmetric 3-link front (2 links on one side, 1 on the other) with panhard bar and then a double-triangulated 4-link in the rear. There are pros and cons to every setup so I don't think there's a "best" setup except for the one that works for you and how you wheel.

You might post up more details, such as how and where you intend to drive your bronco, tire size, axles and width, wheelbase, etc. All of these things will factor in when making descisions concerning link suspension design. Do some searching on link ends as well since there are several options available from spherical bearing rod ends to Johnny Joints to rubber/poly bushings.

Start reading and take lots of notes...you'll be able to right a book about 4-links when you're done. Oh, and post pics ;D

 

[howiebilt]

Do you intend to use the stock type suspension ... leaf springs and coils ?

 

[crab]

Being a custom home builder, and early bronco owner for several years, I've learned to understand the meaning "If you have to ask, you can't afford it!" I guess it depends on how you set up your four link. We have had this on the back burner for a few years now, and every time the topic comes up, the problem is knowing where to stop. For some reason it always leads to a complete tube frame;D I agree with the above. Do lots and lots of studying to figure out what you want to end up with.
Good luck and keep us posted on what you decide!

 

[Mtn Gote]

4-Link

I would be running 37" tires, dana 44 front and a 9" rear, It would be my daily driver, so should i just get cage offroad's 5.5" instead?thanks for posting, you guys are a great help.

 

[matt69]

Daily driver does not need a 4-link. I would just run one of the bronco specefic suspension systems like the Cage or Wildhorses.

matt

 

[ddrass]

I am might be planning to do a 4-Link Front and Rear. I am wondering how much it will cost to do it myself and have it work right. What are some pros and cons of the 4-Link on the road, and wheeling. if you guys and girls can get some pics of how you did them (link positions), and pics of them flexed, if that is not a problem. Thanks

If you want to pay someone to do it for you, Mt. Logan Offroad in Utah has done a 4-link for a fellow on this board. I've also heard that one of the major parts providers (Wildhorses, JD - I can't remember) is working on an do-it-yourself, off-the-shelf kit.

 

[Projp]

After twisting my 9" housing and having continual leaf spring issues I switched to a 4 link with fox coilovers.
Offroad it is incredible.
On road it is downright scary. The body roll is off the charts. I quickly added a currie antirock and the difference was night and day. I would still not use it for a daily driver but, it is managable to get to trail heads.
Side note: The antirock has not hurt me at all offroad.

 

[ricks77eb]

I have a link setup on the rear of my 72 with 1/4 elliptical springs, and I would not suggest using it on a daily driver...it makes for some squirriley (sp?) road manners. To maintain good road manners I would go with a proven suspension setup from one of the vendors. Spend the extra cash to do it right (adjustable trac bar, extended radius arms, and other stuff that keeps the handling right).

Rick

 

[68 Broncoholic]

Its easy to get a 3 or 4 link to flex like crazy but its tough to keep the pinion in place while articulating. I found that it gets spendy cutting tubes to get the suspension to cycle correctly. Its best to test with cheap seamed tube first and then use chromoly once its dialed in.
The down fall is if you don't have a tube bender the links will be straight and get hung up on rocks. Coilovers can be adjusted depending on what you're doing. If you plan for a daily driver and fun weekend wheeling I'd talk to Cage offroad.

 

[num]

If you want to pay someone to do it for you, Mt. Logan Offroad in Utah has done a 4-link for a fellow on this board. I've also heard that one of the major parts providers (Wildhorses, JD - I can't remember) is working on an do-it-yourself, off-the-shelf kit.

Last I recall - Chuck from BCBroncos was mentioning a kit fab'd via baileybuilt... Would be interesting to see no doubt.

 

[73stallion]

i'll go ahead and comment on this.

steve miller did a 4 link on the rear of his bronco. i rode in it and i hated it! going around a slight curve the thing had more body roll than mine does when i'm taking a corner. i wouldn't do it if you paid me!

 

[ddrass]

Last I recall - Chuck from BCBroncos was mentioning a kit fab'd via baileybuilt... Would be interesting to see no doubt.

Yup, that's who it was. A couple of months ago, he was talking about it. I have no idea how close it is to reality.

With regards to the handling charactaristics of a four link suspension, I'm certainly no expert, but many, many modern off and on road vehicles use some sort of link suspension, from Jeeps to high-performance touring cars, so I'd imagine that its all in the way its tuned. Am I wrong?

 

[Gummi Bear]

I put together a spreadsheet of what it'd cost me to 4 link the rear of mine. Using coil springs, and traditional shocks (Bilstein 5100's) I was at ~$1100 in materials alone.

That didn't have any fudge factor in it for the little things that always come up in a project of this magnitude.


Like mentioned before, you'd better know full well what the links do in any given position, and how angle, placement, length and orientation can affect handling. You'll also have to learn and understand a bunch of new terminology, things like anti-squat, roll center, instant center, vertical and horizontal separation, anti-dive and realize how they all fit into your grand scheme.

I've been researching exactly how a 4 link works for a couple of years now. I have watched a few be put together by folks that really know what they're doing. I see how it goes together, but I'm still going to build a model to experiment with before I start chopping up my rig, and flinging myself headlong into a project I don't have a firm grasp of.

 

[ddrass]

I put together a spreadsheet of what it'd cost me to 4 link the rear of mine. Using coil springs, and traditional shocks (Bilstein 5100's) I was at ~$1100 in materials alone.

That didn't have any fudge factor in it for the little things that always come up in a project of this magnitude.


Like mentioned before, you'd better know full well what the links do in any given position, and how angle, placement, length and orientation can affect handling. You'll also have to learn and understand a bunch of new terminology, things like anti-squat, roll center, instant center, vertical and horizontal separation, anti-dive and realize how they all fit into your grand scheme.

I've been researching exactly how a 4 link works for a couple of years now. I have watched a few be put together by folks that really know what they're doing. I see how it goes together, but I'm still going to build a model to experiment with before I start chopping up my rig, and flinging myself headlong into a project I don't have a firm grasp of.

Gummi, with all your research, what is your evaluation a 4-link's on-road performance? Seems like most peoples' experience here is that it isn't very good (and potentially unsafe). Is it all in the way its built/tuned, or do they all have universally bad road manners?

 

[68ford]

if you use a stiff sway bar making it lean equal to or less than leaf springs, it will handle better on the road. the reason they say they dont handle good is because thay are mostly high flex and very soft sprung design. if you ran equally as soft of leaf springs it would sway just as bad, but you couldnt run that soft of leafs due to axle wrap. the anti rock currie sway bar is very weak, it makes a 4/3 link still flex as good if not better than leaf springs.
http://www.dirtalliance.com/team/chad/slideshow/
scrole down to the left turn, and thats with a sway bar that is atleast twice as stiff as the currie anti rock. ;D

 

[Gummi Bear]

Gummi, with all your research, what is your evaluation a 4-link's on-road performance? Seems like most peoples' experience here is that it isn't very good (and potentially unsafe). Is it all in the way its built/tuned, or do they all have universally bad road manners?

Not all of them are bad on the road.

It's not hard to put links in place, but geting them in where everything works just right (at any speed), is as much of an art as it is a science.

The sprint car guys are the ones who really have done the best research on how they work and why. They can still get several inches of wheel travel with their short links, and you've seen how fast they go ripping around the track. I've been reading a couple of sprint car suspension design books, and it's incredible what they make those twerpy little things do.

Do a search on google for a 4 link calculator by a fella that goes by Triage. It's a file that you'll download, and it's a hopped up Excel spreadsheet. You can fool around with link placements on a virtual chassis and look at your numbers there. He's also recently come out with a 3 link calculator.

Once you've fiddled with the calculators, and understand all the terminology, build yourself a scale model, and see what exactly it's gonna do to your rig before you install it.

 

[73stallion]

no offense steve, but just too spongy for my liking.

this is the one i was referring to;

 

[RT]

no offense steve, but just too spongy for my liking.

this is the one i was referring to;

That coilover looks like it would be almost horizontal at compression.
Great for flex , but not a lot of control..At that angle the spring and valve rate would have to be pretty high to offer any kind of stability,,if any.