link material???????

[sinisterintentions]

ok lookin at using gq rear trailing arm bushes for a 4 link on my truck ( still in research phase) and was wondering if any one could advise on what to use as material for links the rig is to be road leagal ( and running 40 inch trepadors) has to be built to last, and also are you still allowed to weld them or does it have to be made from solid stock, i was thinkin of cutting a trailing arm in half and inserting the ends into a tube, plug welding and tig welding a bead around the ends the question is what wall thickness and what grade tube, and a supplier would be handy too

[Fakey]

I used GQ upper links for my lowers. Cut the link in half put that into 33mm OD (I think, not sure on ID) then put 44mm OD pipe over that an welded it all together. I got the pipe from steel traders in lower hutt but steel an tube or fletchers will be able to supply what you need
All the pipe I used fitted together quite tight so all up I ended up with links that are near 10mm thick.
Are you any good with a welder
I didnt take any pics when I was making the links but heres one before I pooed them on the black ones are 80 series lower links

[darinz]

You can weld the arms no problem but whoever certifies them will need to be happy with the welder / welds.

What length arms are you doing? The longer they are the bigger they need to be. The biggest issue is GQ lowers are pretty exposed so you need to be bigger to combat impact damaged. If you are using tube then I'd want 8mm plus wall and I'd go to about 35mm OD as that is about as bigg as you can fit to a GQ bush. The other option is to go to a box section which is what the one son my old truck were. Ultimately these will be stronger for less weight and will have the strength int he direction you need ie vertically. My old ones were 50x25x3 box and you could jack the truck up from them. These were 267mm longer than standard as well.

The ones in my new truck will have GQ bush at chassis end an 7/8 rod end at axle. These will be 35mm OD 10mm wall hollow bar so they will not bend!

Another thing to be careful of is GQ lower trailing arm bushes aren't square to the arm so if you get the angle wrong after lengthening then they will chew bushes at a really fast rate. Remeber the longer they are the lower the angle will be. (if using factory mounts that is)

[sinisterintentions]

awesome thanks for the input guys, much appreciated, so basicly i gotta get sone seamless tube or hollw bar with at least an 8mm wall thickness, and i'll post up a few pics of the rig i'm building to answer your question about weather i can weld, as soon as i figure out how!!!

[rokhound]

Mine are square as well. Box section has a much higher compression strength than tube. I used 40 x 40 4mm wall and duragalv which is a higher tensile strength again.

[sinisterintentions]

the science makes sense, but can you get seamless box section or does it really not matter?

[Fakey]

Doesnt matter really, so wheres those pics