Offroad-Express

has anyone out there used hinged radius arms to inprove articulation on a solid axle prodo.

This is used by discoveries and broncos to an extent but was wondering if anyone had tried this on a prado and how well it worked.

Cheer

Tony

You be the first i have heard of, we have two prado's in the family so would be very interested to hear !!

Follow the link bellow for an example, looks like a reasonable idea, keeps stock road handling by pinning in place on road but off road gives much better articulation

I understand this is used on early broncos in the states as well

http://www.d-90.com/prod/hinge.html.

I'm really after first hand experience before heading down this road.

full stop at end off address
Click here this will work

I'll see what i can find out. It will be Nissan related, but it should still apply to the Prado.

Must say i'm not sure about the idea though!!

Looking at this idea, what concerns me is what stops the axle from moveing back & foward, it is hinging on the pivot bolt. When you brake or acelorate your diff will move.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

It will double the load on the fixed side, and i'm sure the hinged side will push back toward the firewall some what over bumps and steps etc.

And then there's the putting the pin back in. Do you use a jack, or find a hump to drive up on??

I personally think removeing a radious arm to diff mounting bolt and replacing it with a removeable pin on a fixed link would be a better option, or loosening the radiouse arm to chassis mount nuts (on a safari front end)

Look at how the wheel has moved backwards!!!!




Thats with it unhinged!!

Yeah, remove a bolt from the two holding the radius arm to the housing... heres an animated GIF of how it improves things on a SAS'd MU:


Much safer than having the arm be able to fold up on itself - at best you'll chew the guards to pieces... at worst... well... doesn't bear thinking about.

you could replace one of the radius arm bolts with a high tensile tractor pin and r-clip...

Just my thoughts... never done it myself

Steve

The important this to note is that this hinged arm is only instaled on one side, therefore the other side maintains the axle/diff rotation issues, increasing rotation stess yes, but this is for slow speed axle twister situations.

the effect is identical to removing one axle mounting bolt except that the movement works in BOTH directions, when removing the axle bolt the axle will artriculate in one dirction, as when articulated one way it the gap opens, in the other direction the arm hits the axle housing. If you pull a bolt on both sides the axle will just rotate uncontrolably, breaking your pinion and wreking the frount end.

The concept is similar to a 3 link with panhard, only that one radius arm locate the axle and prevents rotation. this is not ideal under hard breaking cos one side will tend to dive, hence the ability to repin and maintain stock configuration for road/sped use.

as far as putting the pin in, on flat ground both arms are parallel so the pin & hole should line up.

I'm only cosidering this coz its CHEAP and any input is welcome.

If the arm had limiting stops, only alowing it to move say, 10 to 15degree's, that amount of movement wouldn't let the axle move anymore than a few millimeters back or fowards,which would be better than standard. Also how legel would it be.

True, it will allow both directions which is an advantage but also the reason I don't particularly like it, but I guess it would make for a cheap alternative to a fancy 4-link design. It looks solid, and if you had it professionally welded (4711 certified welder) and crack tested for your own peace of mind then it should be fine as far as strength goes.

As for legal - well, you can make your own radius arms (and various other suspension components), which is normally tube welded to bushes so I can't see why you can't do this. A WOF guy will almost certainly point you out the door and into the nearest cert shop (and cert will almost certainly be required anyway) but otherwise I can't see why you can't drive with it - I'd run two HT bolts rather than a bolt and a pin when you go in for the WOF tho... also the pin could alow the hole to slog out over time, where bolting it will pull the two sides in and lock it all together.

Steve