Mini Baja rear drive and suspension

[Boe]

Hi All,

I am building a mini baja racer for a university project, along with a small group of students.

We are currently completing our gen 1 racer and are in the stages of designing gen 2.

I am incharge of the drivetrain for gen 2.

I am after some advise as what sort of rear suspension setup I should use? For gen 1 we went independant but it was a real pain in the bum. I was thinking of using a trailing platform, where the solid axle can be mounted. But the diff we are using has splined outputs for the use of 1/2 shafts, so we can go independant, but for simpler design and less stress concentrations, I wanted to keep the rear a solid axle.

We are using a 10hp diesel and a Briggs 10hp for the competition, Suzuki CVT and an unknown diff. I am designing a completely new F/N/R box, but I am happy to pick up one second hand! Our CVT had this provision, but there were missing cogs and broken shafts.

Take a look at our work so far:
http://autom8s.org.nz/Site/Gallery.html

Any hints or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Boe