Tango71 wrote: > The other day I was working on my Toyota 4Runner changing out the rear > tail gate when I realized that it has a giant Torsion bar on the > bottom of the tail gate. It looks big enough to get two torsion bars > from it. It seems perfect for a tank between 100-200lbs. The tail gate > with glass and all weighs about 100 lbs.
It's not as simple as that. You need to take into account the number of road wheels when talking springs (or torsion bars) for a tank suspension. In the case of a T34, you have 10 road wheels and would require 10 torsion springs. So with a 150 pound tank your looking at 15 pounds per wheel you need to spring. Also, the lever arm length needs to be accounted for. Your Toyota rear gate has a lever arm length of 2 feet or so as compared to 3" for a typical trailing arm on one of our tanks. The longer lever arm of your rear gate means more weight farther away from the pivot point and thus requires bigger springs to lift it. Also, when cutting a torsion bar in half you effectively increase its strength by a factor of 2 (or so) since half the material has to twist twice as far. I'm sure others can supply you with the math regarding all this but these are just my gut observations (at 3am in the morning) regarding your suggestion. If I were building a larger tank (a two man paintball tank for example) I think tailgate or trunk lid torsion bars would be an excellent source for springs. Steve "Couldn't Sleep" Tyng --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
