by HackD » Aug 28 2021 12:41pm
ZeroEm wrote: ↑Aug 28 2021 12:24am
I thought about a steering dampener at one time. Now I have my steering set don't need it. Most of the suspension kits recommend them. Makes me wonder if they drive that bad. I need to look up that link here. We have a member that makes front suspension kits for KMX trikes. If you read his thread he talks about the steering after the kit was installed. Unable to drive fast and put a dampener on.
Bump steer with suspension is definitely a potential issue - partially one of design, as you indicate. Other factor is task purpose for the Trike. You need to either specialize to task demands, or compromise to meet variety of tasks demanded of it.. I'm demanding too much, of the present design.
Off-road capability, does not necessarily translate to high-speed stability, and vice versa. Gotta compromise/adapt, or build in adjustability into the design.
I do have a bit of experience with working with the black Arts and Sciences of Suspension, in a previous unconventional layout vehicle.. a heavyweight sports sidecar rig, with suspension/wheelset setup designed by myself for the front end and sidecar. It's going back a few years now, but i have been down this road of experimentation before. It was a big leap into the unknown. Not tooting my own horn or anything (ok, a bit) but a suspension setup for a recumbent trike is at least a bit more conventional, and better predictable results if designed/fabricated right.. i think i'm up to that challenge.
I had the need for a Dampner on this much larger, much heavier vehicle which involved asymmetrical handling as a feature, not a bug - and i coupled it with an asymmetric sway bar design. to keep the whole thing flat, stable and non-twitchy going over bumps at high speed (straight or cornering), with a very sensitive responsive steering setup.
In that aspect for a Trike with suspension, a simplistic sway-bar linkage may also be looked into. I am frankly surprised i haven't seen it being used/experimented on, in my google image browsing for ideas - the only issue with a Trike that i can see, is overall loss of ground clearance on a conventional frame design. In my opinion it might be an easy solution to implement into a front end suspension design for a trike, and would also have some anti-flip properties in terms of handling of a Trike (IMHO) with suspension.. would reduce sudden CofG induced suspension compression with large steering inputs, and potentially on the fly adjustable/detachable (ie off-road) in terms of overall stiffness per given conditions. A variation of a sway-bar is being used on some of the leaning trike front ends, but that's a part of the design of a leaning trike, itself.
Anyway, i ramble on... certainly something needing to be further explored, as far as my ambition goes in terms of a better frame setup, should i go that route.