well, this is very interesting and enlightening, I designed two different kinds of rubber torsion bar suspension a couple years ago ,it had very limited travel but was designed to take the "sharp cracks" out of the ride , by takeing those "sharp cracks" out it would serve several purposes , first and formost ,save the fillings in your teeth ,ive had more than one filling that i thought came loose due to a stupid little stick on the trail ,not to mention the fact that my back feels like i just got a spinal tap ,or while traveling down a back road you hit a small rock in the road, well your tires cant absorb all of that size rock so it tranfers to the seat and wammo you take another hit and not just once but three times as each of the tires pass over it. and second, with the very limited travel suspension the machine would retain the ability to use tracks, one system used a conventional shaft with a u-joint the other used a 3/4 in thick piece of logging cable for the shaft (allowed for flex without the need for a u-joint) . In either case i did not build a prototype nor pursue it any further because i thought that i had more important issue of maintainance , the chain drive system that we all curse from time to time, if you've never sworn at your machine it's because you have'nt owned it very long LOL !! well for me it is compounded 28 times, because i own 28 of these machines on a rental fleet and i have seven more coming , boys oh boys am i ever sick and tired of fixin sprokets and chains and idlers and brgs AND tryin to keep the tub clean amongst others , but those are the biggys, so i redirected my efforts to a shaft drive, over the last year i've developed a prototype and installed it into two units, both are Max IIs, one is an 18hp unit that after a few redesigns and tweeks here and there seem to work well and the second has a 700 MXZ in it (stress testing LOL) it has spit out a few gears here and there but i think i got that one under control now, my prototypes are a one piece unit but i think i will split it up to become more easily adaptable to other makes and models, my drawings also include an optional two speed worm box incorporated into the input shaft to get more top end out of the units, the design would not be all that hard to incorporate my old suspension design along with it. my drawings are allready protected by international intelectual property laws so i don't mind showing you guys here my old drawings of it ,but i will not post them publicly nor will i produce photos of the final prototype ,if you would like to see the drawings drop me a PM or e-mail me. i would love to get some more feed back on this topic from all you boys here at 6x6 World, MIKE these are not and will not be for sale anytime in the immediate future so i hope im not breaking any of your rules
i hope that everyone that sees this post will vote so we can get a good feel for what is wanted/needed
Last edited by Robinhood02; 04-18-2010 at 03:39 PM.
He who has not cruised the back country in a 6x6 , has not lived life to it's fullest
A Mans level of mechanical education directly corresponds to the level pain suffered while getting it