Unsprung Wieght, Good or Bad?

[pokeyYJ]

What do you guys think? In our sport is large masses of unsprung wieght good or bad.

I know that in other motorsports they try to keep the unsprung wieght down because it allows the suspension to work like it was designed to and not have to control the extra wieght of the axles and tires,,etc.

But what I was wondering is, in rockcrawling/4wheeling does the extra weight help you by keeping the center of gravity low?

 

[Wanker Delux]

I would have to say that it wouldn't hurt all that much. It does lower your COG, but it also pulls the axle down further while drooping, making the previous range of flex more effective because the wheels will have more weight on them to create traction.

Friction = (coeficent of friction) * (normal force)

Friction is traction, and the more of it, the better.

Coeficent of friction is a constant depending of the types of surfaces in contact with eachother, in this case, rubber and rock. The only way to modify this constant is changing the tires, or changing the rock.

Normal force is the amount of foce (weight) that is perpendicular (90 degrees) from the two surfaces, I.E. the curbweight of your vehicle when parked on a flat surface.

Probably the easiest factor to change is the normal force, more weight is more traction, to a point. When you get almost verticle, the normal force becomes only a small fraction of you weight, and the rest of you weight is acting against the friction force.

To summ things up, it all depends on the situation, and the rig itself.

B.T.W. You can look this formula up in a physics book


it might even make missing link shackles almost effective.