Torsion Bars. How the fuck do they work?

>>16258309
dodge used them for years

one of the only problems i know of is the spring rate is consistent not linear

>>16258345
i've been on the wiki for a minute now and i just dont understand them. i see that a porsche 964 used them, but they just seem like a strange approach for suspension.

>>16258309
for trucks and land barges only
only Citroen morris and vw have ever used it on all four wheels

compact

i feel even more confused now

>>16258345
Chrysler cars in the '60s and '70s.

Toyota pickups in the '70s and '80s

GM on the Suburban and probably pickups in the late '90s and early 2000s.

As >>16258381 said, they're compact, but they're also adjustable. Dial-a-ride-height.

>>16258309
They're just a bar of spring steel, rigidly anchored to the body at one end, and to an A-arm at the other.

The A-arm goes up and down, causing the bar to twist. That's it. That's how it works. Simple, right?

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>>16258414
Here's the Chrysler system. The GM and Toyota system is very similar.

>>16258425
this
>>16258414

>>16258425
Now I get it. Thanks man.

>>16258440
seems like an incredibly space inefficient system. also very, very heavy.

>>16258425
So do you preload it when you install it?

>>16258450
Not so much as you might think. There's no strut tower like on a Macpherson suspension, and the bar isn't all that thick. It is long, though, the bar on a 4 wheel drive toyota pickup is about 5 feet long.

>>16258455
I actually have no idea. I've never installed one, only adjusted one.
I'd imagine you'd have to preload it somehow, yes.

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>>16258440
how is the camber gain ?
I had thought it would be like a swing axle
but on my car the top of the spindle is connected the bell crank of a shock absorber
>>16258450
it saves some space vertically
and there is more room around the wheel arch

>>16258474
We're starting to get in a little over my head here haha

But, I think the camber gain has more to do with the type of suspension (Macpherson vs unequal length wishbone, etc) and how it's set up rather than the type of spring it has.

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>>16258377
F1 uses torsion bars.
So does WEC.

>>16258425
dodges use of them on there trucks is what i was referring to up into the 2000s at least

http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/131-0306-torsion-bar-springs/

>>16258358
low center of gravity, compact, stress along the frame not up into the wheal arch, more room for driveshafts & CV joints

>>16258670
Huh. Didn't know that.

Well, I do now. Thanks.

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>>16258309
I have them in my old 2wd hilux, works and takes abuse just fine, The adjusters can get beat up and rusty though. We'll see how these come out when I go to update the front to 84+ components and sway a way t bars.

Funny story, when I lived in Hawaii my neighbor baught a slammed mini that had been lowered without re-keying the adjusters. He caught a bolt on a train track and ripped the adjuster off. He didn't know what they did so he took them both out.

mfw he was telling me this

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>>16258309
Coil springs are torsion bars that curve inwards.

No really that's how they work, and are calculated. Even you don't have coil springs but some kind of air suspension, odds are you still have anti-roll bars which are torsion bars attached to a different wheel on each end.

As for pros and cons of each system, the torsion bar has the advantage of being slightly more space efficient, and that you can adjust ride height manually, either with a screw, a toothed lock or in some high end cars, with electric motors to give variable ride height on the fly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-ymUjQy04

Cons, is that structurally they are evil things that induce strong moments where they shouldn't be, so you have to make the end point very strong and heavy, and the suspension arm attached to the other end also has to resist bending loads. By comparison coil springs make nice linear forces supported in a large area, and you can make all your suspension arms work in traction and compression and little to no bending.

F1 cars use them because they use pushrod/pullrod suspension, so they already have elements in bending, and being able to adjust ride height quickly and precisely on an aero car is EXTREMELY important. Of course, you can't do it on the fly nowadays...

>>16258309
Pros, they allow good travel of road wheels

Cons, they limit the size of your floor mounted escape hatch--wait this is /o/ not /k/