A little photographer tip: longer lenses will give you significantly flatter and dimensionally accurate images. Use the zoom lens on your phone, even if you have to step back 15’. If you have a professional camera and Lightroom, you can take it a step further, and completely compensate for the curvature of your lens to get an even flatter image. You can do the same thing with any camera/lens combo that isn’t listed. You just have to map a new profile by taking a photo of a grid and manually adjusting it.
I have a 85-200 for my a7iii which i've used before and it absolutely does help! The biggest thing with the frame (and the reason why i didnt bother) is its not actually flat, it angles out and down so even if i had an accurate 2d representation it would take some trial and error to make the 3d version work. I didn't know you can map a new profile, i have a grid sheet i use to take photos of tabs and i usually just manually adjust it until it looks right. Im gonna youtube how to do that
Compared to a traditional triangulated 4 link. The watts uses unnecessary moving parts and added weight for no advantage. In this case I see why it was used and is a better option then a pan hard bar.
I really wanted to build a Watts link for my parralel 4 link, since it has 8" of compression when i dump my bags to hook to a trailer and 12"+ of extension from ride hight. but didn't have space with the air bags. Never thought to just lay it flat.
@@WheelEveryWeekendcheck out superfast Matt, he considered the horizontal setup for his offroad viper. He called it the Matt’s linkage haha. Super cool to see you actually built it
This is a new one on me .. horizontal Watts linkage! It's genius. My truck has languished for too long hoping to work out how to make suspension on a work truck handle desert racing conditions. I generally study standard service manuals but this ancient system in a horizontal config I never saw . Can't say I'm going to do it now I know how, Time has changed my needs and wants. Victory is mine now though since the answer has now been uncovered by you. Brilliant!
Dude, that "horizontal" watts link is the answer I have been looking for! Great work and thanks for sharing. I absolutely hate how a panhard bar shifts the whole diff so far out of center at full extension.
i just subscribed b/c the level of fabrication is insane!! you had me at watts link for rear and seeing your sas truck hit the bumps... i thought hmm i should do that too.. .then all the cad files came out and everything and i thought.."yea... this is out of my league 😂🤣😭😭😭
2:50 what can help with the photo reference inaccuracy is opening it in an image editing program and enabling lens correction which will stretch it in a negative fisheye way and make things more square. Not perfect, but better than nothing, and if you're using a common phone/camera it's also automatic.
Got my sub this is my first vid from you I have seen. I watched super fast mat draw up a horizontal watts link for his viper and not end up building it but it is cool to see you actually build it. He calculated Wierd stresses with it being horizontal.
im usually not one for an exo-cage. mainly because its harder to obtain the same integrity as a regular cage. plus the welding the insides of that cage poses an extra obstacle. but this looks amazing. the angles and bends and detail. just awesome man!
Exo cages never really look good... unfortunately in my world roll-overs are almost a "every trip" phenomenom so if you have an interior cage your trucks getting ruined the first day on the rocks. This one wasnt too bad to weld out because i pulled it off completely and had it on a rotisserie, i did have to add in temporary support tubes to cut down on warpage though. I appreciate the kind words!
Nice idea on the designing with the reference photo. Hot tip, camera lens distortion kind of stops after 50mm focal length so you use an SLR with a 50mm lens the parts should fit. Only limitation is that it’s quite zoomed so you have to move the camera back. Which isn’t great when you are under a truck.
My overland truck, which is built on a military truck, the Mowag Bucher Duro ll uses portal axels and the Watts link front and rear.. Works Excellent, very strong.
Here I was harrassing you forever on the grams to make more youtube videos and you never did so I stopped. Then out of nowhere you drop this 🔥🔥Keep them coming! #stayreckless
@@WheelEveryWeekend this is the trick to youtube! save up as much content as possible, release videos while also releasing shorts of the final results to boost viewership. this way content comes out regularly and it self advertises the more technical and harder to digest content. people want to see the destination before even considering the possibility of taking the journey. i want to see this channel get huge, that was an awesome video!
ive always had the watts link idea in mind for how i wanted to build out my cherokee for the trails. never thought about horizontaly positioning it tho. this is sick
It’s cool to see the reasoning and need behind doing something different. It’s upsetting that people believe the only thing they can ever work is a double triangulated 4 link. There’s other options in the suspension world lol
Honestly parallel lowers and triangulated uppers is my favorite setup overall... i cant quite pin down the ride quality differences between parallel lowers and triangulated lowers but in the desert it feels much more planted and stable for some reason, which is sort of counter intuitive from how i understand the systems to operate.
The ranger raptor watts link is in the correct orientation so it should last the life of the vehicle. I've been highly anticipating the ranger raptor finally coming to the states! I want to race it in the stock class at king of the hammers.
You will love it. Not sure how hardcore the KOH's is in the stock class but probably better at high speed off road stuff rather than hard core rock climbing. @@WheelEveryWeekend
Nice work. FYI overlaying CAD over photos isn’t anything new, was doing it 30yrs ago or more in civil engineering projects. It’s been a while, but if you know 5 points dimensionally you can warp the photo pretty accurately for your needs. Pretty sure handheld 3D scanners available today, probably worth the investment depending on the volume of work you do.
That exoskeleton looks great... it's so close to the body that it's not protecting anything if it goes in the doors or roof but...hey...we can see it's just a automotive tribal tatoo for mall crawling.
Here i thought i knew my cars since i work on mine by myself....then incomes this video on my recommended and i am like....Yeah Daaamnnn that a suspension all right. Subbed.
I've been contemplating a watts for my 48 Willys CJ2L daily driver/overland build. I'm also looking for a creative way to ditch leaf springs without necessarily defaulting to coil-overs. I need a software package that I can mock up designs and look at how they'll move. One of the ideas that's wormed it's way into my head is the system used on the Citroen 2CV. The biggest question there is "what happens when you pair it with solid axles?"
We run an 80's Saab 900 rally car and it has a phanhard mounted on top of the solid rear axle. Had problems with bending the shocks, wheel jamming up etc, so we made an adjustable panhard and it mostly worked. Then we bent the axle at the hub so super camber. Ended up replacing the tube and connects the hubs together with a much stronger one, So we have thought a ton about what is wrong with the back end. The problem with our and your panhard is where it mounts. We are planning to mount the panhard behind or ahead of the axle, make it as long as practical, horizontal at 1/2 travel and that should fix it. Negligible side to side travel so no issue with the wheels hitting the body, no bending shocks and less stress on the whole assembly. Just found your channel, so +1 Nice info. You may want to look into a de dion set up. It's another option for your builds.
Watts linkages have been the default rear suspension of the V8 Supercars in Australia for many years. They have a reputation for being fragile, because only one bolt is taking all the load. But when the "load" is smacking a wall at 250km/h, it's somewhat relative.
I've been in a suzuki samurai with 14" of travel and been scared in spots where ours with 10" of travel is fine, sometimes wheel lift is the better option
If you get a high zoom lens and take the images you are designing off of from farther away you can minimize the distortion from parallax Also your fab work looks super clean
I've tried that, i have an 85-200 that ive used on a tripod with a timer... the big problem with the frame is it isnt flat, it sweeps down and outwards so any 2d representation of it will be skewed a bit
“Same motor as a 350z which is why it sounds literally awful” ❤❤❤ thank you for the truth, Nissan makes exactly one good non-motorsport engine and they only put it in the GT-R.
i live in the uk and im trying to build a pre runner type vehicle out of a mitsubishi l200 im trying to part together bits for suspension but no one has built one here and suspension is my next project ive just finished the engine ,gave you a sub
Honestly the first thing i did was try to convince him to sell it and buy a 2wd tacoma to do this to.... they're honestly decent trucks but there is just no support for them for stuff like this whereas on a tacoma i can get power steering pump brackets and frame braces and a bunch of stuff
Great video! I’ve been thinking about the cad overlay in Fusion with a photo. You mentioned something about an optical illusion but it was still within a 1/4” I wonder if there is a correct focal length lens equivalent vs distance to subject that negate that effect. Just for instance on a crop sensor camera an 80mm (50mm on full frame) lens is ideal for portraits to proportionate represent facial features. Just a thought to consider if it mattered for a highly accurate situation. I’d say a 1/4” is still pretty accurate for frame plates🙌🏼
There is a special lens for the camera that takes photos completely flat that is used in some production environments. Part of the issue with the frame plates is that the frame is not straight so you're taking a 3d shape and projecting it onto a 2d landscape. For small brackets i take a photo of it on a photo grid and theres a few programs that will "flatten" the photo. Best thing ive found is draw up the frame plate, cut a test piece out of 16 gauge, go back and adjust what needs adjusted, and send it lol
I have a similar application, just wondering how squirrely it gets with the front diff moving in an arc and the rear diff straight up and down in high speed whoops. I can fit a triangulated rear and I am considering a watts in the front, the steering to make that work is complicated but solvable. But if I can manage a panhard in the front I'd be much happier with the simpler steering.
Seeing as you obviously think outside the box, I would like to ask if you know of any reasons why a Watt's Link can't or shouldn't be used on a front differential? Thank you kindly
For solid axle stuff if you're keeping mechanical linkage steering itll bump steer like crazy. If doing full hydro i dont see why not although packaging on front engine vehicles with a watts like this will be very annoying
I was going to argue with you about the sound of a 350 Z, but I realize I hate the sound V-8s make when they’re above 3000 RPM, so we’re all allowed to have engines we hate on
@@WheelEveryWeekend Right, right. I couldn't remember what it was called since nobody has used that type of off-road suspension since the 90's. Thanks. I gotta look into what you're using. I'm building a rock buggy and I really don't like how complicated four-link setups are.
Nah, the Watts link isn't unheard of. Maybe that mounting style is. But if you ever want to build something REALLY crazy, look into de-dion suspension. It's basically a solid axle, but you take the diff/pumpkin and drive axles OUT of the equation and mount the former to the body like IRS. It's supposed to give you the "simple" geometry, anti-squat, tires parallel with ground, load transfer, and "suspension actuates in the plane that impacts approach from" thing that solid axles do while having the low unsprung mass and lack of chassis torque twist that independent suspension does. Unfortunately, there are no good modern examples in production cars. Oh, another benefit would be that you could mount the trans at the back for a more balanced weight distribution. (You could mount it right up to the diff, in fact, almost like a Corvette-style transaxle, but not like a Porche, Subaru or other mid-engine supercar style transaxle where the CVs are between the engine and trans or roughly the forward 1/4 of the trans, as you then wouldn't have clearance for the axle to travel up past it.)
After watching the full video, that sounds like one heck of a fuster-cluck to satisfy that customer, but DAMN did it come out well. Is the vertically mounted watts link just for travel, or what? Is there some other benefit besides allowing longer travel or better packaging of the link?
The suspension is killing me. (😂) New to your channel, Al Go-Rhythm sent me. I recently bought a 1990 300ZX, and I've been daydreaming about a mild safari build. I know they did them for some of the older Z cars, but I can't find an example of a Z32. Seems like they were built more for tracks. Think it's reasonably doable? Sadly, the car is in pretty great condition, so I'm not 100% sure it wants to be carnaged... or does it??
You never stated why the Watts Link is 'dumb' ? For use street machine / muscle car types, it's absolutely the best method to keep a live axle centered for Street use, regardless of the type of springs used.
What program do you use for the 3d designs? I HAVE to learn one as I don't know jack. But all of them have tons of free training so I need to learn one. Gunna be hard to teach this old dog new tricks but i have a ton of custom stuff coming up and it will be a lot easier than cutting up cardboard all day. My second problem is, i have no real fab experience, not on the level you are doing. So I imagine I will be making a lot of mistakes. But you know, that's ok. I have no mentor so it's to be expected.
I use fusion 360 which is sort of a pain but it is by far the cheaper of the options compared to solid works, i believe solid works is about 5k a year. Fusion is cloud based so its not as intensive on your personal computer, however i live out in the middle of nowhere so our internet is bad which makes designing a challenge. Solid works relies more heavily on your computer processor power which would be better for me. Once you get all the buttons down all the programs sorta do the same thing they just put things in different places. If you look up "Lars fusion 360" that guy has several hundred videos that will teach you everything you need to know about CAD, i completely learned from youtube and trial and error.
Customer snapped it 100 feet from his house haha. There was 1 jagged rock in the middle and it just roached it immediately. The 1 piece driveshaft hangs down so low i made the lower links sit a few inches lower to protect it, it's going to a 2 piece driveshaft next month so i can crank the pinion way up and get it out of the rocks and also cut down on the tube diameter.
@@WheelEveryWeekend I hope you dont have to cut all your nice brackets off axle to turn the pinion up or this will fall into the category of I wish I knew while i was building it.
![Completely UNBIASED Suspension Shootout [Shock Value Conclusion]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sJEkSmewcQE/mqdefault.jpg)
![Completely UNBIASED Suspension Shootout [Shock Value Conclusion]](/img/tr.png)
I'm a suspension expert, and this is suspension.
Doctor, I concur.
I'm a suspension gender professor and like this suspension, I'm confused.
The suspension is immense
This suspension is made of suspension
I heard you like suspension, so we gave your suspension suspension so you can suspension while you suspensioning.
Mr watts is the reason we live in the luxury of today . This dude helped to lay the groundwork for the steam age
A little photographer tip: longer lenses will give you significantly flatter and dimensionally accurate images. Use the zoom lens on your phone, even if you have to step back 15’. If you have a professional camera and Lightroom, you can take it a step further, and completely compensate for the curvature of your lens to get an even flatter image. You can do the same thing with any camera/lens combo that isn’t listed. You just have to map a new profile by taking a photo of a grid and manually adjusting it.
I have a 85-200 for my a7iii which i've used before and it absolutely does help! The biggest thing with the frame (and the reason why i didnt bother) is its not actually flat, it angles out and down so even if i had an accurate 2d representation it would take some trial and error to make the 3d version work. I didn't know you can map a new profile, i have a grid sheet i use to take photos of tabs and i usually just manually adjust it until it looks right. Im gonna youtube how to do that
You did what I've been thinking about for a decade but have no money to test! Thank you so much !
Love the watts link, can't understand why we don't see more of them, never seen a horizontal one before. Bravo 👏
Damn. Came to say this and got ninja'd.
Horizontal is honestly the worst way to do one but i was dealing with packaging constraints.
Compared to a traditional triangulated 4 link. The watts uses unnecessary moving parts and added weight for no advantage. In this case I see why it was used and is a better option then a pan hard bar.
I really wanted to build a Watts link for my parralel 4 link, since it has 8" of compression when i dump my bags to hook to a trailer and 12"+ of extension from ride hight. but didn't have space with the air bags. Never thought to just lay it flat.
@@WheelEveryWeekendcheck out superfast Matt, he considered the horizontal setup for his offroad viper. He called it the Matt’s linkage haha.
Super cool to see you actually built it
This is a new one on me .. horizontal Watts linkage! It's genius. My truck has languished for too long hoping to work out how to make suspension on a work truck handle desert racing conditions. I generally study standard service manuals but this ancient system in a horizontal config I never saw . Can't say I'm going to do it now I know how, Time has changed my needs and wants. Victory is mine now though since the answer has now been uncovered by you. Brilliant!
Dude, that "horizontal" watts link is the answer I have been looking for! Great work and thanks for sharing. I absolutely hate how a panhard bar shifts the whole diff so far out of center at full extension.
that's the first time seeing the horizontal watts link, killer fab skills bud.
After being your winch point at the corva event and asking about you channel, glad to see you back on here.
Appreciate the encouragement, this video probably wouldnt have happened without you lighting that fire for me.
This is so cool
i just subscribed b/c the level of fabrication is insane!! you had me at watts link for rear and seeing your sas truck hit the bumps... i thought hmm i should do that too.. .then all the cad files came out and everything and i thought.."yea... this is out of my league 😂🤣😭😭😭
Theres a ton you can do without cad or a plasma table or bender, but it sure does help. Thanks man i appreciate it!
2:50 what can help with the photo reference inaccuracy is opening it in an image editing program and enabling lens correction which will stretch it in a negative fisheye way and make things more square. Not perfect, but better than nothing, and if you're using a common phone/camera it's also automatic.
What also helps is talking the picture from further away.
Got my sub this is my first vid from you I have seen. I watched super fast mat draw up a horizontal watts link for his viper and not end up building it but it is cool to see you actually build it. He calculated Wierd stresses with it being horizontal.
interesting, my cad model didnt show any weird stresses
My dude starts saying shit I'm like...I have no clue what that means... but it's provocative
Gets the people GOING
Glad I found you. When I was in Diesel school my ride share was in Mechanical drafting. Man we could create when together. Miss that guy
im usually not one for an exo-cage. mainly because its harder to obtain the same integrity as a regular cage. plus the welding the insides of that cage poses an extra obstacle. but this looks amazing. the angles and bends and detail. just awesome man!
Exo cages never really look good... unfortunately in my world roll-overs are almost a "every trip" phenomenom so if you have an interior cage your trucks getting ruined the first day on the rocks. This one wasnt too bad to weld out because i pulled it off completely and had it on a rotisserie, i did have to add in temporary support tubes to cut down on warpage though. I appreciate the kind words!
Nice idea on the designing with the reference photo. Hot tip, camera lens distortion kind of stops after 50mm focal length so you use an SLR with a 50mm lens the parts should fit. Only limitation is that it’s quite zoomed so you have to move the camera back. Which isn’t great when you are under a truck.
Iam so happy I found this channel. Just want my morning needed. Super information with a couple laughs in between. Thank you for putting out content!
I have been thinking of this setup for soooooo long... Thanks for proving it out!
My overland truck, which is built on a military truck, the Mowag Bucher Duro ll uses portal axels and the Watts link front and rear.. Works Excellent, very strong.
Here I was harrassing you forever on the grams to make more youtube videos and you never did so I stopped. Then out of nowhere you drop this 🔥🔥Keep them coming! #stayreckless
Im gonna give her a real try to actually do videos
@@WheelEveryWeekend
this is the trick to youtube!
save up as much content as possible, release videos while also releasing shorts of the final results to boost viewership. this way content comes out regularly and it self advertises the more technical and harder to digest content. people want to see the destination before even considering the possibility of taking the journey.
i want to see this channel get huge, that was an awesome video!
ive always had the watts link idea in mind for how i wanted to build out my cherokee for the trails. never thought about horizontaly positioning it tho. this is sick
This is very similar to what SuperfastMatt was conceptualizing for his Viper
It’s cool to see the reasoning and need behind doing something different. It’s upsetting that people believe the only thing they can ever work is a double triangulated 4 link. There’s other options in the suspension world lol
Honestly parallel lowers and triangulated uppers is my favorite setup overall... i cant quite pin down the ride quality differences between parallel lowers and triangulated lowers but in the desert it feels much more planted and stable for some reason, which is sort of counter intuitive from how i understand the systems to operate.
Thanks for the video. Excellent fab, new heim joints are amazing. I'm old school on leaf springs, but Dirt every Day.
the only prob w trailer bearing is the reversing direction, bearing are made to spin not switch direction, usually a bronze bushing is used.
That was my thought as well, I'll be interested to check the wear on the bearings in 20k miles or so
Why can't I have a cool neighbor like this. Ive got a brand new knee mill I've never even used. Could have a neighborhood making cool stuff.
Awesome weave weld at the end of that link. Very clean
Wow that is so impressive. I have a Watts link on my Ranger Raptor and it seems to work pretty well. It is amazing that the technology is that old.
The ranger raptor watts link is in the correct orientation so it should last the life of the vehicle. I've been highly anticipating the ranger raptor finally coming to the states! I want to race it in the stock class at king of the hammers.
You will love it. Not sure how hardcore the KOH's is in the stock class but probably better at high speed off road stuff rather than hard core rock climbing. @@WheelEveryWeekend
Nice work. FYI overlaying CAD over photos isn’t anything new, was doing it 30yrs ago or more in civil engineering projects. It’s been a while, but if you know 5 points dimensionally you can warp the photo pretty accurately for your needs. Pretty sure handheld 3D scanners available today, probably worth the investment depending on the volume of work you do.
That exoskeleton looks great... it's so close to the body that it's not protecting anything if it goes in the doors or roof but...hey...we can see it's just a automotive tribal tatoo for mall crawling.
First thing i thought of was superfastmatts video on suspension, when i saw the cad of a horizontal watts link lol
Great job man! Very informative and engaging stuff!
Appreciate it!
High praise from another mechanical minded off-roader.
Nice, somebody built the matty-go-round 😂
Here i thought i knew my cars since i work on mine by myself....then incomes this video on my recommended and i am like....Yeah Daaamnnn that a suspension all right. Subbed.
I've been contemplating a watts for my 48 Willys CJ2L daily driver/overland build. I'm also looking for a creative way to ditch leaf springs without necessarily defaulting to coil-overs. I need a software package that I can mock up designs and look at how they'll move.
One of the ideas that's wormed it's way into my head is the system used on the Citroen 2CV. The biggest question there is "what happens when you pair it with solid axles?"
We run an 80's Saab 900 rally car and it has a phanhard mounted on top of the solid rear axle. Had problems with bending the shocks, wheel jamming up etc, so we made an adjustable panhard and it mostly worked. Then we bent the axle at the hub so super camber. Ended up replacing the tube and connects the hubs together with a much stronger one, So we have thought a ton about what is wrong with the back end.
The problem with our and your panhard is where it mounts. We are planning to mount the panhard behind or ahead of the axle, make it as long as practical, horizontal at 1/2 travel and that should fix it. Negligible side to side travel so no issue with the wheels hitting the body, no bending shocks and less stress on the whole assembly.
Just found your channel, so +1
Nice info.
You may want to look into a de dion set up. It's another option for your builds.
Watts linkages have been the default rear suspension of the V8 Supercars in Australia for many years. They have a reputation for being fragile, because only one bolt is taking all the load. But when the "load" is smacking a wall at 250km/h, it's somewhat relative.
interesting thing of note is there is a RC F450 that uses a watts link, pretty cool model just because of it
I think these gasoline Nissan V6 engines sound cool. Wish we had some in the Europe, all we got with D40 Nissans were gutless diesels
Wow brother you have some serious metal working skills! Thats a masterpiece, too bad it’s a Nissan!
Not many people would agree that too much articulation is bad. I completely agree with you!!
I've been in a suzuki samurai with 14" of travel and been scared in spots where ours with 10" of travel is fine, sometimes wheel lift is the better option
@@WheelEveryWeekend lifting wheels for the thrills!
Watts link is not unheard of in Street cars. Def never seen it on offroad stuff. But very popular upgrade in solid axle cars.
If you get a high zoom lens and take the images you are designing off of from farther away you can minimize the distortion from parallax
Also your fab work looks super clean
I've tried that, i have an 85-200 that ive used on a tripod with a timer... the big problem with the frame is it isnt flat, it sweeps down and outwards so any 2d representation of it will be skewed a bit
Matt’s killin me. Garrett
Dudes way to smart!!!
Awesome to see a video on this rig finally killer work !! 👍
“Same motor as a 350z which is why it sounds literally awful” ❤❤❤ thank you for the truth, Nissan makes exactly one good non-motorsport engine and they only put it in the GT-R.
Great vid. I'd like to try that watts link setup on a one ton swapped Jeep.
Dodge put the Watts linkage rear end in the 04 Durango and Aspen, i sold them new back then and they bragged on it back then 😁
4:01 "Describe the ideal man" :D
im blushin
This video was dense. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
i live in the uk and im trying to build a pre runner type vehicle out of a mitsubishi l200 im trying to part together bits for suspension but no one has built one here and suspension is my next project ive just finished the engine ,gave you a sub
THAT SHIT IS FUCKIN RAD MAN!! Nice work!
I absolutely cant stand Nissans. This thing looks amazing! Hitting those bumps at that speed and the body stayed flat, wow. Great job
Honestly the first thing i did was try to convince him to sell it and buy a 2wd tacoma to do this to.... they're honestly decent trucks but there is just no support for them for stuff like this whereas on a tacoma i can get power steering pump brackets and frame braces and a bunch of stuff
@@WheelEveryWeekend I get it, but you also got a chance to make a one-of-a-kind build. Absolutely amazing job!
Really really cool, nice narration as well.
Glad you liked it!
ah an arizona plate! I am also in Arizona, build offroad subarus though. But so cool :D
Great video! I’ve been thinking about the cad overlay in Fusion with a photo. You mentioned something about an optical illusion but it was still within a 1/4” I wonder if there is a correct focal length lens equivalent vs distance to subject that negate that effect. Just for instance on a crop sensor camera an 80mm (50mm on full frame) lens is ideal for portraits to proportionate represent facial features. Just a thought to consider if it mattered for a highly accurate situation. I’d say a 1/4” is still pretty accurate for frame plates🙌🏼
There is a special lens for the camera that takes photos completely flat that is used in some production environments. Part of the issue with the frame plates is that the frame is not straight so you're taking a 3d shape and projecting it onto a 2d landscape. For small brackets i take a photo of it on a photo grid and theres a few programs that will "flatten" the photo.
Best thing ive found is draw up the frame plate, cut a test piece out of 16 gauge, go back and adjust what needs adjusted, and send it lol
Superfastmatt in shambles after this one dropped
Honestly i don't watch his videos so im not sure why folks are tagging him in a 250 year old concept i've been working on for 3 years now lol
this is extremely interesting and quite brilliant
Loved following the build on Instagram. You guys are top notch🤙
Appreciate it man, truck looks great im glad i could play a small part in tuning the shocks for it.
I don’t image that was a small bill
For the customer lmao 😂😂 crazy build fellas
Nice work
definitely much smaller than it should have been haha
Very impressive! Just stumbled across your channel. I've been thinking about a very similar setup for a long time.
I have a similar application, just wondering how squirrely it gets with the front diff moving in an arc and the rear diff straight up and down in high speed whoops. I can fit a triangulated rear and I am considering a watts in the front, the steering to make that work is complicated but solvable. But if I can manage a panhard in the front I'd be much happier with the simpler steering.
Yarba Mate for the win. Mint is the can of choice.
love the yerbs, trying to quit drinking coffee rn
Excellent explanations. Thanks.
I’ve seen something like this setup on a Ratrod but not near as beefy or well designed
I'm a retired grease ball but certified mechanic. You might as well have been speaking in chineese because I was lost in the first minute.😊
Seeing as you obviously think outside the box, I would like to ask if you know of any reasons why a Watt's Link can't or shouldn't be used on a front differential?
Thank you kindly
For solid axle stuff if you're keeping mechanical linkage steering itll bump steer like crazy. If doing full hydro i dont see why not although packaging on front engine vehicles with a watts like this will be very annoying
Dude, if it is in a Crown Vic, then you are good to go!
Scale RC crawlers recently adopted this for rock crawling.
I was going to argue with you about the sound of a 350 Z, but I realize I hate the sound V-8s make when they’re above 3000 RPM, so we’re all allowed to have engines we hate on
Been considering a watts for my jeep. Figure once I have my 1 ton axles gonna be forever in CAD and welding.
I've seen this before, but it's still not as crazy as the half-trailing arm setup. The one that uses half of a leaf spring.
quarter elliptical springs, transverse leafs were actually OE on model T's, sorta the same idea but sideways
@@WheelEveryWeekend Right, right. I couldn't remember what it was called since nobody has used that type of off-road suspension since the 90's.
Thanks.
I gotta look into what you're using. I'm building a rock buggy and I really don't like how complicated four-link setups are.
Superfastmatt has already/at the same time designed this type of suspension, for his offroad dodge viper. Cool to see someone else pull it off.
I must have been his inspiration since my first version of this is from 2021
@@WheelEveryWeekend That would make sense. Thanks for answering!
Cant argue with results!
Nah, the Watts link isn't unheard of. Maybe that mounting style is. But if you ever want to build something REALLY crazy, look into de-dion suspension. It's basically a solid axle, but you take the diff/pumpkin and drive axles OUT of the equation and mount the former to the body like IRS. It's supposed to give you the "simple" geometry, anti-squat, tires parallel with ground, load transfer, and "suspension actuates in the plane that impacts approach from" thing that solid axles do while having the low unsprung mass and lack of chassis torque twist that independent suspension does.
Unfortunately, there are no good modern examples in production cars. Oh, another benefit would be that you could mount the trans at the back for a more balanced weight distribution. (You could mount it right up to the diff, in fact, almost like a Corvette-style transaxle, but not like a Porche, Subaru or other mid-engine supercar style transaxle where the CVs are between the engine and trans or roughly the forward 1/4 of the trans, as you then wouldn't have clearance for the axle to travel up past it.)
After watching the full video, that sounds like one heck of a fuster-cluck to satisfy that customer, but DAMN did it come out well. Is the vertically mounted watts link just for travel, or what? Is there some other benefit besides allowing longer travel or better packaging of the link?
Where are you out of? I noticed the Arizona plates. I'm down by the border, south of Tucson. Some pretty cool trails down here.
Land Rover used the watts link on the Discovery!
The suspension is killing me. (😂)
New to your channel, Al Go-Rhythm sent me. I recently bought a 1990 300ZX, and I've been daydreaming about a mild safari build. I know they did them for some of the older Z cars, but I can't find an example of a Z32. Seems like they were built more for tracks.
Think it's reasonably doable? Sadly, the car is in pretty great condition, so I'm not 100% sure it wants to be carnaged... or does it??
Up there for thinking and down down there for dancing.
And I can't fucking dance
My 08 cummins I have to relocate the fuel tank…. Build one out of aluminum, so I can do the triangulated 4 link in the rear
You never stated why the Watts Link is 'dumb' ?
For use street machine / muscle car types, it's absolutely the best method to keep a live axle centered for Street use, regardless of the type of springs used.
Awesome tech
Want to get rid of panhard on 78 bronco. Going to build a wishbone for front. Along with factory radius arms.
As long as you're going full hydro on an offroad rig that will be fine, but if you're keeping a drag link thatll bump steer like mad
Amazing craftsmanship, very inspiring well, done mate. Subscribed!
What cad program do you use, SW?
fusion 360
UA-cam needs more WEW content
Agreed! It's gonna happen for real this time
What program do you use for the 3d designs? I HAVE to learn one as I don't know jack. But all of them have tons of free training so I need to learn one. Gunna be hard to teach this old dog new tricks but i have a ton of custom stuff coming up and it will be a lot easier than cutting up cardboard all day. My second problem is, i have no real fab experience, not on the level you are doing. So I imagine I will be making a lot of mistakes. But you know, that's ok. I have no mentor so it's to be expected.
I use fusion 360 which is sort of a pain but it is by far the cheaper of the options compared to solid works, i believe solid works is about 5k a year. Fusion is cloud based so its not as intensive on your personal computer, however i live out in the middle of nowhere so our internet is bad which makes designing a challenge. Solid works relies more heavily on your computer processor power which would be better for me. Once you get all the buttons down all the programs sorta do the same thing they just put things in different places. If you look up "Lars fusion 360" that guy has several hundred videos that will teach you everything you need to know about CAD, i completely learned from youtube and trial and error.
This is AutoDesk Fusion (360)
Awesome TY. I have access to that one too so that works. Will download training videos on it now.@@dmbworks8094
Awesome i happen to have access to Fusion 360. I will download the training videos now. Appreciate it.@@dmbworks8094
Dude nice video thanks you for share
I spy a Yerba ❤️
What software are you using? Solidworks?
fusion 360, too poor for solid works
This is soooo cool 💪🏻🤘🏻
Brilliant mate 👊🏼
What is the purpose for the gussets on the axle? Obv they make it stronger but is that needed there?
Screw the why. Shutup and take my money!!! 😂
I want this for my 2010 E350 so damn badly.
i was about to ask why you got a frontier and not a patrol, but does the US even get patrols?
Cool stuff. Makes my head hurt.
This build has evolved significantly over time. Uhhh, ya think bro?
Some have said it has snowballed
@@WheelEveryWeekend refer to prefer comment for answer to your reply.
what happened to the drive shaft at the end?
Customer snapped it 100 feet from his house haha. There was 1 jagged rock in the middle and it just roached it immediately. The 1 piece driveshaft hangs down so low i made the lower links sit a few inches lower to protect it, it's going to a 2 piece driveshaft next month so i can crank the pinion way up and get it out of the rocks and also cut down on the tube diameter.
@@WheelEveryWeekend I hope you dont have to cut all your nice brackets off axle to turn the pinion up or this will fall into the category of I wish I knew while i was building it.
Fascinating. Thank you 😊
i almost thought it was a 4 link xD