First 3 things.

[D7]

My beach buggy built on a 62 non shortened pan has terrible road handling, in fact it's actually scarey at times - There seems to be a lot one can do to improve handling, but what are the first 3 basic things I can do to improve road handling? BTW can't afford rack and pinion now but maybe later on.

[FJCamper]

Hi D7,

Your buggy, if typical of most buggys, has way too little weight up front, and torsion bars that are now too stiff for its light overall weight.

The light front end will make you wander at speed. The overstiff torsion bars don't allow your suspension to work on smooth roads. So you bounce.

1. Move as much weight up front as possible. Battery, fuel tank, ballast. In fact, try adding sandbags up front as a test just to feel the difference.

2. If you're not going offroading anymore, remove the locknut and setscrew from the center mount one of your two front torsion bar tubes, top or botton, it doesn't matter, to soften up the front end.

3. Make sure you run street tires on the street, not offroad rubber.

FJC

[D7]

Thanx FJC - great advice,will do.

[raygreenwood]

Also...the three main things (actually four):
(1) Toe-in (2) camber (3) castor...especially castor and (4) tire pressure.

When on the road...I'm betting its mostly driving to and from the dirt right? What are your alignment settings? What type of tires? Ray

[D7]

Ray thanks for the tips. I am running Cooper offroads on the rear and street tires on the front with 25 lbs.pressure for the sand and the low pressure helps the bounce.I took the front gas shocks off the front and replaced them with some old nearly worn out VW shocks to also help the bounce.
I don't know what the alignment settings are as I let my factory trained V Dub mechanic do it all,unfortunately he has left the area. Should a buggy have different settings that a stock bug?

[D7]

Just noticed david 58 "Welcome Newbies: Index of good topics to start with."
Looks like tons of info there to also help me.

[D7]

FJC "remove the locknut and setscrew from the center mount one of your two front torsion bar tubes, top or botton, it doesn't matter, to soften up the front end. "

Went to do it but I am not sure what the center mount is. Are these the ones on the arm? If so -do you take the both sides off on say, the lower arm, or just on one side ?

[FJCamper]

Hi D7,

Remove the locknut and setscrew (center location see arrow) from either the top or bottom torsion tube, to soften up your ride.

You can put it back if you need to.

FJC

[D7]

Thanks FJC.
Also a friend said I should jack the buggy up when I do this.
Learning something every day. Thanks again.

[raygreenwood]

The worn out shocks on the road are killing you. No matter how hard you make the springs/torsion bars to control suspension travel over heavy terrain.....they must be DAMPED. the sole purpose of shock absorbers is to slow the velocity of movemnent in either direction of the suspension members.
in tehcase of say...coil springs....rebound is as important as compression. If you have too little compression damping, the velocity or rate of compression will still be too high as the spring reaches its maximum compressed position. This can destroy the spring, or cause overtravel which causes crashing against the bump stop ...and....will lead to a much more violent rebound...which has all of the same velocity damping issues.
Same issues with torsion bars. The spring was just an example.

Shock valving is critical. Under damping... (worn out or poorly valved shocks)...causes suspension damage due to uncontrolled compression...and....on rebound causes seperation from the pavement of your tires....and...excessive suspension travel which......changes all of your suspension settings....or at least maxes them out. At maximum suspension travel...arcs...extension...etc., your camber castor and toe-in are usually at their extremes and are not optimum.

At the same time.....having very stiff suspension to handle long travel on off-road...will be rough on you over the higher frequency flat road pavement....but it is not the place to have softer shocks.

Being tighter with heavier springs mean taht regular road shocks cause less movement making the ride harsh. But what movemnet does happen will be high energy on the rebound requiring high energy rebound damping at the very least.
what i would say that you need is a good set of adjustable valving shocks that you can quickly change from onroad to offroad settings. Ray

[D7]

Good points Ray.Guess I will replace the old shocks on the front with my Monroe gas ones until I get some adjustable ones.
I still have gas shock on the rear now.

[FJCamper]

Hi D7,

Try oil shocks on the front, at least. Gas shocks, unless standard old KYB's, can be very stiff.

And even KYB makes some hard gas shocks.

FJC

[D7]

Will do FJC -thanks.

[raygreenwood]

FJC is spot on. For instance on my 412 I slaved on some strut cartridges that originally came from an Audi 4000/Vw quantum. If I use the KYB high presure gas versions...they literally crush the springs in the ball joints within days. Oil versions or the low pressure gas versions like I am using...work well. The most critical part whether I use oil or low pressure gas...is that the valve rate...or bypass rate...call it what you want...is correct. All three shocks high pressure, low pressure and no pressure (oil) have the same bias and damping percentage.....which is the baseline valving. Each one just has a higher or lower starting point for pressure. Ray

[D7]

This may be off the wall but
I have some almost new Monroe gas shocks and I was wondering if it's possible to eliminate the gas uising a fine drill bit, and then attach an air valve? It seems to me that gas and air shocks would have pretty much the same inner workings, and I hate to ditch my new shocks and then go out and buy some more shocks if I could convert them.