Quote:
Originally posted by 400exrider707
Good questions and good observations on your part. This is really tough for me to say not seeing it in person. It could be a number of things contributing though. First question for you, were the epic arms by any chance +1 forward, I've noticed this has quite a negative effect on the handling of the R's. This would definitely cause the "pushing" in corners as you described. This could also be from poor castor setup. Whether the arms are adjustable or not for this I'm not sure. As far as the movement of your wheels, good observation. This happens on all atv arms. What I find odd however is that your longer arms moved more. This should be quite the opposite actually. The shorter the physical length of the arms, the more they have to travel up and down to get the wheel to move a set distance. Longer arms have to move vertically less to get the wheel to move the same distance, as the wheel is further from the frame. 1 inch is almost negligible however. Another question are you using the 4:1 wheels still? I'm assuming you are. Now I really cant say for sure as I don't know the design intent of the epic arms, but there could be a few different things going on here. First, nonparallel arms could cause this. Using nonparallel arms can be used to an advantage to gain camber as your wheels cycle through their motions. Using unequal length arms could also cause this. (Please don't confuse my term "unequal length" arms, as I've yet to see an ATV that used the same length top and bottom, it just means that one arm is not cycling as much as the other arm. Adjusting Camber could cause this too, as you are effectively taking length or adding length to the upper arm by doing so. It is possible your new arms are non adjustable or adjusted so that the arms are "parallel" and "equal length" Meaning they are following the exact same cycle pattern, they remain parallel throughout the entire cycle of the suspension.
From the sounds of it your epic arms were either designed poorly or poorly setup. No offense I don't know your abilities or how the arms are built, and I certainly don't want to step on anyones toes, yours, or epics! Suspension setup could have also played a role in how these arms performed, so there really are too many variables for me to give you a definite answer. Your leagers have to move throughout the wheel travel, they might just move little enough for you to not notice or its possible they are losing camber throughout travel so that the top of the tire is doing all the moving and the bottom stays planted, which isn't good either. Having camber remain constant is good to have, or even slight camber gain would be good too. It really depends on rider preference and type of racing. If you're faster with a narrower quad then you have obviously nailed a better setup, whether it be rider input, suspension design or suspension setup, or a combination of the three, something is right now. Let me know if anything else needs explaining, I realize some of this may be confusing. Please don't be afraid to ask, because if someone doesn't understand something, then chances are other people don't understand it either.:cool:
awesome thread, so much info, with regards to 450Rs with +1 forward arms and pushing into corners, I have +1 arms and have noticed it doing this, other than change the arms is there anything i can adjust to try to either stop it pushing in or lighten the effect a bit.?