Caster angles???

Widdup
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2019 2:03 pm
Location: Baildon

Re: Caster angles???

Post by Widdup » Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:59 pm

Further to the above I don’t think that it can be assumed that the geometry is equal on both sides from new, it certainly wasn’t with mine. This has now been overcome with adjustable wishbones supplied by Alan but the adjustments and shims needed are considerably different on each side to achieve equal results. I set the toe in with a Trackright tool that you run over to obtain a tracking reading but it has proved to be unreliable. I thought I had managed to obtain 3 degree toe in but yesterday I had it professionally checked and in fact it revealed a toe in of less than 1mm. This has now been rectified and it has made a big difference. I’ve only tried it up to 70mph so far (on the way home and it’s been raining since) but it is much, much steadier throughout the speed range with greatly improved self centre steering. So it appears that toe in has a big bearing on stability and needs to be accurately measured.

peakrock
Posts: 203
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 4:52 pm
Location: Wreningham

Re: Caster angles???

Post by peakrock » Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:07 pm

I did all my suspension measurements with the Triking resting on it's wheels - the logic being that you want the various degrees of caster/camber/toe in to be effective at the point where the suspension normally resides. Of course the drivers weight, fuel load, road conditions will effect that but it's a known good point. I also bounce the Triking up and down a bit and roll it back and forth a bit to make sure everything is equalised.

I installed a protractor app on my phone, calibrated it with a spirit level and then held the phone against the vertical box section part of the upright. By making sure both sides had the same reading I could be sure that caster was identical for both hubs. If you've read my recent post about wide wheels etc on my Triking there is more detail there about the experimentation that I did until arriving at my current setup...

Having just read the above post I also found the Trackrite somewhat unreliable and used the old tried and tested method WestendGuzzi has previously described. Toe in on mine is approx 5mm, it seems to work better on the wider tyres. I would also add best to change one thing at a time and then road test...

Dave

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