Pros and Cons of rear suspension setups

[LayFrame72]

Warm weather has finally come and once again, its time to get busy on the builds..Im investigating pros and the cons of bag locations in the rear..I love hearing from people who have finished projects and getting their input on their experience on what they like...and sometimes..wish they had done diffrently..

I plan on doing a back-half..Swapping rear axle to a 5 lug..Running shocks..22s..Notch..Bridge..4 link..Etc...I plan on laying body...Hard..So later on ill need to do the BD

My question is mainly about where to run the rear bags..On axle?..Under axle?..Behind axle?...Im not looking for 12" of lift..So theres no need to mount the bags farther back...right?

Shock location..Would mounting to the bridge be a good idea?..Or would past the rear axle be better?..

I know if you plan on keeping the trailing arms, There WILL be mods..But is their anyone who DID decide to keep them?..

Is anyone running a Pan-hard bar with their setups?..Im concerned with axle movement from just the 4 link bars welded to the axle..Or will that just be enough?

And lastly..Im wondering what ride height is good to set the suspension at..What height has anyone else found that the suspension will be able to cycle properly fully aired?..

Thanks guys.

[94tx]

I am still in the researching portion of my project, haven't started bagging yet. There are a few people I've seen on here bagged with trailing arms. Prerunner Bob (i think, sorry if it's wrong) had a 60-66 that was layed out on the trailing arms. You won't have to run a panhard bar with a triangulated 4-link, but would need a panhard bar or watts link with a parrell 4 link or stock trailing arms. Hopefully someone who has experience in this can answer the rest of your questions.

[leftcoast66]

I'm in the build part of mine, and I figure I'll explain my reasoning of why I did what I did. Figure that might help. I went w/ triangulated 4 link, in part because when I dumped it down tearing it apart and saw how far away from center the panhard bar went, I really didn't wanna have to worry about am I too high for the panhard bar when i raise it, or am I too low for the panhard bar when I dump it. Granted I would have put research into the panhard and made it so at rideheight it was level, but I just didn't want to have to have it possible w/ side to side motion. I used the stock trailing arms for 5 years before I actually made it lay frame. Now that its laying frame, I got rid of the trailing arms and went and bought the bungs and welded up a 4 link. Mine I liked the triangulated because you can get more lift w/ the bag on bar, and then I like the fact that with the slightly uneven bar length, the pinion changes with you as you lift and lower. I liked that idea, no idea why, I just like options and not being set in one way. I had the bags in the stock spring location and had no problems with that while I daily drove the truck w/ trailing arms, I wasn't even notched at the time though, so not super low. If you dont want a ton of lift, or aren't concerned with that, then a BOA setup would be great. Although you won't have close to 12" of lift with that, but should ride great w/ sleeved bags from reading how porterbuilt and others use that setup w/ good results.

[six5]

Left coast do you have any pictures of your rear setup?

[Twisted Minis]

If you run convoluted bags, I would put them on the bars. I built a setup recently with the bags near the center of the bar, which could have easily gotten 12 inches of lift. However I limited it to 9 inches. By doing this, the bag is never going to reach that point where it get's too stiff to be comfortable, and I was able to mount the shock on the bar much closer to the axle so that it will be more effective.

I don't like building link setups with more than 8-10 inches of travel. I think 8 or 9 inches of travel is a good number for ride quality and geometry in one on a bagged vehicle.

For bags on the axle, I run sleeve bags. Convoluted I feel is much too stiff, but I like what I consider a good/comfortable ride. I don't think most stock vehicles ride well, if that tells you anything. I am picky. I run a Firestone F9000 or 9100 depending on how much lift you want. I feel this setup rides better than a bag over axle setup, and that's all I run on my personal vehicles now. And I try to push them on more people that are concerned with ride quality.