Aus 230 is in the middle of a rebuild.
Cut the frame and moved the mast post back 50mm so that the center of the post is 1350mm from center of back axle.
I picked up a push bike frame at the tip for a dollar and decided to incorporate into suspension hopping that it will eliminate sail shake.
The parts have been tacked together and appear to work well and it is able to be stiffer or softer by adjusting the spring tension. May be others that are / have used suspension can share there results/problems.
Cheers
aus230
it will be interesting to see how t goes. I suspect that it will be way too soft. on my own yacht I started with 30mm of synthane( med density ) under compression and finshed with 20mm hard rubber and 10mm of hard polyethylene. what i think you need ther is just something to take out the vibration, rather than suspension.
looks cool though
.
if the sail is really shaking at the top , that is something else again
Hi Vic,
I suspect that overall it will dampen any energy returnthat goes into it & nullify any benefit. Hope I'm wrong, let us know.
Rubber in compression behaves completely differently.
the spring can be compressed to make it quite firm, But the spring can also be replaced with rubber. I was thinking of doing that first off but was surprised how much the spring could be tensioned to stiffen to make the front quite firm. Just another experiment
Cheers
aus230
Hi Vic,
Years ago I had similar (larger setups) as the self-level system on our 140' boom spray.
To stiffen/dampen the self-level of the spray boom after cornering, I put a shockie mounting rubber over the shaft of the shock.
I removed the winding adjuster right off it and removed the spring. (It was a cone type rubber, that you insert one from either side into the end eye of a shock absorber).
After softening it in hot water it would stretch over a greased covering of insulation tape over the adjuster threads.
I then place a worm drive clamp over the rubber to squeeze it, to just how much I needed, to dampen the oscillations of the large mass of the boom.
I can't see why this wouldn't work and the shock would still operate correctly in rebound.
Cheers Chook
I'm a CASE man myself.
Our yougest son has just qualified as a mechanic, at the local CASE dealership.
I like the way you are heading here Vic.
"Landyacht's SoS" front end looked real nice when I saw it on the lake in Norseman.
Nice, I was sketching up a similar system but was worried it would give too much travel since the front wheel is so far from the pivot point. Keep us posted how it works.
Some of the euro yachts used shock absorbers at the front but there appear to be a lot of moving parts, so I thought I would fit it at the mast post end so that it only has one moving part.
I figured that the front of the yacht only weigh's 15kg at the wheel fully rigged the travel could be controlled by the spring tension(the spring is rated at 400pounds I think).
It is required to be strong as a central pivot point in a push bike has all the weight directly above it. The length of the pivot on both the bike and the yacht to the center of the wheel are not that different.
Cheers
aus230
Thanks for the impute Guys. Clem's Idea of the rubber bands was another option I was looking at. But I thought I would give this a try.
If needs be there is a whole range of springs available for MTB shocks, so theres lee-way if it's not right first time.
Cheers Col
Hiko did a suspension thing on the front of his class5 which is really simple and I think he said works really well.
That all looks a bit too high tech to me
Keep it simple guys. This is how mine works.
I've got a couple of Nolathane bushes mounted at in the piviot.
and a tongue welded to the piviot that can open
and close
Then I roll on a few lengths of cut up rubber inner tubes
untill I get it nice and firm.
I keep a few spares on the tube to replace the ones that get worn out. I can soften it by rolling off a layer but most of the time I like it rock hard.Dont we all
this is what im trialling on the new 5. I started with all the sinthane in the gap over the tube and finished with hard rubber and solid plastic.
will yours be done by the time you get to lefroy vic?
I am coming up the end of the month (30th) for about 8 days have to get back here for The AGM on the 10th. I am hopping to take the winged mini with me and spend a couple of days on the lake if it is not wet.
