Striper those are great! It all comes down to the proportions of the car. It takes the right car with the right look to make it work... 90% of the time is looks too loooooooooong ...
Mine is 109" That's only a little longer than stock. My rear axle moved forward 8" because I used a spring behind rear end. Frame is stock length with the frame horns still attached
ive built some both ways and havent had a problemm with either, i think the suicide setup looks cool, i built one on a model a and it was a 107 inch wheelbase not even close to 150 inches...just take the right precautions and you can make it safe too..im going to go with the suicide style setup on my t coupe im building
I've seen several pics of old hotrods with suicide axes on them. Arent they a part of traditional hotroding. I really like the look of them. Don't like the look of them when there sticking 2 foot out in front of the car though.
That green Model T actually looks pretty good. Im not a fan of the suicide frontend, because it usually pushes the frontend waaay out in front, making the wheelbase too long. Pretty much, what everybody else has said. Also, unless its tucked in nice and tight to the grill, it looks like theres a huge gap between the grill and the front axle centerline.
I've put together many suicide front ends on everything from T Bucket's through '32 Low Boys. All have been done with dropped tube axles, with welded spring behind brackets. I have NEVER used split wishbones to mount the spring. Even when mounted with welded bushings, I don't believe the thickness of the steel in the wishbones is enough to do the job over time. Wishbones were engineered to locate the axle and control horizontal force, not the weight of the car pushing crosswise. The tubing, in my opinion, is just too thin.
Why not just move the whole "stock" set-up forward? I did this on an 1/8th model. I have NO idea if it's correct, but I didn't have to re-engineered much. Good or bad? Gary
Doane Spencer's chassis was done this way and the rolling bones cars are built similar but Doane's spring perch was mounted through the batwing for the hairpins instead of stock split bones. I think they are cool, not stretched out like a skateboard styled 125"er.
And it all depends on the application, i am doing mw Willys now this style ( through the batwing) because of height and crossmember issues with the stock crossmember which needs to stay to mount the radiator correctly. It's not always the COOL factor, but what will work.
I agree, the load would then be close to as it was from the factory ( on the bolt ) and not trying to bend it or shear it off. I used a 40 axel and did a spring over , I had to take an inch and a half out of the center of the axel, by doing this I got it back straight ( had a slight arch foward ) been running three summers so far with no trouble. I'm a welder by trade .
Mine woks out to 109" too which I think is spot on. I agree that the stretched out look can appear odd if it is too much though.
Ukgav, your truck looks good to me and stripers modified looks right as well. Stretching the wheel base out way to far would also be more strain on those mounting points. The rolling bones cars have done numerous cross country trips with out front end troubles. Two/three inches doesn't seem to hurt the aesthetics of the car in my opinion.
Mine with aftermarket hairpins and fabbed batwings seems to work fine, not many miles on it yet though.
That is the exact reason why I changed mine over to a traditional spring over.Probably wouldn't have bothered me as much if I didn't drive it as much as I do.I redid my whole chassis,and it was worth it,for shure.My ass doesn't pucker when I hit a big bump goin 70 If a person wants a suicide fronend,in my opinion,I'd at least go with a spring over instead of a spring behind,at least something on your chassis might make contact with itself before your oil pan becomes a plow Here's a before and after.
i hate them ive seen a couple cars that are being built in Rod & Custom mag no disrespect to the guy but he's ruined two really nice cars just by mounting the front axle suicide my pointless opinion anyway
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