Customs Ride Height

can someone explain on setting ride height for dummies do you needs the wheels and tires that your are planning to run i'm starting with bare frame i have the measurements for front and rear axel centerlines thanks in advance

 

Do you have the front and rear axles mounted? HRP

 

Here is a link to a thread here on the H.A.M.B. from - ekimneirbo - about "Can cars look too low"
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/can-cars-look-too-low.1193392/page-2#post-13576205

I started a build for a T modified with little and big tires. Wheels and tires first to get the proper wheel rake look, while having the frame set level.

 

If you know what ride height you want the body or frame to sit at the only other thing you need is tire sizes.

Sit your frame to ride height you want. Now say your running a 30" rear tire and 27" front. Divide tire height by 2, this gives us 15 rear and 13.5 front..... NOW subtract an inch for side wall flex especially if running radial tires.

Now we have frame riding height set and now know rear axle center is 14" and front hub center is 12.5".

Now we can start mocking up our front and rear axle heights. One we have that set we can start building our suspension to height. Example is say triangulated 4 link rear, at this stage we can mock up brackets on housing and frame and set lower bars close to parallel to ground and set uppers to your preference.

Now just move forward and do the same. Its really that simple. The only real magic is figuring out locations if your using leaf springs etc. Then you need an idea of spring deflection per weight added. Coil over spring manufacturers should be able to give you coil spring heights based on weight to get you close.

I usually end up within an inch of where I want the car to set using the above method.

 

Normally I would say get your wheels and tires first, but with all this talk about tire life, maybe make plywood "wheels" that are the circumference of the tires you want and start building.

 

Tire diameter is the easy part. You just have to have rollers the same diameter as the tires you plan and buy to run when you get to that point or calculate the difference in the radius between your rollers and what you plan to run. Radius = half of diameter and where the center of your spindle or rear axle will be.
Still ride height is going to depend on suspension a whole lot more than tire diameter. With a 29/34 Ford I beam setup that probably involves looking at similar rigs and seeing what the builder did on them. When you have a collective batch of photos in your front suspension inspiration file and the short list from that file all have the same mods and tire size you have your answer.

Subframed car= Measure the ride height of the subframe in a rig the same as the donor and block the subframe up at that ride height and match the body and chassis you are mating it to it at the desired finish ride height. I did that with my 51 Merc and it came out spot on what I wanted.

 

Thanks Guys this will help