tie rod location & milliken

[Jon_Dal]

How important is it to place the tie rods as Milliken suggests (rear upper or front lower) in the wheel? I'm talking about fig 17.17 of vehicle dynamics if you're wondering. I understand his reasoning that any deflection will produce toe-out (understeer) but is it much? This depends on the stiffness of your setup I know. They seem to do the opposite in F1...

[VinceL]

Suspension design in F1 is dictated by aerodynamic efficiency. I wouldn't use F1 as an example for designing a suspension. Most teams place thier steering links on the top front directly infront of the front A-Arm link to reduce frontal area. The rear toe links are placed directly behind the half shafts for the same reason.

F1 suspensions don't move enough for the designers to care much about the kinematics. Afterall, the best way to let your suspension work is to let it not work at all.

[Schulberg J]

The effect of tie-rod location on stability as described in Milliken is only an issue in cars with appreciable amounts of compliance in the steering system, i.e. road cars. In most FSAE and modern race cars, if not all, this is not an issue as they use spherical bearings in these connections which have very little compliance.

[Jon_Dal]

Haha....don't worry, our suspension isn't based on F1. I was just curious. Thanks

[RacingManiac]

The reason why we placed the tierod at the top front is to not use a u-joint on the steering column.....it minimizes slop in the steering system as a whole....plus it works well with our camber adjustment scheme...

[B Hise]

he reason why we placed the tierod at the top front is to not use a u-joint on the steering column.....it minimizes slop in the steering system as a whole....plus it works well with our camber adjustment scheme...

Same here. Also, I hated having the steering rod hitting my legs in our 04 car. Makes getting in and out easier as well.

Bryan