Land Rover Roll center and watts link Q's

vette427sbc

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For whatever reason I cant seem to find a good article online about this so what better place to ask land rover suspension questions than vettemod :1st:

2004 Land Rover discovery. (solid axle front and rear) It has a watts link in the rear and a panhard bar in the front. Im thinking about removing the watts for a panhard bar. For those wondering why, the stock watts linkage binds on lifted trucks and new bushings cost close to $200 (mine need replacing).

2 basic questions:
How do I find the roll center on a watts link and how do I match this with the panhard bar?

If the front panhard bar has the frame mount on the drivers side, do I want the rear to have the frame mount on the same side? Should they both be the same length or is longer always better?
 
The roll center of a watts link is the height above the ground of the center pivot of the link. To match it with a panhard bar, the height of the panhard bar where it crosses the centerline of the vehicle is the roll center. This assumes that the bar is roughly symmetrical laterally -- the distance from the centerline of the vehicle to each end pivot is the same. Ideally, the panhard bar should be roughly level with the ground at ride height. The longer the panhard bar, the less the rear end will be pulled to one side of the vehicle with travel. I'm not sure that you will find much difference with the bar mounted to the frame one side or the other. Good luck.
 
I'm not sure how you'd save money doing that... the bushing is less than $100 on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/161381778962?lpid=82

add to the issue, the watts link keeps the rear axle centered whereas the panhard bar moves on an arch - and given the land rover's built-in travel, that could be quite a bit of side to side movement

some how I knew you would be on this....

considering I was just breaking....errr... working on my hooptie, like white on rice. :clobbered:
 
The roll center of a watts link is the height above the ground of the center pivot of the link. To match it with a panhard bar, the height of the panhard bar where it crosses the centerline of the vehicle is the roll center. This assumes that the bar is roughly symmetrical laterally -- the distance from the centerline of the vehicle to each end pivot is the same. Ideally, the panhard bar should be roughly level with the ground at ride height. The longer the panhard bar, the less the rear end will be pulled to one side of the vehicle with travel. I'm not sure that you will find much difference with the bar mounted to the frame one side or the other. Good luck.

Exactly the answer I was looking for Thanks!



SBG- those are used bushings in the link, and not even all of them. New Bilstein bushings (outer and inner) are $200+. Then Im still stuck with a system that binds and does not articulate as well. I bought a nice weld-it-yourself panhard kit with cryo treated chromo rod ends for $206 shipped.
These trucks use a panhard bar on the front with no issues and the rear bar will be longer anyways. If Im using the full travel of the suspension where lateral axle location will be noticed, I cant imagine Ill be doing more than 5MPH.
 
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