I finally worked out how to do the suspension on the Land Cruiser UTE!! In even better news it actually worked! It’s a bit stiff but it’s a model of a heavy duty vehicle and would not be a lot different to my 1:1 so it’s authentic in that regard. Now I had wanted to do leaf springs but I decided to try this instead.
It’s essentially a kind of torsion bar set up I suppose. The axle housing is fixed to two thin sticks of the same ABS plastic that I made the chassis from. There is one at each end of the housing and they are glued with the solvent I used to stick the chassis together with (Dichloromethane). The other end of the sticks are glued to the chassis rails under the cab. The suspension comes from the sticks bending and returning to straight, like a spring! The lateral movement is near zero but the axle can flex on an angle as shown in the linked clip at the bottom of the post.
There are more photos than I can talk about but I’ve tried to show as many angles as possible. Those familiar with this style of cab chassis UTE!! will see how it’s look is fairly close to a 1:1 in regards to being able to see through the under side of the vehicle beneath the tray. Once I get this done I’ll take some shots of this with the 1:1 for a side by side comparison.
It even sits pretty level!
Removed the tray for a better view. The body work is still to be done properly but I’ve wanted to get the ‘mechanicals’ sorted out first.
All good UTES!! are higher in the back to allow for a heavy load.
Above shows the suspension at rest, below at full compression. If you look closely you can see the sticks flexing.
A tailshaft is on order from Toyota so once it gets delivered I’ll fit that. :)
Managed to raise the front ride height slightly and with the rear up so high the overall ride height is a bit higher than stock. The front is most noticeable in the picture below if you take note of the gap at the wheel arch to the top of the tyre. Ok, that’s all my typing done, plenty more pictures below. Happy Weekend!
And a clip to show it rolls nice and straight still.