Ken,
As I understand...the pro of having a panhard would be positive lateral
location of the rear axle. Without the panhard, the leaf springs must
bear all this load, which they probably can handle pretty well since
this is all the Alpine has, as well as many other rear leaf designs.
Coil spring, live axle suspension designs generally must have some form
of lateral loation, like a panhard bar or watts linkage.
The downside of the panhard includes:
1) The positive lateral location mentioned above actually shifts side
to side ever so slightly as the panhard bar moves through it's arc with
verticl axle travel. (Watts linkage does not have this problem)
2) With leaf springs, this can actually cause some suspension binding
if the lateral shift is in conflict with where the leaf springs are
trying tolocate the axle. (again, Watts linkage doe snot suffer this
issue either)
3)If the leaf design is sufficient at providing lateral axle location,
the panhard is just extra unsprung weight.
Stephen Waybright
--- Ken Ritacco <ritacco0758@charter.net> wrote:
> In a recent posting someone mentioned using a set of Dale's leaf
> springs and
> disconnecting the Panhard rod as well.
> Can someone enlighten me on the pro's and con's of running or not
> running a
> panhard rod.
>
> Thanks
> Ken Ritacco
>
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