SUSPENDED ANIMATION

THERE seems to be a never-ending stream of social media engineers who can’t fathom how a ride like Glenn’s F100 navigates speed humps, so we asked Graeme of Down Town Kustoms how he went about reworking Ford’s legendary pick-up.

“The suspension height range from aired out to full lift is about 220mm, with an everyday ride height of 120mm,” Graeme says. “We needed to make sure the handling characteristics performed as it should at ride height, like having enough camber gain to take corners but not too much so it didn’t over-camber at full drop. It needed to have zero bumpsteer, especially when lowering the truck down for a lower ‘skate’ height, which can be as low as 10mm off the ground.

“It also needed to be able to get full lock without any components clashing, such as caliper to control arm; ball joint cup to brake rotor; steering arms to sway-bar linkages. And, of course, the wheels and tyres could not scrub on anything.

“The rear has also had a lot of thought put into it to allow the bag-on-arm set-up to give the lift we needed, make it a comfortable ride and also have very little squat in order to get the power down, which it does beautifully.

“We do this all in Solidworks; we simulate the whole chassis and check full bump and full droop at full lock, both ways, when the bump stops are in it. This allows the truck to rest at 40mm when fully laden and 220mm off the ground when lifted, and with enough suspension travel to ride at 120mm ground clearance with no problems.

“When Glenn wants to show it, he can pull the bump stops out and lay the Ebony Texture-powdercoated frame flat on the deck, as the body was spaced up 10mm to stop damage to the sills when aired out.”