Panhard Lift
Today I used some left over 3/16 plate I had from the skids to make a panhard lift bracket. I haven't seen many people who have done the panhard lift so Ill give a brief explanation as to why I choose the lift over the drop.
Panhard drop vs lift
Theres a lot more science to this than I understand but the basics of it are your panhard travels in an arc as the axle moves inside of the suspension travel, this causes the axle to shift from side to side. In lifted applications such as this the stock bar rests at an angle rather than flat, there are two problems with this:
1.) it causes the axle to shift side to side more going over bumps since the bar is moving in a more severe arc
2.) having the bar at an angle effectively lowers the roll center which is the point the vehicle leans around going through turns.
One way to correct this angle is with a panhard drop, which in cases where the bump stops have not been extended is the only option, while the panhard drop corrects the angle. It moves the roll center down and away from the center of gravity which increases body roll.
The other way to correct this is with a panhard lift bracket on the axle end. This is only possible with extended bump stops, otherwise the bracket will contact the frame, but this both fixes the angle and raises the roll center bringing it closer to the COG effectively making the vehicle more stable in turns.
Here is a great thread that goes more in depth.
And another
link explaining roll center
Onto the pictures.
This illustrates the change in roll center by lifting the bar by 1.75 inches in my case. I was able to take the bar angle from 6 degrees down to 1
The intersection of the orange lines is the approximate COG, I pulled those measurements off of a thread on yotatech and while these measurments are different for everyones rig its close enough to show the idea. The intersection of the two red lines was the before roll center, the intersection of the green and red are the new roll center. You can see how the roll center is roughly 1.75 inches higher
roll center by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
Before angle
IMG_5317 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
After angle
IMG_5321 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
It is best to look at the before and after in a seperate window side by side to see the difference the best due to the difference in picture framing, I should have set up a tripod.
Close up
IMG_5322 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr