Stadium Super Trucks

[rdruss]

Have any of you watched any of these races? It's impressive how the suspension holds up to those jumps/landings. They are using Kings with 26" of travel but that's about all I've been able to find out. What are they using for ball joints, or what replaces the ball joint in this type of suspension, anyone know?
You can see something between UCA/LCA but not sure what it is.
Just curious.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

These trucks were developed by Robby Gordon who has a long time career in desert racing. Although very similar there are differences to what the top teams run in Baja. These are known as Trophy trucks.
I do not know for sure but most likely horizontally mounted uniballs with heim joints for the uca and lca. They also have massive 4-5" coilovers and bypasses on each corner. 4 link rear ends with lower trailing arms around 6' long that resemble canoes and have the same size COs and BP shocks mounted about 24 - 36" in front of the rear axle. They also have massive hydraulic bump stops and limiting straps on all 4 corners to help control all that violent energy. They are purpose built full tube frame trucks that have fiberglass or thin metal body panels. Very cool technology and very expensive lol.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

Have any of you watched any of these races? It's impressive how the suspension holds up to those jumps/landings. They are using Kings with 26" of travel but that's about all I've been able to find out. What are they using for ball joints, or what replaces the ball joint in this type of suspension, anyone know?
You can see something between UCA/LCA but not sure what it is.
Just curious.

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[rdruss]

What is that, like a Heim joint? Not sure that's what Robby Gordon using on his Stadium Trucks, the best picture I could find, which I don't know how to upload, looks a little different.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

What is that, like a Heim joint? Not sure that's what Robby Gordon using on his Stadium Trucks, the best picture I could find, which I don't know how to upload, looks a little different.

There are some proprietary design disagreements between some of these sanctioning bodies, so I'm not sure how close the designs between stadium and desert trucks are. I think I was wrong about the horizontal uniball because these pictures show a vertical uniball (next to the tire),so it's a more extreme version of a Total Chaos upper and lower control arm you can buy for your 4Runner. The bottom pic displays just how beefed up these things are for jumping on pavement. The knuckle and spindle support looks like a bottle jack lol.

 

[rdruss]

Yes, that's what I was seeing just could'nt find a close up like this, thanks. That arrangement takes a tremendous beating during those stadium pavement races!! Have'nt seen anyone drop out because of a front end failure either.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

Not to mention these guys can drive.
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[John300k]

Robbie's shop is right down the road from my house, he is a super nice guy. I run into once in a while. It is in North Charlotte, NC.

 

[4RunnerAquasport]

Yea I think he took advantage of his Nascar connections in Charlotte to build these trucks.
Partnerships he most likely developed over the years w Investors, fabricators, engine programs, chassis designers, safety techs, etc.
I would really like to see this series become more mainstream, cool AF racing imo.

 

[MAST4R]

There is a good closeup of the rear axle and suspension of one of these after it rolled several times ending upside down in one of the videos on the youtube channel but I don't remember which one.

This is the channel: StadiumSUPERTrucks - YouTube

They seem interesting for a couple laps but then put me to sleep. Watching the suspension is the fun part for me.