Even with the Thanksgiving holiday quickly approaching, we managed to put in a few solid days of forward progress.  The mockup King quadruple bypass shocks did arrive on Monday which allowed us to begin work on the front and rear shock hoops.  It’s crazy to think with just four shocks you can spend days making brackets, checking fits, making more brackets, and re-checking fits.  The reward is worth it though, for the first time we get to play with suspension travel. The video above shows the front axle at full articulation with the wheel turned 50 degrees.

When it comes to suspension travel, the motto “if it works don’t fix it” comes immediately to mind.  Tracy has more rock crawling championships under his belt then we care to count, so it’s no surprise he is calling the shots on this one. The Rock Bug will be a dual purpose vehicle, competing in both the King of the Hammers and W.E.Rock, so the suspension will be set up as follows:

For Racing: 19” belly clearance, 6” bump, 10” droop (Compromise)

For Crawling: 17” belly clearance, 4” bump, 12” droop (Ideal)

The compromise here to make both work is with the Racing dimensions. Ideally we all would like more bump, but this would not be possible running the same 16” travel shock between racing and crawling.

Over the holiday weekend, we will continue working on the shocks.  From there, our focus will shift in mounting everything under the hood.  This way we can get the Scat motor back in the hands of Powerhouse Motorsports for some final assembly.  Until next time, have a great Thanksgiving!