Originally Posted by
therealpinto Those videos are nice but we have to remember they are made with the perspective of a car with air suspension, not really "performance suspension". Normally, the ride height at the rear should be at 50% travel, meaning you have the same amount of compression and droop. In a car with springs the ride height is also "set", we don't change that from time to time.
Therefor I say the correct way to setup a panhard rod for "our cars" is at ride height - that is the setting where the car will be driven. That also means that it is right around ride height you want the axle to move as little as possible from side to side (that's why we want the panhard horizontal). You also want the total height to match the front roll center, in a normal front engined car you generally want the rear roll center a little bit higher than the front, but not too much. Normally in an Escort putting the panhard bar so the height is the same as the axle center works fine. But it can be interesting to have alternative mounting points to set it lower (but still horizontal) to see what a lower roll centre feels like.
The truck arm video (or 2-link) is not really relevant for the Escort, that's a completely different system. There are no leaf springs in the video sketches, the rectangles are frame rails and the 2-link or the truck arms are used with air springs. 2-link is the same as a ladder bar and that is useless on a car that needs to turn, since, just like video says, it limits articulation. Truck arms are different since the angle in towards the center and also are designed to flex.
Gustaf
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