Quote:
Originally Posted by SlowOne
The wishbone moves a fixed distance. If the lever is a long way from the centre section, it will move teh lever a small amount, and thus twist the centre section a little. Move the lever closer to the centre section and for the same movement of the wishbone, you will twist the centre section a lot. More twist tries harder to lift the other wishbone, thus making the front end 'stiffer'
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I would absolutely agree with this analysis if the pickup point on the other side of the car remained in a constant position.
However the opposite side of the roll bar mounting is always moved the same, so the levers are mirrored, and the added twist of the bar on the input makes no difference, as added twist is needed on the output to lift the wishbone by the same amount.
The analogy I keep returning to is that of a see-saw, with me and my daughter sat on it. If she is sat on the seat, I need to sit near the pivot to balance (a smaller force having a greater effect due to unequal lever length). However, if my brother (of equal weight in this example) swaps places with her, it doesn't matter how far in or out on the see-saw he sits, if I sit directly opposite, we will always balance (the size of the force is irrelevant if the levers and forces are equal).
If you can explain why the length the output lever in an ARB is irrelevant to the length of the input, I would really appreciate it.