strut brace choice

[9elf]

Drsimonwong,

How did you go with freight?

I have just been informed that it will cost US$345.00 for freight, and this is on a US$240.00 item? Needless to say I can't justify that.

Is there a cheaper way to get it in the country?

Ash,

You seemed to get it in USPS OK, but pelican can't post it USPS.

Chuck,

I will send you a PM.

[Fishcop]

Craig, PMed you.

[drsimonwong]

9elf, I paid $240 for the brace set and $84 for freight totalling $344 or A$430. Customs hit me with A$43 in GST.

If you can organize to get it sent USPS then it will escape the GST charge.

Is that worth it? Not if you live in the States but anything under A$500 for a strut brace here in Oz is excellent value. Plus it won't be triangulated at that.

Chuck, cameraless at the moment but will post soon, althought it looks just like the LHD cars.....:-)

Simon

[randywebb]

Get fishcop to make another visit to the USA - he sneak a a dozen strut braces out in his baggage (hopefully they won't look like nuclear bomb making equipment [tubes for ultra-centrifuges] like that stuff in Nigeria)

[9elf]

Fishcop has got his arms and legs stuffed into a gearbox somewhere. I'll ask him when he disentangles himself.

[SLO-BOB]

Just installed the Elephant Racing strut bar today. Took about an hour. I like the look and simplicity.



Two points of constructive criticism; I would not black anodize the bars as the anodizing will (has already) scratch (ed). Also, the two retaining half nuts on the driver's side conflict with each other. My opinion is they would be better left off. The remaining half nuts on the passenger side would still lock the bar in place. These could be omitted by the installer. I didn't figure it out until the bar was already on and just left it.



Overall I'm very pleased with the product and would purchase it again. Saturday I'll see if it helps in the handling dept in the Ozark twisties.

PS-if you'll notice in the close up-"USA". Nice Chuck! No cheap parts!

[9elf]

Sebring,

I just got mine in the mail.

I don't really understand the anodizing process, but could I bead blast it off and have an acceptable finish?

[Wil Ferch]

I think a triangulated bar works best for reasons that Chuck Moreland states on his web site.

This takes care of the core purpose of the strut bar. It does not address the shock ( itself) still being able to move around inside its own shock tower housing. Monoballs would be the next obvioius step if this is a concern. A simple "cross-bar" does not cut-it...IMHO...

The Rennline product as well as Chuck's ( Elephant) are both class acts. The Rennline is not overly complicated when one considers that it doesn't require to drill a hole on the floor pan....it uses a stirrup set up using the bolts for the Master cylinder.

- Wil

[SLO-BOB]

Originally posted by 9elf
Sebring,

I just got mine in the mail.

I don't really understand the anodizing process, but could I bead blast it off and have an acceptable finish?

Don't get me wrong-I think the black ano is plenty acceptable. I wouldn't touch it. But, I do think it will show nicks more than the silver. My opinion- the old silver finish probably looks better in the long run, but the black looks better new. Also, ask Chuck if you can ditch the half nuts on the side that has both struts tied together. I would simply say driver's side but if I recall, your car is right hand drive. Anyway, I think it would be fine and would simplify the tensioning process.

Wil-My car already had the hole which made it a no-brainer. However, drilling the hole would be quite easy. Also, it shouldn't scare people away because it's not like you're really drilling a hole in the floor and see through to pavement. It's just the sheetmetal adjacent to the smuggler's box. It's entirely within the trunk and not exposed to the elements.

[Bill Verburg]

I'll start by sayiung intuitively the triangulated truss seems better but every finite element analysis that I have seen shows that a strut brace as used on a 911/964/993 front is in tension only, add to that the fact the factory only used simple tower to tower bars and I have to come down on the side of horizontal bar only.

Factory 993 bar

[tangerine911e]

There is also the issue here is Aust that using a triagulated brace may put you up a class in club events (I could be wrong, but that is my understanding). With a simple strut there is no class change.

Ash

[randywebb]

"tension only" - the old ads for these things (Weltmeister?) used to say that was true and that they had measured. A suitably motivated engineer could easily test this with a piezo-electric device and a datalogger....

[Chuck Moreland]

The horizontal bar is indeed in tension when cornering. This fact does not diminish the benefits and added rigidty imparted by triangulation.

The diagonal bar operates in both tension and compression, depending on which direction the car is turning.

I believe the horizontal bar is in compression under straight-line braking, but have no data to back that up


All 911s through 77 already have the hole in the trunk floor. 78+ require the addition of the hole, but as pointed out it is all internal to the trunk and not through to the ground.

[Bill Verburg]

I believe the horizontal bar is in compression under straight-line braking, but have no data to back that up

Intuitively that seems correct, but I don't really know either.

[SLO-BOB]

Originally posted by Chuck Moreland
I believe the horizontal bar is in compression under straight-line braking, but have no data to back that up

Chuck-Do you feel deleting the half nuts as described above would compromise your system? As stated, I left mine on, but it would be easier w/o them. I believe that under tension, they would be fine. However, under compression the half nuts probably help distribute load on the hardware. To what extent, I have no idea.

[Chuck Moreland]

My recommendation is to keep the jam nuts.

[randywebb]

So who is gonna wire one of these things up?

"Inquiring minds want to know..."

[slodave]

Thank you Pelican and Elephant. Ordered a triangulated brace Sunday late night, received the order today (Thursday) via UPS ground. Great service! I had a post regarding Targa stiffness:
Targa stiffness
decided to go with the front strut brace first - the SoCal winter is here and I don't think the roof will be off for a while. Maybe I'll add the body brace in the spring.

Dave

[Wil Ferch]

In answer to drilling a hole.... a few points....

- I understand it won't be a hole to the "outside" of the car.
- it makes placing a tool on the underside surface ( to tighten a bolt) a bit difficult in terms of access.
- a hole "here" creates an interference in opening the smuggler's box door with the diagonal.
- why drill if you don't have to ?
- why call the Rennline product "overly complicated" when it avoids this hole?...just call it different.

Bill V....Porsche likely went with a single bar to gain some structural strength between the shock towers...in other words....maybe not specifically to address handling issues, but to address structural stiffness. Or maybe even they simply didn't have the room with enlarged gas tanks in place, and couldn't do it. The engineering principle of triangulation is still sound.

Wil

[Thorsten S.]

Hello,

what do you think about this 2 braces? The white one is from an original 3.0 RS an the red one is my car. The brace for my car is from RUF.
Some years ago I had a strut brace from Weltmeister and after some laps on the track it made noise. I found out that the screw between the lower part and the horizontal aluminium part was not firm. I fixed it but some days later I had the same problem- even with colour on the screw.
Then I talkes to an suspension engineer from Weissach. He told me: "We want to connect the towers (tower brace) and not the upper end of the dampers- so look at the 3.0 RS. This is the way the factory did in the torsion bar cars"

Grüße
Thorsten