Skid Wheels to prevent scraping

[Brorag]

Has anyone had any experience using something like these to prevent your lowered porsche from bottoming out?

[andyt11]

I dont think that would be a good idea at any kind of quicker speed.

[Ramathorn]

Maybe im missing something but, that wheel thing looks like a bad thing all around. Figure if you mount it to the body somehow or somewhere, you are basically lowering that point of the car that much and when you hit something with it probably gonna do a good amount a damage (expecially at speed).

[Porchcar guy]

PEL-SP7002 - skid plates work great on my car under the front spoiler area

[McLovin]

We're way ahead of you!

Just make sure you've got a huge drill, a box of drill bits, and your Ace Hardware charge card ready to go. Oh, and a 6 pack or a quart of Tequila probably wouldn't hurt, either.

Training wheels on my Porsche

[skunked]

Originally Posted by McLovin

We're way ahead of you!

Just make sure you've got a huge drill, a box of drill bits, and your Ace Hardware charge card ready to go. Oh, and a 6 pack or a quart of Tequila probably wouldn't hurt, either.

Training wheels on my Porsche

oh wow

[wildcat077]

Originally Posted by Brorag

Has anyone had any experience using something like these to prevent your lowered porsche from bottoming out?

YIKES ....

Cheers !
Phil

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Brorag

to prevent your lowered porsche from bottoming out?

You have at least three conditions to design for.

1. Low speed contact

2. High speed contact

3. Contact from weight shift under intense braking (nose dive)

...............................................

1. Low speed contact includes crawling up a steep drive with steps in it (like I once faced), you can get away with just about anything, for a little while.

2. High speed contact is unavoidable in some areas (ie; Michigan's potholes), it will rip off weak designs, stronger designs will transfer impact forces to what ever you tie them to (like front torsion bar mounts). Neither option sounds attractive to me.

3. JMPRO (I think) said an experimental set of neoprene rollers (with cross bar axle to distribute load to both front torsion bar mounting points) on a lowered 911 made the braking less effective under extreme braking conditions, because the rollers would roll or lift the front end. The result was longer braking distances, a bad thing (of course).

.................................................. ..

You can do what ever you want, it's your car.

However there is no long term or "safe win" solution which will address all three conditions - in my opinion.

.................................................. .........

Maybe you can invent a retractable system. One which can be deployed when needed, and tucked back up while underway.

The only people who don't make mistakes, are the people who do nothing.

My experiment did what it was designed to do, for as long as I needed it, and then self destructed with no damage to the pan. The few screw/bolt holes I had to make were easily filled with dabs of JB-Weld. I do not recommend anyone repeating my moment of desperation.

EDIT: Would a a retractable chin spoiler do more and be easier to make?

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by McLovin

We're way ahead of you!

Just make sure you've got a huge drill, a box of drill bits, and your Ace Hardware charge card ready to go. Oh, and a 6 pack or a quart of Tequila probably wouldn't hurt, either.

Training wheels on my Porsche

OMFG. That's some funny sheet!

[mrm930]

Ah, why?

[JMPRO]

The design I have been using for several years now is shown below. I don't have a pic handy of the wheels installed on the car but I think you get the idea. The brackets replace the stock hooks and skid plates. The wheels are designed so that the wheel can not touch the ground in the event of a flat or blowout. I made a set for Jack Olsen that he used on his car he but found out the wheels did contact the ground in extreme cornering with a very low car, with the suspension severely compressed.. The brackets need to be very heavy duty. After testing several kinds of wheels I decided the hard urethane worked best and have lasted the longest. Steel wheels of coarse are heavy duty but make such a racket when they encounter a driveway that I decided that replacing the urethane wheels as needed was the best solution. I haven't had to replace the wheels yet after several years.

[kach22i]

Thanks for the update JMPRO, your latest design reveals that it is a product of evolution and development after several false starts. Well thought out ahead of time and not installed in haste or desperation as a temporary fix. It seems like it would work under most conditions without self destructing as well.

To anyone reading, if you regularly use a drive which scrapes up full sized cars and just murders your 911 (my neighbor with said drive - ended up buying a full sized SUV to get around the problem), look into raising the front of your car. Avoidance is still your best option.

If you raise it too much you can throw the handling and balance off (to the point of dangerous). However on my car which was in storage for several years before I purchased it, had settled too low.

The adjustment screws up front were near or at the lowest point, creating a nose down, butt up stance. This lowered front end aggravated the driveway scraping condition, which no amount of angled approach could resolve.

If memory serves I adjusted up just a little bit maybe 1/2", and gained another 1/2" by taking the weight of the spare out. This resulted in still a slightly nose down stance, but good handling.

EDIT: I also had 50 series tires on 15" wheels/rims which made the car sit another 1/2" lower. Nothing but trouble sitting that low in Michigan.

[Brorag]

retractable? hard urethane?

My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives...................................... .................

OK, OK, I get it!!!!!!!!!!! This is starting to be funnier'n hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...........come to think of it, a pub, Guiness, and a lousy parking lot entrance caused the last scrape................

OK, so here's the fix..............................



Alternatively, hard urethane spinny round thingies of small diameter seem to be the best alternative for us luddites who live in places other than Flatland and want low cars but undamaged a/c condensers............

[kach22i]

Your sense of humor survived intact, well done.

Short of turning your Porsche into a Citroën DS with hydropneumatic suspension, your options are limited.

[Brorag]

JMPro,
Actually, that looks like a good way to go, rather than steel.
Guys, remember, this setup is designed to do what JMPRO did above: to take the hit in an unusually bumpy situation, instead of softer, more costly things. Looks like they will actually ride a bit higher (certainlly no lower)than the plates I now have on the car.
I might weld up a set and try them.

JMPRO,where did you find the wheels?

[JMPRO]

[QUOTE=Brorag;6192716]JMPro,
Actually, that looks like a good way to go, rather than steel.
Guys, remember, this setup is designed to do what JMPRO did above: to take the hit in an unusually bumpy situation, instead of softer, more costly things. Looks like they will actually ride a bit higher (certainlly no lower)than the plates I now have on the car.
I might weld up a set and try them.

JMPRO,where did you find the wheels?[/QUOTE


Found them in a boat shop. It is one keel roller cut into two pieces then drilled for a larger axel.

[RoninLB]

I was thinking of a wide skid plate

[JMPRO]

A skid plate is fine but I wanted to get away from that scraping noise from metal dragging on pavement that makes everyone look at you and wonder what kind of a dingbat does that to a Porsche.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by JMPRO

A skid plate is fine but I wanted to get away from that scraping noise from metal dragging on pavement that makes everyone look at you and wonder what kind of a dingbat does that to a Porsche.

Maybe we just all need really dark tinted windows.

[Brorag]

what do you have in mind?