[binvius]

Hello you lovely people! With such a crazy amount of time gone into trying to work out a solution over the past weeks, I simply can not express how deeply grateful I'd be if anyone can spare a few seconds to offer any wisdom, pointers, ideas or thoughts what-so-ever, it really would mean the world to me.

The vehicle in question is a Polaris Ace side-by-side. The unique requirement in need of a solution is the vehicle needs to be stored in an area lower than the current roof height (even after maximum modifications.) This is unfortunately an unchangeable fact and therefore the point of this post.

Being an off-road buggy, the suspension is obviously paramount and as such comes with double wishbones, long-reach outbound shocks and coils, etc. I'm not at all hands-on familiar with this setup so have been going around in circles for weeks trying to find a solution to ideally electronically lower the vehicle whilst storing it.

There are several height-adjustable options on the market such as airbags but everything I have found involves raising the vehicle rather than lowering it from its factory height. One of the first ideas I had was potentially mounting an airbag alongside the shocks in such a fashion that when the airbags are full, the vehicle sits at the factory ride height so as to fully utilise the stock suspension setup.

To hopefully explain that better... (attach the bottom bracket of the airbag to the vehicle somewhere,) attach the top bracket of the airbag to a custom solid bracket that then runs parallel and is attached to the bottom bracket of the factory shock (with the top bracket of the factory shock attached to the vehicle somewhere.) Please see the included image at the bottom for a very rough idea.

In theory, this would solve the issue but I'm not mechanically knowledgeable enough to know if the extreme extra strain produced due to the load being transferred, would result in catastrophic failure. So any wisdom related to any of this would be greatly appreciated.

That same idea could possibly be flipped so in such a way that expanding the airbags forces the coil to compress (but suspect it wouldn't be happy stored like this.)

Other options could possibly be some sort of off-road race spec shocks (possibly bypass) that can empty everything out to drop the height down and then refill at the press of a button, but not having much luck on this research front.

Thank you so much in advance and warmest regards,

Binvius

 

[Jeepsbeme]

The obvious first question is: how much drop do you need to achieve?

 

[Huntsouthnz]

Without knowing the drop height as mentioned above - we are going to speculate! So deflating the tyres not an option for storage? Or a flat trolley under the ATV with wheels removed?

 

[binvius]

Without knowing the drop height as mentioned above - we are going to speculate! So deflating the tyres not an option for storage? Or a flat trolley under the ATV with wheels removed?

Thanks for the response!

I must apologise that I left out such important information as the post was primarily designed at exploring the structural integrity of transferring load across to a different plane. I also left out other info such as the need to potentially lower down more than once a day which makes wheel changes less than ideal, so apologies again for that.

Yes, the vehicle will be fitted with a central-tyre-inflation system so deflating the tyre pressure can be part of the solution. Unfortunately, we need much much more height reduction (ideally down to just the body) so are exploring further ideas.

We are aiming for maximum height reduction so cutting the roll cage down to the body and modifying it to a bolt-on version will deal with the top half. This post is more about the suspension end of things, whether that be suck-down winches, linear actuators, air shocks, bypass shocks, etc. or some new engineering such a rotating cams, hydraulic cantilevers, etc.

Cheers again!

 

[binvius]

The obvious first question is: how much drop do you need to achieve?

Thanks for the response!

I know it's not a great answer but we are looking for maximum height reduction. Switching the cage out for a bolt-on option helps a lot for the top half but for the suspension side of things, really just looking for any new highly engineered solutions that consider the structural integrity of transferring load across to a different plane or readily available solutions similar to things like rotating cams, hydraulic cantilevers, etc. or even aftermarket solutions such as linear actuators, air shocks, bypass shocks, etc.

There are some lovely people here so very much appreciate all the kind assistance and ideas.

Cheers!

 

[Jeepsbeme]

Without knowing knowing your specific target height reduction target in inches/centimeters, my take is that it’s likely to be all but impossible for anyone here to provide you with any realistic and meaningful input. I’m certain that there are plenty of people here who are more than willing and able to help, however the single most
crucial piece of information necessary to do that continues to be missing.

 

[Cadmaster14]

Hello you lovely people! With such a crazy amount of time gone into trying to work out a solution over the past weeks, I simply can not express how deeply grateful I'd be if anyone can spare a few seconds to offer any wisdom, pointers, ideas or thoughts what-so-ever, it really would mean the world to me.

The vehicle in question is a Polaris Ace side-by-side. The unique requirement in need of a solution is the vehicle needs to be stored in an area lower than the current roof height (even after maximum modifications.) This is unfortunately an unchangeable fact and therefore the point of this post.

Being an off-road buggy, the suspension is obviously paramount and as such comes with double wishbones, long-reach outbound shocks and coils, etc. I'm not at all hands-on familiar with this setup so have been going around in circles for weeks trying to find a solution to ideally electronically lower the vehicle whilst storing it.

There are several height-adjustable options on the market such as airbags but everything I have found involves raising the vehicle rather than lowering it from its factory height. One of the first ideas I had was potentially mounting an airbag alongside the shocks in such a fashion that when the airbags are full, the vehicle sits at the factory ride height so as to fully utilise the stock suspension setup.

To hopefully explain that better... (attach the bottom bracket of the airbag to the vehicle somewhere,) attach the top bracket of the airbag to a custom solid bracket that then runs parallel and is attached to the bottom bracket of the factory shock (with the top bracket of the factory shock attached to the vehicle somewhere.) Please see the included image at the bottom for a very rough idea.

In theory, this would solve the issue but I'm not mechanically knowledgeable enough to know if the extreme extra strain produced due to the load being transferred, would result in catastrophic failure. So any wisdom related to any of this would be greatly appreciated.

That same idea could possibly be flipped so in such a way that expanding the airbags forces the coil to compress (but suspect it wouldn't be happy stored like this.)

Other options could possibly be some sort of off-road race spec shocks (possibly bypass) that can empty everything out to drop the height down and then refill at the press of a button, but not having much luck on this research front.

Thank you so much in advance and warmest regards,

Binvius

View attachment 31409

First thing I would have to say is there is no such thing as an ACE side by side. They're called Ace for a reason. Sounds like you're talking about a Razor.