Author Topic: Any members do a full XV conversion  (Read 9455 times)

Offline ChallengerHK

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Re: Any members do a full XV conversion
« Reply #15 on: April 28, 2012 - 05:23:46 PM »
I'd also question the safety comment as well. You do know that the vast majority of today's SUV use torsion bar/leaf spring suspension and they seem to operate very safely on the nation's roadways. I can't comment on the situation you were involved in 25 years ago as there are too many variables that I don't know and you may have forgotten, but I'm very confident that the stock set up is very safe.

I concur with this. My Challenger was bone stock with no sway bars, and I used to drive the hell out of it, and I never came close to rolling. In fact, of all my vehicles, all of which were driven hard, the only one I came close to rolling was a 75 CJ-5, 2" lift and 32" tires, and even then the fault was mine for being distracted and not paying attention to the radius of a curve.


"She'll make point five past light speed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, and I've made a lot of special modifications myself."

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Offline gkring

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Re: Any members do a full XV conversion
« Reply #16 on: April 28, 2012 - 07:48:52 PM »

Does he speak from experience?  Doubt it.

The only one I wouldn't drive on the street is the Magnumforce racing one.   If gonna do the XV, get the billet upper arms as I've seen their welded steels ones come apart.

I've heard of ZERO issues w/the RMS Alterk.  Someday hope to install mine.



I heard of one instance of their tubular aluminum arms that broke. Since then they have switched to steel tubular and an optional billet aluminum one. They switched out my unused tubular alum ones for a set of steel ones. I don't like the look of the billet alum ones and I wasn't willing to spring for the price difference. I think you may be mistaken in saying that their steel arms have come apart in one or more instances, but if you have seen that as well I definitely would like to know. Just to reinforce the other opinions, yes the XV stuff is very pretty, functional, expensive, and totally unnecessary for 99% of the people out there (including me).
Greg
1970 Challenger convertible-in process
1970 Barracuda driver

Offline jvike

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Re: Any members do a full XV conversion
« Reply #17 on: April 29, 2012 - 05:59:52 PM »
I've read the Mopar Action article, it seemed a little odd to me. I do not have any firsthand experience on the RMS, so I can't comment on that. But I do belive the RMS is a very competitive suspension system. However I have the XV lvl II  and I am very confident on the engineering behind it. He bashes the heim joints becouse they don't last forever, well, tie rods doesn't either, it's called maintinance. Frame trough bolts are also no good. Shows his research, XV do use sleeves welded in the rails. He says the OEM does not have any welded parts, but fail to mention that the XV doesn't either (if you opt for the billet UCAs). He even think the T-Bar is F1 equipment. It's not. I know some cars used it in 1970, but todays cars uses double wishbone suspension. I would'nt care to much about that article. That beeing said, he has one valid point, and that is that the OEM T-Bar suspension can be made to handle with the very best of them, no doubt. But you need to nail the spring rates, make the chassis rigid, and adobt geometry to take advantage of the radial tire.

 :working:
« Last Edit: April 29, 2012 - 06:04:35 PM by jvike »
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Offline HP2

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Re: Any members do a full XV conversion
« Reply #18 on: April 30, 2012 - 09:57:24 AM »
I agree that the stock set up can be made better, but the biggest drawback to mopar's t-bar suspension is that there are only a few, maybe four that are readily available, five if you score a larger set that some is selling on a message board,  stepped up rates available. This severly limits the range of rate adjustment you can utilize.

Of course, there are also very few poeple putting these cars into hard core racing situaitons that require more than the 400# wheel rate of the 1.22 t-bar, but if you did need it, that is the ceiling of wheel rates in a classic mopar. For the GM and Ford camps, that is about mid-range performance levels for racing and they only go up from there. Mopars are in a situation that if you need more wheel rate, you have to go coil over or spend really big dollars on custom shocks to go the big sway bar/soft spring route that the nascar boys are doing now days.

Offline EbodyPro572

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Re: Any members do a full XV conversion
« Reply #19 on: May 02, 2012 - 05:31:12 PM »
I purchased Bill Reilly's AlterKtion set-up, had everything powder-coated, installed, and it looks awesome!  Challenger's not on the road yet, but will be pretty soon.  Can't wait!
'ALWAYS Restore.....NEVER Discard'
73 Challenger; 04 Rumble Bee (Yello, of course); 01 Vehicross (Yello, of course, too); 90 Allante' (not Yello, just red); 79 MGB-V8; 68 Century Resorter;
73 Marlin Ski (468" Olds) Jet Boat; 06 Harley Fat Boy CVO; 73 Yamaha Golf Cart (Yello, of course); 07 Sears Garden Tractor