Considering heim joints for wheel knuckles

Yesterday I considered ball joints on the wheel knuckles:

https://bkhome.org/news/202403/considering-ball-joints-for-wheel-knuckles.html

At the workshop today, I constructed another design, using two heim joints top and bottom:

The orientation of the heim joints has the advantage of allowing any amount of vertical displacement of the wheel relative to trike frame.

The downside is weight. It has the original m12 bolt, inserted through a steel tube with brass sleeve insert. I cut off the head of the bolt and welded it to the cube, as can be seen on the left of the photo. I didn't weigh yesterday's design when assembled, but estimating by weighing the parts, today's design is about 330g heavier. For both sides, that is 660g (0.73 Imperial pounds).

With the original trike suspension, that I had almost completed, I found that the weight had got much higher than desired. A bit of extra weight here and there; it adds up. In particular, the sprung part, the wheel knuckle, should be as light as possible. So, I am not going to take today's design any further.

I'll be back at the workshop after Easter, want to try one more design variant. Oh yeah, Easter has rolled around again. Happy Easter guys!    

Tags: light