Wheel knuckle change ball to heim joints

Continuing the Meanderer custom tilting recumbent tadpole trike project, here is the previous post:

• Meanderer trike test assemble front suspension — October 11, 2025

...as shown in the photos, the ball-joints on the wheel-knuckles have insufficient vertical rotation for tilting. Here is another photo to show the problem with the ball-joints:

The decision was made to replace them with heim-joints. Performed surgery on the wheel-knuckles:

Then created brackets for holding the heim-joints, with washers welded on for a thicker wall:

...the bracket is 35mm wide, 3mm wall thickness. I made the washers out of 25x3mm steel strap. Then the brackets welded onto the wheel knuckles:

I have a short length of carbon steel tube 10mm ID 14mm OD, so used that, cut off pieces as spacers so that the heim-joint is in the middle. Here is one of them assembled:

...as the photo shows, it swivels up ok, but I will need to cut out a bit of the bracket to improve the swing downward.

The horizontal swiveling is a concern, as it will restrict the turning radius of the trike. I have done some calculations, and reckon it will be ok; about 2.5 metre turning radius. Maybe less if can keep the wheel-base short.

There are spacers available especially for heim-joints; Pedro Neaves has used them in his project:

But then, his trike design has a rather long wheel-base (distance from front wheel to rear wheel), so he needs to get as much horizontal swivel as possible. The above photo is from Pedro's YouTube video:

"#6 New Steering and Suspension 3D Printed - Tadpole Tilting Cargo Trike"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CExsbG3lgJQ

Pedro is attempting to get more tilt than my design, and that causes a problem with the tie-rods. Pedro has experimented with using a universal-joint instead of a ball-joint:

...not so good, as that will play havoc with the steering geometry.

I don't yet know whether ball-joints or heim-joints on the tie-rods will suffice in my design. In retrospect, it is good that I decided to be very cautious and restrict the leaning to a maximum of 15 degrees off vertical.

EDIT 2025-10-18:
I used a bandsaw to cut those spacers, but it may be a problem for someone in their home workshop. They need to be cut exactly vertical, and just using a hacksaw might not be good enough. A mitre-box might help, but the very cheap ones are not so good. The alternative is to buy ready-made spacers. These for example, stainless steel:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008186938469.html

I ordered some, for anticipated future use, 10x14x7 and 10x14x8.

I understand that if you are in the USA, your situation is currently difficult regarding international purchases, especially huge tariffs imposed on goods from China.      

Tags: light