I only did a ten mile circuit on my way home but it included one particularly bump steer inducing section , it is definitely a massive improvement . The wheel still moves around a fair bit but it feels fine . I felt confident enough to overtake a lorry on a bumpy bit , something I would not have attempted before . Overall very worthwhile .
Dare I say ....this is how it should have been in the first place !
Off to pick my son up from work and do a bit more testing
Sorry, guys missed the questions aimed at me. This is the text AeroRacing are putting out ref the SUPLEX upgrade for the M3W:
*************** Morgan Three Wheeler ~ AeroRacing/SUPLEX Suspension Upgrade
SUPLEX UK Ltd, the major suspension supplier to Morgan Motor Company, has developed a new and sophisticated front and rear suspension system to give handling worthy of a high performance lightweight sports car yet give good ride on variable sealed tarmac type surfaces. This is available from your Morgan dealers through Morgan ‘AeroRacing’.
The front suspension is designed to give high resistance to roll to encourage maintenance of high cruising speeds through fast corners with good steering control and precision, yet is soft enough over road surface roughness to give a comfortable ride but is still able to stiffen up over bigger bumps to prevent unpleasant thumps. The damping is adjustable to enable the car to be set up for different weights of occupants and luggage. NB This front suspension system will work very well with the original steering configuration as it limits unpleasant ‘bump steer’ and is of course also compatible with the later Morgan ‘Comfort Pack’ steering configuration.
The rear suspension is designed to provide good ride for just the driver or ‘two up’ with significant luggage by the springs stiffening up in bump that work in conjunction with adjustable damping.
How is this done? The unique front dampers incorporate an internal rebound spring that significantly stiffens the suspension in rebound/droop, so in a fast corner the inside front corner will not lift on the suspension and only the outer wheel suspension compresses. Thus the instantaneous roll centre moves from the vehicle centre line to the contact patch of the inner wheel and thus not only very significantly increases roll resistance but the roll centre stays fixed in that location during the corner facilitating accurate steering precision. [This effect mirrors the high roll resistance effect achieved with the highly successful SUPLEX RS front suspension system on the ‘Traditional’ four wheelers.] The front suspension units also incorporate an elastomeric ‘spring assist’ on the damper rod that is far more sophisticated than a simple bump stop, this significantly stiffens the suspension in bump to allow good ride over rough surfaces yet is able to absorb the bigger bumps before full bump impacts occur. Although there is a threaded spring seat, this is only there to ensure the correct ride height dependent on the weight carried. The dampers are highly gas pressurised ‘mono tubes’ to maintain the damping levels when used hard as the fluid will not foam and the heat generated is quickly dissipated. An easily accessible knob will adjust the damping in a fixed bump:rebound ratio by adjusting the internal valving; this is to ensure that the excellent ride control can be maintained for whatever weight is carried.
The rear dampers are also highly gas pressurised ‘mono tubes’ with easily adjustable damping with a fixed bump:rebound ratio to give the same ride and handling benefits as the front dampers. The spring however is a nonuniformly wound progressive/rising rate spring that gives a soft ride over normal road surfaces yet again will stiffen over bigger bumps or when significant luggage is carried. There are also rebound springs in the rear units to control the rear wheel over big bumps, bearing in mind all rear load is on one wheel so is not split between two wheels. The rebound spring limits the lift of the rear after a bump to prevent loss of steering directional control that would otherwise occur with a momentary reduction is steering castor angle. There are also spring seat height adjusters so that the rear ride height can be set to accommodate a wide range of weights of occupants and luggage.
Summary – this is a very sophisticated total vehicle suspension system able to provide excellent handling for such a light high performance three wheeler yet achieve high levels of comfort for longer journeys two up with luggage. *****************
The ride height and dampers are set from SUPLEX to suit normal usage. Regards PJB.
Thanks very much for that. I think I shall bite the bullet and order the Suplex dampers. From this description, the standard settings may well suit me. However, supposing I want to do some fine tuning, how easy is it to adjust them after fitting? I could not see any markings on them in the photo posted in this thread, so I was wondering how you know whether you are up, down or somewhere in between...
Damping adjustment is easy on the SUPLEX dampers for the M3W off the car or when installed. The adjustment knobs are at the top of the units on the axis of the damper rod below the top eye. See photo, you can see the (red) adjusters. There are a set number of 'clicks' between full soft and full hard, they are set mid way which is intended to give optimum damping, but some like it softer and some harder. IF you need advice on setting then either ask me or SUPLEX directly. Have fun - PJB
I've now done around 300 miles since the Comfort Kit was fitted and have been on a wide variety of roads including the most bump steer inducing roads I know , for around a third of it I had a passenger .
Overall the improvement is fantastic . As I posted after my first brief run , the wheel still moves around a fair bit on bumpy roads , but the vicious kickback has gone completely , and I didn't get thrown violently off course once .
I was easily able to go 20mph faster on some of the worst roads i know . Amazingly during some of the testing my son and his dog both went to sleep !! One thing did show up though , now I'm able to go so much faster on rough roads the inadequacy of the standard shocks was really noticable , particularly with a passenger . The rear was especially poor when making 'good progress' !
So overall , if anyone is pondering about having it fitted it really is worthwhile .
Ironically ( and I'm sure PJB will be glad to hear this ! ) I feel more inclined to fit the Suplex kit now than I did before ......anyone got any spare money they don't want ?!
The burning (hopefully not cash) question for me is what the combination of the Suplex Kit with the Empire Racing Kit will do to the car. If handling Nirvana is possible will this be as close as we can get? Speculation?
...on rough roads the inadequacy of the standard shocks was really noticeable...
Hear hear! In ordinary driving, they perform adequately and I find the ride quality overall surprisingly good. But once you start to push a bit harder, the dampers struggle to keep up. I think perhaps they overheat. Yesterday, with a combination of full throttle in second gear, a fair amount of slip angle and some kind of surface irregularity, the rear wheel hopped a couple of times and moved off line, which was mildly scary.
I have a bit of spare cash. However, I'm sorry to inform you that I plan to spend it on a set of Suplex springs/dampers.
Black Adder , I suspect that that would be the ultimate combination , we just need Paul to fit the Suplex to his Empire modified car and report back !
And Peter I think it's rather selfish to spend your money on your own car !! Although I look forward to hearing your analysis when you've got them .Are you still waitng for the Comfort Kit ?
