I ended up riding the rig to the market twice both times with different passengers. The first trip was with Bridget and the second with my son, Kyle. It was obvious when my son was standing on the sidecar step that the soft spring on the sidecar dramatically changes the tilt of the tug. This would really affect the handling.
So, I messed around with the sidecar alignment some more and violated the primary rule of debugging, I made a whole bunch of changes at one time. Initially, I had removed the sidecar windshield and got back the neutral handling with no passenger. With a passenger, it was still much better than it was on Sunday. I'm amazed at the difference the sidecar windshield has on handling. I then swapped out the sidecar spring over shock from the Progressive unit with the one that originally came with the sidecar. I had installed the Progressive unit since it has a much softer spring and I thought that it would ride better. The original one is much, much stiffer and even with a passenger, it doesn't compress very much. This shock is also about 1" shorter than the Progressive unit that I had been using so it reduced the lean of the tug slightly even with no load. I increased the length of the upper struts by two turns and restored the lean to around 2°. With these changes, I gave my son a ride to the farmers market and the steering only pulled to the right during acceleration but was relatively neutral. And is still neutral without a passenger. Maybe I'll put the windshield back on for another test.
It is a rather large windshield when compared to the size of the tub....though I am surprised as well by your experience with it. As to the conversion to the stiffer spring, makes sense that it would cause issues due changing the tilt of the car.....
ReplyDeleteWith the current setup, there is no no pulling to the right at all, completely neutral without a passenger and only slight pulling to the right with a passenger. Though the low speed shimmy has returned. Maybe it's time to figure out a steering damper beyond the stock friction damper.
DeleteThe Farmer's Market is a sure sign of Spring.
ReplyDeleteAnd once they start selling produce, a sure sign of Summer!
DeleteRichard:
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you have your Farmer's Market. It is too early for our markets to open, but soon. We were out in Abbotsford/Chilliwack and we only saw one outlet open this early in the year and they may be selling produce imported from CA. That's the way it was on Granville Island a couple of weeks ago. They had lots of fresh veggies but all the empty boxes outside were mostly from California
bob
A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast
The Farmers Market is where a lot of people start their own gardens as there are a number of vendors selling starts or potted tomato plants. The alternative is expensive produce in the grocery stores. Locally grown produce is a good business to be in.
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