question - I just installed the calmini 3" kit and not 10 minutes after I got home, the driver side torsion bar snapped. It didnt take long for the passenger side to do the same. Anyone have any insight as to what possible went wrong?

as i stated in my email to B- the only thing i can think of is that the t-bars that were shipped were a set of the t-bars that CALMINI wasn't supposed to ship due to the failed hardness test: http://www.xterraownersclub.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000348

i've had mine on for a few weeks now, and i've had no problems with any of the lift components. i've been off-road twice, and stressed the suspension quite a bit in that time. nothing has loosened or broken (knocking on wood with one hand while typing with the other )

Ah I will call Calmini on Monday and see what they say. Thanks Sean!

Snapped as broken into pieces? Or, snapped as popped out of sockets? ....Just curious to know exactly what happened..

According to Calmini it was their own testing that found the problem, but maybe they tested them after someone broke one? In any case, that's why I'm still waiting for mine. I almost changed my order through xterraparts to the Sway-Aways but decided to stick with the Calmini bars. Hope the new ones pass the test! I'm very tempted to change my order if they haven't shipped yet, but I'll probably talk to Calmini first.

In related news, I went ahead and reindexed my stock bars today so I could lift the front more. I also installed the Calmini shackles. My truck is tall now!

Broke in 2 pieces. Near the rear socket. They both broke in nearly the same place. But, I theorize that the second one broke because the first one was not there sharing the load. Of course that could be way off since I really dont know all of the physics involved.

That sucks..

It will be interesting to see if the bars that snapped are the new ones or the old ones (Sway-Away)

My guess is that a set of bars slipped through that were not tested.

edit.. Do you have any pictures or the breaks?

One going shouldn't cause any more stress on the other as far as I know.

I've seen one Sway-A-Way bar go, but that was after a hard hit to the suspension:



Brent

MVM blew a Sway-Away at Nissan Net.. I was about 100 yards away when it blew and I could still hear it.

Wrong.
-Chris

OK, how so? The suspension drops onto the bump stop and remains supported. What additional stress does this put on the opposite side torsion bar?

Carlton, that's MVM's truck in my pic, I was there too ya know...

Brent

Let's say the drivers side snaps.

Before failure at equilibrium each side is supporting rougly 1000 lbf unsprung weight. Let's say the torsion bars are roughly 200 lbf-ft/° spring rate and the a-arm is roughly 1' long. Figuring that you you have roughly 1000 ft-lbf of torque on the torsion bar, this equates to about 5° of rotation between the 2 torsion bar sockets. This 5° equates to about 100 ksi of max shear stress.

Now, when the first one snaps it's like a domino effect. The truck dumps onto it's drivers side bumpstop. The passenger side as well drops as it has to come back into equilibruim and carry some of the unsprung weight of the drivers side becasue the passerside torsion is still trying to keep the truck up at ride height. The difference is the unspring weight in the differnt angles of the torsion bar. Where the passenger side was once 5° it's now 7.5°. Now this translates into a force of about 150 ksi, which is 1.5x what it saw before the drivers side broke.

The numbers have been made up to illistrate the concept, but it goes to show that if you have 2 faulty torsion bars that once one fails the other will fail shortly thereafter.

~rate me~

Perhaps you'd like to higher me as a expert consultant.
-Chris BSME

Is there a right and left on the Calmini bars? The sway aways I mounted needed to be mounted in proper orientation.

I'm sure Calmini will be replying to this on Monday. I'm not a stress expert, but if one fails, wouldn't it release tension on the other side as the failure side would droop, and the other would rise releaving tension on the good bar?

Oh the humanity. Did you just say max sheer stress? Sent a cold chill down my spine.

Rick
BSME

(I still have heat transfer nightmares)

Hey all, I just talked to Calmini. They were waiting my call and totally hooked me up!!! They are going to 2 day new T - Bars. Talk about making good on a bad situation!!! Thanks guys!

Not being an ass, but were they installed the proper way. Putting them on the wrong sides, or in backwards could break them.

From what I have read almost everywhere (and since Saturday, i have done some research on this) they do not become side specific until after they are intalled the first time. This is what the instructions said that came with lift as well.

as well, the CALMINIs are symmetrical front-to-back, so there is no "wrong" way to install them...

They are all symetrical front and back. The SAW bars have to be installed a certain way I know for sure.

-Chris

Lets see your Mohr's circle.

Just another annoying geek online,
ALAN
(bsme, like you care)

Ha... You bunch a sucka's!
BEME! No BS for me!

-Too bad the Marine Corps doesn't have a way for me to use my degree. Now I'm a computer geek of all things (sort of).

Sorry, couldn't resist, and no I don't expect that to grant me credibility here.

You wanna bet? I can install anything incorrectly

hehe only kidding..

I once had a MOHR's Circle program on my Ti-89 calculator. that helped me thru my materials and soils classes. Now that I am working....how many times I have used MOHR..............big fat zero!!

-KJ (not BSME, BSCE!!!)