Hello,

I usually inhabit the D1 section and am looking to gain more knowledge about the Series vehicles.

In this BaT listing https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...iia-santana-5/

it seems to me that the rear wheels are not properly aligned in the wheel well. I believe I've noticed this before on Series trucks. Is there something to this or am I just looking at it all wrong?

 

Strangely enough, that is normal.

 

If you mean fore and aft, the leaf springs have a fixed pivot point at the front of the springs, so the wheel will move fore and aft as it moves up and down with different loading.

 

Got it. So when that side of the suspension is compressed, the leaf spring acts as an arm moving through an arc. By the time it hits fully horizontal, the wheel is centered (or even aft).

Thank you for that explanation.

 

I wish I could find a better photo of mine, but here it is. I don’t regret selling it, but I do miss it.

 

I wouldn't describe it quite like that, but it is close enough conceptually. Leaf springs have an arch to them. As when anything curves gets straightened, it gets longer. For leaf springs, there is a dead head and a live head (some have toyed with live heads at both ends over the centuries, including on transverse setups, but found it more complicated and rarely more effective, but it's not possible to actually pull off dead heads at both ends becauae of the physics of it all-- the spring has to get longer... but it can't). With one end fixed (the dead head), the other end (live head) relies on a shackle or other 'slider' mechanism to move when the spring is forced into compression. This dead-live configuration means the axle necessarily moves rearward during compression because the spring is longer.

In the case of LR, they decided (or tossed a coin?) that the "wheel centered in opening" position would be under so.e quantity of spring compression, whereas 99.99% of other manufacturers locate the center with the spring at rest... likely because people notice such things looking at their car in the driveway, but not in the instant that the suspension is compressing under load from a hooptie in the trail.

/2 cents