Date:         Fri, 2 May 1997 15:39:55 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         kelphoto@mail.bright.net (mark keller)
Subject:      Handling differences of Camper/Van

        Well, I read the note about handling and swaybars etc for the new
camper owner.  A couple of things occured to me that can shed some light on
the differencs. I'm kinda rusty on this, its from my aviation days, but
here goes.

          Motor vehicles have a few things which affect the cornering or
broadly speaking handling on the road. Where to start? Well polar axis is
where the van actually pivots when cornering, around the rear wheels, kinda
like a shopping cart.

        Center of gravity is both a horiztal and vertical location, kinda
of an x axis, y axis thing. Imagine if you were to " horizontally spin" a
van around its Center of gravity. I submit that a van's spin axis would be
closer to the polar axis, since compared to a camper the weight distrubtion
is more to rear.   The spin axis of camper would be much farther foward of
the polar axis since nearly all of the added weight is forward of the polar
axis.

        Using a shopping cart for example, the more weight you add to the
nose of it, milk,meat,canned pop, and etc, the harder you have to work to
turn the thing. Contrawise if you were to place these items in the back, on
top to the polar axis you could "turn the same weight" with much less
effort. Ok now to the tires.

        Since it's the front tires that must generarte the force, to turn
the van, sidewall construction, and centrical force interplay to do the
job. Micheliens, as rule have the most flexiable sidewalls of all tire
brands, that's why I love em.  They ride great!!  However a cost is
involved, at slower speeds the sidewalls aren't that ridged and the
"handling is kinda mushy. But, cleverly, Michelien's have most of their
weight at the outer circumferance in the tread and hence are able to
generate great centrifical force at high speeds, which in turn makes the
tire very rigid , but absorb bumps and stuff very well.

        There's more to say about the height change in the vertical
location the Cg between the two vehicles but I've got to get back to the
salt mine, more later.   MK

PS email me any questions in the meantime I'll try to clarify or own up to
my mistakes.