Using this part as a damper combined with a spring?

[TechnicSummse]

Today i found this part in a bulk of Lego wich i bought.

Did anyone ever try to use this as a damper, combined with a hard spring, to replicate a real car suspension?

-> like this:

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

Interesting, haven't seen this before. I think it takes up too much space. The shock is really the only thing you need. Though this may be useful in MOCs of the size of @Aleh 's Lonestar.

[doug72]

It’s used with an axle as a dummy hydraulic cylinder. I have some but prone to cracking around axle hole.

[Carsten Svendsen]

wouldn't it be better to use a dampener then?https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32181c02&idColor=12#T=C&C=12

[TechnicSummse]

23 minutes ago, Carsten Svendsen said:

wouldn't it be better to use a dampener then?https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32181c02&idColor=12#T=C&C=12

The damper is bigger, and the shown part allready has the 1 stud offset at the bottom... so it fits 1:1 with a large spring.

 

30 minutes ago, BrickbyBrickTechnic said:

Interesting, haven't seen this before. I think it takes up too much space. The shock is really the only thing you need. Though this may be useful in MOCs of the size of @Aleh 's Lonestar.

Have you seen lego-rc cars with big travel offroad at high speeds? For example this one:

 

Compare it to a real RC-Car...

 

The Lego RC-car will allways look like a toy... because the suspension is just sprung, and not damped... thats the big difference.

Edited November 18, 2017 by TechnicSummse

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

Just now, TechnicSummse said:

The Lego RC-car will allways look like a toy... because the suspension is just sprung, and not damped... thats the big difference.

So this is about the looks. That makes sense. In terms of functionality, this is not really necessary.

[TechnicSummse]

32 minutes ago, BrickbyBrickTechnic said:

So this is about the looks. That makes sense. In terms of functionality, this is not really necessary.

Well sure... a sprung wheel without a damper will allways jump like a rubberball and like this loose traction pretty often.

The damper helps to keep the wheel at the ground all the time.

 

You can see how important dampers are in this video. Driving without dampers looks really funny... but no car would be able to drive like this ;)

 

Edited November 18, 2017 by TechnicSummse

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

1 hour ago, TechnicSummse said:

Well sure... a sprung wheel without a damper will allways jump like a rubberball and like this loose traction pretty often.

I meant in lego. in real life it makes sense, but not really in lego.

[Zerobricks]

Lego has enough internal spring friction and low mass, so no additional damping is needed. I have yet to see a Lego model bounce for more than half a second.

[Saberwing40k]

I don't think using a friction element like this would be any good for dampening.

[TechnicSummse]

3 hours ago, Saberwing40k said:

I don't think using a friction element like this would be any good for dampening.

Why not? A real damper works with the friction of a liquid, and can like this work in a non linear way. This part would bring a linear damping, because the frictoin will stay the same at all speeds of compression.

But anyway ...it seems there is no interest in damping lego RC-cars at all. I think its true... a damping would only be interesting at big and fast models... and the most models are big OR fast... 

[mocbuild101]

10 minutes ago, TechnicSummse said:

...it seems there is no interest in damping lego RC-cars at all.

That's because most Lego RC cars (at least the fast ones) are all about lightweight, efficient, and simple designs - the costs of adding damping far outweigh the benefits it would provide.

However, I do think it would be useful for large scale sports-cars - where builders always try to pack in as many realistic functions as they can.