DOES THE HDK SUSPENSION K-MEMBER HANDLE BETTER THAN A T-BAR SUSPENSION?

DionR said

Sticks in head that XV found that a stiffer lower core support made a significant difference in how rigid the frame rails were. Don’t remember if they had a k-frame in it but kind of seems like it did?

Been a lot of years, I would have to dig out the magazine articles to verify. And can’t do that for a little while.

Click to expand...

The XV article is online here
Take The XV Challenge – MoparAction

They don't specifically say if the K member was installed during testing, but since the pictures show the car bolted to the surface plate by it's drums the suspension is in place which would mean the K is there.

One of the bigger findings was the need for a shock mount to firewall brace. If necessary for a torsion bar car, it would be even more important for a coil over conversion, simply because of how the suspension loads are moved from the torsion bar crossmember to the K or shock mounts. The HDK frame hoops help strengthen the shock mount itself, but they don't do anything for one of the less rigid parts of the chassis, namely the firewall to shock mounts/frame rails.

While XV obviously was selling their products so they "had a dog in the fight" so to speak, the chassis testing they did is still really the only scientific structural testing published for these cars. There's absolutely no way I'd run a coil over conversion of any brand without adding some kind of forward bracing.