Lets discuss axle width

[Wfoyota]

Everybody has something they like, im a 69-70 wms guy for trail rigs. But led me to post this is I am getting ready to start on a jhf goatbuilt chassis and I competed in werock earlier this year in my regular trail buggy. My trail buggy was border line to wide (and definitely the wrong type of buggy to compete) so it has me thinking about wms for the jhf. I would like to compete on a more serious level a couple of times a year with this buggy. It seems that pro trail class has a wider gate than unlimited and sportsman but thinking about "do it all" scenario, what wms and why? 45* plus or minus of steering is the goal for the front and rear although the front shafts will not do this yet due to budget. The vision wheels I have are a more narrow offset also so that will help. My current thoughts are 67 wms front and 66 rear. Good? Bad? Tell me why

 

[Sean]

JHF portals are typically running 70" WMS....but they often run deep backspacing on the wheels....IIRC. Like 5-6" is common.

I'll let comp guys tell you what's best for comp....but for trail rigs, I like the 69-72" and you can always narrow it up with offset.

 

['84 Bronco II]

It's not WMS width you should be fixating on, but outside tire to outside tire width that's important. Wheels have a huge impact on overall width as does the width of your tires. Personally I would lean towards maximizing axle width and making up for it with wheel offset. I am pretty sure most of the unlimited class cars are 79-81" wide outside tire to outside tire. Obviously being narrow gives you more room between the cones and more line options as well as better differential breakover angle between your tires, but it is a balance with your lateral stability.

As far a what's best for the trail, that is highly dependent on your terrain. Personally I like 84-86" outside tire width, but a lot of slickrock buggies are running closer to 90" as well as the higher speed guys. I do not think comp width is ideal for the real world where we aren't trying to dodge cones placed in the most screwed up spots possible.

 

[Opiebennett]

My pro mod is 76" outside tire and 63.5" wms, and it's too narrow. Made it really hard to package shocks being that narrow, only running 12" travel front shocks, partially as a result of narrow axle.

Also wheeling at sand hollow, I'm like 2' further into a notch before I start climbing than a lot of other folks.

Working on a rear steer axle for the car, and possibly a new housing for the front. With my current wheels the plan is to make them have 1/2" to spare on my toy hauler inner fenders or my open top car hauler fenders, whichever is narrower. Likely means 81.5" outside tire target.

 

[Wfoyota]

My pro mod is 76" outside tire and 63.5" wms, and it's too narrow. Made it really hard to package shocks being that narrow, only running 12" travel front shocks, partially as a result of narrow axle.

Also wheeling at sand hollow, I'm like 2' further into a notch before I start climbing than a lot of other folks.

Working on a rear steer axle for the car, and possibly a new housing for the front. With my current wheels the plan is to make them have 1/2" to spare on my toy hauler inner fenders or my open top car hauler fenders, whichever is narrower. Likely means 81.5" outside tire target.

Sounds like im not far off with the 66" wms starting point.

 

[JohnnyJ]

I’m at 67 front / 65 rear with my JHF/GB chassis. Can’t recall what my backspace is.

edit: Wheel specs I found are 17x9, 38mm offset, 3.5" backspace and running 39" krawlers. That should be about 82-83" wide up front.
edit2: I question this backspace number. I thought they were in the 4.5-4.75" range, but looking at old build thread, I said it was about 82" wide, which fits between my trailer fenders.

Details here: Johnny's Goatbuilt JHF buggy build

 

[Ghetto Fab.]

I was 72" wide on the previous buggy. It ran dually hubs though, so I used 7" backspaced hummer rims to get the overall width and scrub radius down. That made it only 84" wide overall. It seemed perfect to me. Only a few spots in the sierras trying to get through trees where it was too wide, but I made it work and it wasn't an issue. Everywhere else was fine.

New build uses an 05+ SD axle also at 72" wide and unless I can find some deep backspaced rims for it will likely wind up much wider.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Unless it's portal I'd think about running axles on the narrow side and having a set of wheels spacers for places like sand hollow where wider wms really helps.

Before all the "but scrub radius" if it's a lightweight cone dodger, it won't care about some scrub, some even say it helps