What Suspension Should I Choose?
Suspension Choices
Berrien Buggy designs all its chassis to use Volkswagen Beetle front and rear suspension. If you already have an old Volkswagen for a donor car, your decisions are already made for you, but if you are still looking you might want to consider these facts.
Depending on the year of manufacture, Beetles were made with two rear and three front suspension types.
Front Suspension
Beetles through '65 have link/kingpin front suspensions. From '66 on, except Super Beetle, ball joints were used. The ball-joint is fine for street and moderate use, but even beefed up, you can't expect it to take the punishment a link/kingpin will.
The strut style front suspension on a Super Beetle is not compatible to any Berrien product.
Rear Suspension
Through '68 they used swing axle rear suspension and from '69 on, they used IRS. Two styles of front mounts are used on the IRS torsions. '69 thru '72 has a weld on front mount which we refer to as an Early IRS torsion. '73 and later has two threaded studs pointing toward the ground in the center of the torsion, which we refer to as a Late IRS torsion.
'68 swing axle torsions have the same height shock towers as the IRS. It is important when ordering a Knock Down chassis kit for swing axle that you know the year, because you would order for IRS if using a '68 swing axle torsion.
Swing axles pivot only at the gearbox; IRS axles have CV joints, trailing arms and pivot points at both ends of the axles. The swing axle is a simple design with fewer parts and more camber change. The IRS has less camber change and more moving parts. We don't recommend one over the other.
When we weld a stock rear torsion assembly in our fully welded chassis, the torsion assembly we provide will have been sandblasted and the frame horns capped.
OUR STOCK TORSION SUPPLY IS LOW - we welcome your help if you can…
Too many customers have found it easier to buy their torsion from us than to find one in their local area. Our supply of stock VW rear torsion assemblies is running low.
What we have must be reserved for those customers who will exchange a torsion.
We are willing to buy torsions but cannot buy them sight unseen. Bring them with you when you visit our shop or bring them to a show that we are attending. If they are acceptable to us, we will make you an offer at that time.
The condition of the torsions we have been receiving as exchanges is worsening. Approximately 50% of the torsions in our core bank have frame horns that are in bad enough shape that they can't be salvaged & have to be replaced with our Tubular Frame Horns, which adds almost $200 to the cost of a chassis with that type of torsion in it.
Berrien Buggy Torsion Core Policy
All LCWT chassis (Longback Completely Welded with Torsion) are priced to include a factory installed stock torsion. The stock torsions we use are Type 1 (Beetle, Karman Ghia or Thing).
IMPORTANT: Although we assume the majority of the torsions that we use came to us with stock pre-load on the torsion bars, since we do not remove or replace spring plates, we are unable to know how much actual pre-load the torsion we give you will have. You do, however, have the option to send us a torsion ahead of time & specify that we use it in your chassis. If you choose to send us the torsion you want us to use in your chassis, we may not be able to begin production of the chassis for up to 4 weeks from when we receive the torsion.
Due to limited availability of stock torsions, the following policy is effective immediately.
Sand Rails -- You will not be able to pay a core charge.
If you want a stock torsion in your chassis, we will need your core before we build your chassis. If you have no torsion to exchange, you can purchase a custom torsion & fabricate your own upper shock mounts on the chassis.
Square Tube Chassis -- The torsion core charge is $500.00.
At this time we don't have the option of using a custom torsion in the Square Tube Chassis because there are no shock towers and no upper structure to attach shock mounts to so, we have to use a stock torsion.
Core charges are refundable, if we receive an acceptable core within 6 months with a copy of the receipt.
Torsions not used & not acceptable for exchange are the Type 2 (Bus or Vanagon) & Type 3 (Fastback, Notchback or Squareback).
NOTICE - All exchange torsions must meet the following criteria:
Stock Torsions must be assembled. For stock torsions we always use torsions that are assembled with the torsion bars, grommets, spring plates and torsion end caps. That is the way the torsions must be for exchange or for us to purchase. We cannot take torsions that are not assembled, bent or obviously too rusted.
Same type as ordered on the chassis - Swing axle for Swing axle; IRS for IRS; early for early; late for late
Both Swing axle & IRS torsions have early/late versions.
Early swing axles torsions ('59 & earlier ), do not have a bump stop on the shocktower
Late swing axle torsions ('60 to '68) do have a bump stop on the shocktower
Early IRS torsions ('69 to '72) bolt up to transmissions with a 2-bolt nosecone
Late IRS torsions ('73-79) bolt up to transmissions with a 3-bolt nosecone
Although a Type 2 torsion is not compatible with any of our frames, a VW bus IRS transmission can be used in a Beetle IRS torsion by using our 3 pc. adapter and shorter axles. If using 2x3 trailing arms, you can use the stock bus axles.
