Quote:
Originally Posted by Hydrostream
Thats my thoughts on them exactly!!!
Also I think some of the larger ones might work well, but ones with shorter travel could catch you off guard on bottoming out, if you know what I mean.
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I am sure you are both right that a proper linear system is by far the best, I have seen JF’s video of Swipes and its just like he is floating on air as the boat jumps up and down. But there are a few down sides for small boats like James and mine. I suspect a full linear system is £1000 plus each, probably add 10-15 Kg each and add 10 to 12 inches in height.
But on a small lightweight boat when you have gone to a lot of trouble to keep weight down and the seat is 3-4 inches of the deck full suspension is not really and option, hence probably why Panther have gone for the system they use.
I don’t know if they are still doing it but at one point on the back of F1 cars they had a Honeycombed carbon box on the end of the gear box at the rear and it was designed to absorb impact. If you went arse end into a wall at 180mph that 6 inches and the impact it absorbed was the difference between life and death.
I suspect even if not a linear system your spine and kidneys are at the furthest point from the pivot on the Panther system and although the seat may tilt back it may make the difference between getting out crippled and not on a rough day.
For my boat my I was going to bend a 2” Ti horizontal hoop but move the pivot another 4-6 inch forward with brackets straight to the floor at the front, a vertical hoop at the rear to connect to the top of the shock welded to the horizontal hoop at the rear, then bracket and plate to mount the bottom of the shock to the raised floor centre cross member of the Cougar. This would weight only a few Kg per seat and cost a few hundred in materials.
On thing that I have changed my mind on since first posting this thread is that it needs to be a a fully adjustable shock that can be tuned and set up for the my weight and sea conditions to work well.
The reason I started the thread was asking if anyone with this system in the P1 Panther what they thought of it before going further, because they may say its makes a difference but they may say we are doing away with it its crap in which case I wont bother.
Any one with a Panther P1, Comments please.
Linear Mode
