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Originally Posted by Dean
Actually, unless you pre stress a cross member like this, you will probably have less than optimal results.
The purpose of strut bars is minimize deflection of the top of the strut towers relative to the body and each other. Either you can preload tension or compression, depending on what your goals are. I have never understood the bars with pivots. By placing a pivot in the bars, they allow the body to twist or cant at that pivot instead of resisting that force as well.
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Dean,
I'd be interested to hear the tech behind your statement on preloading a strut tower brace.
As for the pivots, I've never really understood that either. When the design includes pivots it reduces the brace to a simple tension/compression member, instead of also being able to (at least somewhat) resist a bending moment as well. I made up a rudimentary FEA model of a front end and pivoting & non-pivoting STB a while ago, and the non-pivoting resulted in less inward tower deflection when exposed to a vertical wheel load... the pivoting style did still have some effect though.