Just how important is it for the trike to be level ? My Road*/Champion Kit is 3/4" lower at the front of the frame than the rear of the frame.
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Just how important is it for the trike to be level ? My Road*/Champion Kit is 3/4" lower at the front of the frame than the rear of the frame.
Did you put a raked triple tree on it?
Go to the right side of the forum page and scroll down to the picture of the triple trees.
This is a product sold by Zook (forum administrator) and is one hell of a sweet set of trees.
I put them on my tour glide trike when I converted it and am very happy with their ease of installation and the product its self and is about half the cost of anybody else's product,
Mine were called Hog Halter trees.
They come with a two inch screw on fork extension so it levels out your trike. They are a far better quality than any stock set Harley ever made.ThumbUp
If you Google pcombe library/photobucket you can see pics of the installation.
How does it handle with the 3/4" drop on the front....???...I know this is an "[COLOR=#FF0000]Apple[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]-n-[/COLOR][COLOR=#FF8C00]Orange" [/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]comparison, but after about a year of ownership, I deliberately lowered my Gold Wing 1800 Trike in the front by 5/8".....it helped make it "flick" twisties even better than before.....less "pushy" steering into corners at brisk speeds....."just curious".....ThumbUp[/COLOR]
The only thing that matters is the Rake Angle, lower in front decreases the rake,higher increases it. Your frame rails could be at any angle,up or down as long as the end result gives you the correct rake, all is good. If your Trike handles well, your Good to go.
Ideal is level or slightly raised. A slightly raised may help by reducing trail but really not enough to notice. In stock from you are running about 5-1/2 to 6" of trail so being lower may drop that 1/4" or so. I found a slight rise in the front makes the seat more comfortable as one does not tend to slide forward.
It's important to understand nothing short of a cutting torch and welder can change rake. Rake (caster) is the angle of the steering head not the fork tubes so there is no such thing as a rake kit but rather offset trees which change tube angle and reduce trail.
Seeing as yours is already low in the front I am guessing you have offset trees which do tend to drop the front end a bit due to the increase in tube angle and trail is probably down to 3" or so. To fix this low in the front issue you have to install longer tubes. They are available aftermarket. Another option is to drop the rear to match. Good thing about trikes is you don't run short on clearance leaning into a corner.