SAE Baja Brakes and Rear Suspension

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) runs a competition each year for engineering students to simulate a real-world engineering design project experience. The overall objective of the competition is to build a marketable off road vehicle. This vehicle is a "...single seat, all-terrain, sporting vehicle whose structure contains the driver. The vehicle is a prototype for a reliable, maintainable, ergonomic, and economic production vehicle which serves a recreational user market, sized at approximately 4000 units per year. The vehicle should aspire to market-leading performance in terms of speed, handling, ride, and ruggedness over rough terrain and off-road conditions." Our project aims to eliminate design problems in previous year's rear suspension and brakes designs. Design considerations that must be met for the brakes include: locking up all four tires on any surface, having independent brake circuits, building a hydraulically controlled brake light, improving the bias adjustments between circuits, and eliminating brake drag from design. For the rear suspension, the design goals are to simplify the design of complex components, improve suspension mounting points, and address failures experienced from previous years. This presentation examines the design and testing of the brakes and rear suspension in order to meet these goals.