well done to citroen's hydractive

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deian
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well done to citroen's hydractive

Post by deian »

i must admit, citroen have hit it right on the head with this hydractive suspension business,

how on earth other manufacturer haven't cottoned on to this technique?

I know many are sceptical, but a after reading a few articles and a few hours on a forum, it will be plain clear that it's just basic hydraulic/pneumatics that works well, and above all, it's a joy to work on.

and it's not dangerous, you get plenty of warning when it all fails, brakes are the last to go, and you still got the STOP on the dashboard. how can i go back to springs car now? caveman technology minus the holes in the floor!

ok finished now. thanks for reading
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Post by 406 V6 »

Repent like this brother did and see the light! (no, not the warning light:P)

We got another matey to our cause today ;) :D
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Post by WELSHVIKING »

Totally agreed, i have owned 3 xantia's and all 3 were like a MAGIC CARPET ride....Amen brother
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Post by rossnunn »

now go forth & tell the world & maybe the clipbord weilding pen pushers will leave Citroen alone to develop this system even further. 8)

I can't tell you of another car that has brakes as sharp as Citroens.
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Post by f00lzz »

Actually, some other manufacturers have used 'parts' of the system under license.... Rolls Royce for one
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Post by KevMayer »

For the ultimate pleasure you should try an Activa.
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Post by p20 »

If the word is spread too much, the cost of buying will go up :shock: Might be time to start slagging them off again :wink:
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Post by Mandrake »

KevMayer wrote:For the ultimate pleasure you should try an Activa.
Shhhhhhh... if you tell him about the Activa, Hydractive 2 will be so last year.... :wink:

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Re: well done to citroen's hydractive

Post by Mandrake »

deian wrote:i must admit, citroen have hit it right on the head with this hydractive suspension business,

how on earth other manufacturer haven't cottoned on to this technique?
Because its patented ?

There are a few manufacturers chomping at the bit to develop active suspension systems, (typically refered to as "air suspension" or similar to try and avoid Citroen patent rights) but they're usually high end brands/models that the average joe can't afford (the type of car you'd only ever see on topgear and not in real life :lol: ) and its debatable just how effective they are anyway.

The sad fact is that most of the volume production manufacturers couldn't give a damn about excellence in suspension design, to them it is just a way of holding the wheels onto the car, otherwise there wouldn't be so many cars still using crappy coil spring McPherson struts, or use of abominations such as radius rods...or even things like rear leaf springs, which are still seen on utes etc which should have gone out with horses and carriages :)

Citroen seem to be the only volume manufacturer persuing the active suspension route, and its probably only because they got there first, and that its almost expected of them now...despite releasing a lot of recent conventionally sprung models...

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Simon
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Post by rossnunn »

totally agree & I don't mind if the prices go up - I put the blue one 1996 on a N 88K up for 850 for a laugh, not a sniff :lol:

Activa - dirty dirty boy!

The system is on paper such a simple idea & works so well, alot of people are scaried of them & I think that puts people off. Its the typical read some reports & make a judgment without actually driving one.
I have had spirited drives in our Xantia's & have never felt really confident to really stick it in, finding myself backing off mid corner when there is probably no need. I think this might be down to the car is so smooth & sokes up bumps so well you fell a little disconnected with whats actually going on. I think the activa sorts this?

The system is so impressive infact & in conponent form - relatively easy to work with I seriously looked into putting it on my ZX, the only reason I havent is I cannot find a way of lowing the strut towers & keep the strength to allow the globes to get under the hood. We have however made up some plans to use the system on a four wheeled trailer, using 4 front legs. The idea being you could actually lower the bed of the trailer right down to the ground then raise it up again, using a adapted electric power steering pump from a saxo/106 to control the fluid. It should be very stable. We are looking into intergrating the brakes but think that these would be far to strong, but we are also looking into using Xantia front calipers & adapting the handbrake part.
At present this idea is only a few computer sketches & fag packet drawings but we hope to maybe look into this idea further later next year.
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Post by Mandrake »

Interesting idea about fitting it to a trailer - we looked into doing this once too, and concluded that the best way to do it would be to use rear suspension (eg trailing arms) rather than front suspension, as it was much more suited to the job.

At the time we had a complete rear GS suspension subchassis, which would have been ideal for the job. You could use an electrically driven hydraulic pump running on 12v via the trailer connection, and if you wanted to you could also make it into a hydraulically braked trailer by somehow attaching a brake doseur valve to the towing arm.

4 wheel would be doable too - just two suspension chassis one after another, and pipe them together to the same height corrector - that way the cross piping between the front and rear set of wheels means that the load is always equalized between the two sets of wheels. The only problem would be the height corrector would have to measure the average height of the two sets of wheels...

An interesting, if somewhat ambitious project...

Regards,
Simon
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Post by mezuk04 »

OI :evil: You lot pack it in.....I want my Xantia backkkkk
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Post by WELSHVIKING »

Hi, I used to be a big Vauxhall fan having owned a chevette (rip), 2 astras, 3 cavaliers and a vectra (worse of the lot) and apart from the dreaded vectra they gave me hours of trouble free motoring, but having owned 3 magic carpet xantias i can honestly say there is no contest, the xantias superb ride and excellent 1.9td engines are superb....I work with a guy who slagged me off for owing a xantia and when i asked him why he did not like it his answer was because it was french :shock: !!!!. After a 30 minute drive in my car and a good look around it he proudly came into work the next week with a 1.9Td p reg...he now says he would never own another car.....I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER !!! :D
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Post by 406 V6 »

We have however made up some plans to use the system on a four wheeled trailer, using 4 front legs. The idea being you could actually lower the bed of the trailer right down to the ground then raise it up again, using a adapted electric power steering pump from a saxo/106 to control the fluid
A chap in the US did this a few years back. He had 2 SM; one transformed as a high-performance flatbed "tractor" car form and the other as the car to go on top of the trailler (go figure...). The interesting bit is: he used a rear suspension set-up and 3 spheres, like an HA system, but with a manual valve to isolate the sphere; a HC and pressure valves, for the regulation of the acc unit, instead of a PR block and a battery fdriven main pump. It looked fun :D

Oh, i sat in an Activa last Sunday, but only rode on the passenger seat. WOW!!!!!!1 sooooo nice! and the car lifted up the right rear side, the the front one stretching the Activa rams. Sooo Cooool!!!!!!!!
Last edited by 406 V6 on 30 Mar 2006, 13:24, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Kowalski »

Hydraulic suspension would make a lot of sense with an agricultural tractor, since it already has a high pressure hydraulic supply available to the trailer....
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