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I'm lifted as well and have been looking for a set of traction bars recently.
From what I've researched, the long single bars will bind a leaf spring suspension at some point. This can be minimized by getting the length and angle right so that the arc of the bar follows the arc of the suspension as close as possible. This would be different for every ride height and is probably why there are few choices for a bolt on setup.
I have found a couple options that look promising, but are pretty expensive.
BDS's new RECOIL bars. Search For Recoil | BDS Suspension
They claim to work on trucks with 0-6" of lift. They have an internal spring that allows the bar to lengthen and not bind the suspension at one setting, and then when adjusted to the other setting act like a solid bar and prevent axle wrap. Seems like they could work well for a truck that's street driven but also taken to the track. Would probably be a little inconvenient for a daily driver.
Then there are OUO bars. Traction Bars & Blocks
They use a radius arm type bushing on the frame end that is suppose to allow the bars to length by compressing the bushing. The bars are adjustable length when you install them to work with any ride height. They seem to be mainly used on Ford diesels, but I don't see why their weld on axle mount couldn't be used on any truck. Only downside seems to be the cost.
I'm not sure if I will go with one of these of if I will even add bars at all. Would be nice to know if anyone has seen either of these or has experience with them.
what about the guy on facebook ripping the front end off the ground using cal-tracs? I wish i could give a RCSB another chance with cal-tracs or assassin bars.
Well whomever "guy" is, he needs to spill the beans and let a fella in on his secrets
^ And I'm NOT lifted or 4x4...
RyanR
Last edited by Area 51 Racing; 03-22-2017 at 11:38 PM.
see if you can hit the suspension too hard with the cal-tracs and work backwords from there. i dont know how to post a facebook video to the forum, but whatever he's doing, it's working too good....he would go faster with less weight transfer, but kudos to him for figuring out more than most.
I am lifted about 2inchs with 33s and had terrible axle wrap and wheel hop with an AAL no blocks and bilstien 5100s (which are to stiff). I added an Off Road Design shackle style ladder bar And it completely cured my wheel hop and axle wrap. The ride quality is just the same and nothing seems to bind. I had to have a custom cross member fanned up for it but all together it cost just over $500 and that's everything powder coated as well.
Not my truck but same ladder bar and shackle.
To clear up any misconceptions. When using "long bars", if the front of the bar is in a fixed location, and the rear of the bar is fixed to the rear....there is no "optimal install height" that prevents binding 100%. In a leaf spring situation, the rear doesn't particularly "articulate". Its movement is far closer to "up/down". The shackle is there to absorb the spring length when it gets longer from compression. If anything, the rear will move rearward on compression as the front of the spring straightens out.
Now the "long bar" does move in an articulating fashion. Fixed at the front, the rear mount will articulate. As an example, if the bar where parallel with the ground, any movement up or down will cause it to "pull" the rear forward as the rear mount gets closer to the front of the truck with movement in any direction. Think of a panhard bar. A panhard bar does some work keeping the rear squared up, but it does push/pull the rear as it moves. Obviously the longer the bar the better as it will be travelling along an arc that is far less severe. This is the same concept used to set up valvetrain components. Draw a circle with a short radius and then a large radius circle next to it. the arc is less extreme.
Because of this, when I was planning mine out, I made a pivoting shackle for the front mount to allow back and forth movement to keep everything from fighting each other, while still allowing the bar to help control the wrap up on the front spring.
Wheel hop is most often caused by the front spring pack wrapping up and springing back....so you end up with this violent situation where the tire hooks and unhooks rapidly as the spring can't control it.
It was commented above how an earlier post of mine contained information that "seemed antiquated", but the bottom line is that in my truck it flat worked. I was battling some wheel hop issues and my idea was for the bar to basically stiffen the front spring pack. Just as a quick test, I made some clamps and clamped the overload spring as far forward as I could. 3 trips to the track optimizing my shock settings and bam, 60's stayed in the 1.55-1.62 range over several months and many different tracks (prep).
The concept of the caltracs or the like is your best bet if you can't find another way to keep the front spring pack from loading and unloading causing wheel hop. I just didn't find it necessary as once I got mine figured out, it would hook and pull a 1.55 60' coming out of a wet ditch.
So as I said above, the idea is to keep everything happy, don't let the bars going forward fight against the natural movement of the leaf spring pulling the rearend backwards.
Here is a great thread of my trials and tribulations from 2009 when I was doing all of this. At the time, most of the 4/6 drop guys where having issues getting good consistent 60's. My goal was to build a 4/6 drop truck that had zero traction issues and at the end it hooked perfectly. No bars of any kind and consistent 60's below 1.62 or so. https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...g-bars-441078/
Here are some cool vids when I was still on leafs. At the time, truck was 4450lbs, guessing 700-750 rwhp, 3800 flash on the converter and 4.10 gears.
My hd is lifted 7 inches, I had bars made at a fab shop for both sides out of 2 inch dom with rebuild able joints and poly bushings. Also shackles in the front so everything moves with the suspention. I has a set of bars before that were tube and heims, my opinion they sucked and made the rear ride harsh. Another thing done to the rear suspention was a shackle flip, basicly for lifted trucks only. Makes the suspention softer and you can use a smaller lift spring to achieve heigth. Since it's softer air bags were added too.
My hd is lifted 7 inches, I had bars made at a fab shop for both sides out of 2 inch dom with rebuild able joints and poly bushings. Also shackles in the front so everything moves with the suspention. I has a set of bars before that were tube and heims, my opinion they sucked and made the rear ride harsh. Another thing done to the rear suspention was a shackle flip, basicly for lifted trucks only. Makes the suspention softer and you can use a smaller lift spring to achieve heigth. Since it's softer air bags were added too.
Why does the driver side front bracket look so much lower than the right side?
03-22-2017, 10:09 PM
