Alright. I don't have the money to put out my one tire fire right now, but I thought to help I'ld buy some generic leaf spring helpers that might do something with axle wrap/wheel hop. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the leaf spring system in the rear of our trucks, over the axle.

I bought these thigns for 22 bucks. I know a helper is advertised to help sagging, control load, etc.... but I guess I could use it like a traction bar, right?

It set it on top of my leaf spring, towards the back, and put a bolt through the rear bracket and a u-bolt on the front of the helper.

So try and picture it... setting behind the axle, and on top of the leaf springs.

Did I do anything with it? It is hard for me to tell as far as the launch. I've only done about 12 or so performance launches so far (only one after this install) and I couldn't tell much of a difference in traction on this one launch... but it didn't seem to go off spinning as much into second gear.

Now.... did I do this right? Am I doing anything in the slightest to get better traction, or did I just add a couple parts for no reason.

 

Me and my friend used to do this to our pickups to help keep the wheel hop down. It was a cheap alternative to traction bars.

 

So you installed it the same way I did?

It seemed like a good way to do it for 22 dollars... I jsut want to make sure the way I have it installed isn't doing something like promoting wheel hop.

 

We actually put our on top but in front of the axle and it seem to work really nice with no side effects. We just had problems w/ wheel hop and it took care of it.

 

Hmmm, I may try to mvoe it around and see what works best. I just thought it twisted the back of the leaf spring moreso than the front.

Any more thoughts on this?

Thanks for the replies Zick!

-Derek

 

You may be right on the back twisting more, my friend put his on the front first and it worked really well for him so I did the same. I never tried it on the back so it may work just as well there too. Good luck

 

I did that on my 96, and put it on the front. It worked great. You need to look at the way that the axle twists. The middle of the front of the spring comes up which is where the helper spring will help as long as it sits on top of the leaf spring like mine did. I would swap it to the front if I were you. I think that it would help a lot more.

 

i did this to my buddies 4.8 M5 truck. worked out well.

 

You just stuck washers under it the plastic piece there?

 

i used body washers under that until i got the clearance i wanted. i also have a bolt running up and holding that piece in there now. now anytime he lets the clutch fly to light'm up the helper spring slams into the middle spring putting enough pressure on it to keep the top spring from wrapping up. the SRT-10 has something similar on it. this truck used to wheel hop just about every burnout attempt and at one time did it bad enough to dent the driver side header on the steering shaft. no wheel hop since except on light throttle in the rain when there isn't enough force to push the bottom spring up. next year it's getting cal trac's, but this has worked well for the time being.