I have had mine awhile and love them they were a bi$ch to install and to about three hr total, the plate that goes on the springs i found to be a litle weak and bent some when you tourque the nuts to the75-100# i did mine to90# and the plate did bend. I have not noticed any adverse effects with the plate being bent, i just wish that it was made better or different so that it did not bend. I have been overall very satisified with the product and would recomend it to a new lightning owner.:rocker:

 

I run JL's bars, the install took a while but was done in my garage with zero problems, 3 hours start to finish and no problems to date, amost 2 tenths difference in ET. One recommendation I would make on the install is to use a step bit or unibit to drill the frame there shorter than a standard drill bit and they give you the clearance to drill the frame without having a hard time. Good luck.

 

 

I have drove a few trucks with them. I think they work very well... I will be using a similar setup on my buddies truck im working on..

 

my only question is how low is the forward bracket. how much ground clearance does it have? the roads here in houston are not the best, and i don't want to bend them. the lfp bars look pretty solid, i want to go with those.

 

I am leaning toward the LFP bars as well....I just didn't want red bars. But the brackets look alot beefier, as do the bars. I don't know, maybe it's just the pic of the JLP bars that makes them look thinner.

 

I absolutely love my bars, and they have worked like a champ. However, if you have the Belltech drop kit on your truck, then you will have clearance issues. I could hardly clear my stock exhaust, and the bars would rub against on every single bump. It really worked out for the better, because it gave me good reason to buy a new exhaust. Once I installed that I no longer had issues with the exhuast.

The only other issue I have involves how low the front bracket hangs down. On a stock height truck, or one with only a small drop there will probably be no issues with the bracket height. With the Belltech drop that I am running, there is barely 3-4 inches from the ground to the bottom of the bracket. Whenever you drive over a crest in the road, the middle of the truck drops the lowest to the ground. With the bracket mounts almost in the middle, they have a tendancy to drag on everything. I hit then almost everytime I leave my drive way. You just have to try and avoid going over large humps in the road and try to enter grade changes at an angle. It is pretty much standard driving behavior when operating a lowered vehicle, but it is something to keep in mind if you plan to drop your truck a whole lot.

The quality and finish of the product is excellent, and they have helped to eliminate all of the nasty wheel hop that these trucks have a great deal of. I highly recommend them.

 

how long are the JLP bars?

 

Will they have any issues with my 4" drop? Do they have any clearance issues with aftermarket cat backs?

They seem to be the best design IMO, and I dont mind a long install if they work so well.

 

Jay lincolns truck tracks you can get in red. I have the truck tracks in black, and my friend has Johnny's traction bars and they look real nice and he says they work real well.
Shane

 

I don't consider my truck to be all that low, but the traction bars sure are.

 

you have a 3/4 drop? looks kind of like my stance.... they do hang kinda low... do they ever scrape?

 

Yep, I have the good ol' Belltech "rubs the driveshaft on the frame" drop!! The brackets do rub on things like high speed bumps and when going over humps in the road (like entrances to shopping centers). Once you learn what you can and can't get over, it is easy to adjust your driving habits. I know I can't full throttle into my driveway, but I can get in fine if I hit it just right. I figure the compromise is worth the gains I get in performance.

When I launch really hard, the rear squats so much that the axles bottom out and the driveshaft rubs on the frame. The bars obviously do their job, so I would recommend them to anyone. If I raised my truck, then I would more than likely have significant improvement in my launches. If you are running a 99-00 driveshaft and a c-notch, then it will squat and take off like a monster.

These are a few video captures from a few weeks ago. You can see here how low my truck normally sits.



Now you can see how much it squats when I take off



Those are 28" slicks, so they are close to the height of the stock wheels. I have just over an inch of clearance between the fender and the slick in the second pic. Obviously drop kits aren't ideal for drag racing, but it is nice to have traction bars that help you hook up like that.

 

I dont have any issues with my drive shaft as a result of the drop kit. I had a BellTech kit on my last F-150 but it wasnt as extreme as my Western Chasis kit is. I dont have to creep over much, only big speed bumps which I would do anyhow. I dont have a C-notch as of yet, maybe later when Im done with my other mods.

I know the drop helped with steering and cornering, but it actually impares the trucks ability to launch in comparison to a stock height truck. The amount of "squat" I get is barely noticable in comparison to some of the guys I race with.

The tires still spin more than I would like... I have to hit it, then let off and hit it again in order to get any sort of launch going. Thats why Im looking into the JLP bars.



Also, All you "one wheel peel out guys"....if you havent had your rear alignment checked in a while do so, found out my right tire was getting most of the power since my rear alignment had gotten so bad... too many power slides I guess

It has a decent effect on how strait the truck launches

 

What seems to be the "hard" part people are having with the installs on these different bars???