I have kind of a newbie question. Im sure there is probably something wrong with my reasoning, but this came to my mind while my boss was explaining traction devices to me. (and how mine were ok, but not the best design there could be, i have the LFP "Rancho style" bars) however this post isnt really about that, this concerns daily driving and if traction bars are bad for the suspension components. By bad I mean like putting unnesessary wear on them, or just straight up destroying them. please take a look at my crudly drawn figures:

[IMG][/IMG]

From trying to remember how the brackets were attached to the leaf springs, i dont remember them being able to really slide back and forth. I could be wrong though. so anyhow I have 2 questions: Is what i drew actually happening? and if it is happening is it bad for the truck? I was thinking about removing my bars from the brackets for daily driving and just putting them on for racing aka the strip (which I still have yet to do). Thanks in advance and don't beat me up too bad (I used to be a Mech Engineering major at tech, now I'm IE, i guess we'll see if I learned anything useful during my time as a ME)

oh yeah i also just saw mistergadget's post about his slide a links, is the slide a link design "better" in ya'lls opinion? does it have anything to do w/ what i described up top?

 

Don't worry about it
I have over 50,000 miles with my traction bars on, and everything is fine in my rear suspension

 

Go with the slapper style instead of the frame mount.

If you built your own and could adjust the pivot point to match the front spring eye wouldn't you be close enough to the same arc?

I think the slappers are more comon on daily drivers for the reason you illistrated.

 

I like my slide a links for this reason since they mount to the front spring eye, they dont force the suspension to follow their arc on the street, since you can adjust them to just slide in and out of each other and have no preload. The pictures I took are with the bars preloaded for track use, when driving on the street, turn the rear tube back down and then they simply slide in and out of each other, nice and smooth and quiet.



The rear tube goes back into the threaded area you see in the picture, and then the axle isnt preloaded any more, the bushing sits there and the tubes slide in and out of each other as the suspensions goes thru its normal arc.

 

The divergent arcs between the "lift bars" and the rear suspension was one of the reasons why I chose the Metco bars.



The arc described by the Metcos is very similar to the natural arc of the rear suspension (it does have an arc, with the pivot point being the front leaf eye).

 

Gadget -- did you wiegh those puppies? Any estimation between sprung and unsprung weight?

 

The bars themselves are lightweight but the bracket are beastly heavy.

I don't have exact weight of them but I'll see if i can find out what the shipping weight was.

I really like the bars, I noticed an immediate improvement in street manners, the axle didn't feel like it was wiggling side to side under heavy braking anymore. The way the whole thing is mounted really forces everything to stay square and lined up.

 

GADGET!!

You know what you have to do!! send me those!!!

NOW

 

Tim you don't actually drive that work of art do you.
Of course I know you do, so my next question is,
HOW THE HELL DO YOU KEEP IT THAT CLEAN

Jc to answer you,
I surly aint no engineer, (or English Major, heheh) but I can tell you FROM FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE, I've raced, used, and have tried these 3 on my L.

Simple JC Whitney "Hellwig" Traction Control Arms
(prevents Rear End Wrap), Actually an excellent product that does exactly what it says for a very reasonable low price.
I should have kept them longer, but as I got faster I switched to
PSP Loop, Bars, Hoosiers, and Amer Racing Rims.


Next was the PSP Truck Trak Bars I, Prob the best choice for most L owners that DON’T want to give up comfort,
These are built like a Sherman Tank; they DO NOT affect the ride
AT ALL, and work amazing. The only reason I had to get rid of them, is once you get to the 12.0 / hi 11's power level, they
will actually pick the rear of the truck up on Launch
(I should note: this DOES NOT affect your 60ft, I got 1.6's constantly)

When I realized I needed something diff, I looked into upper and lower link systems and pretty much decided on it, until I heard how often they jam, bind, need adjustment, street and track setting's etc.... There's no doubt in my mind, the Upper and or Lower Link system is the best choice, but for me and my hi 11's low 12 Et's, it just didn't make sense. I need easy simply, maintenance free....

So I went with what I saw all my faster ET Brothers use,
JDM 58" Rancho Bars, an excellent product, strong as schitt, look real cool, easy enough to install yourself, and excellent consistent 60 ft results. The only draw back is, THEY DO EFFECT THE DAILY DRIVING COMFORT, DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU DIFFERENT
BUT WELL WORTH THE TRADE OFF

 

jc_atl, very nice ms paint usage. I love ms paint

 

I have owned slapper bars and LFP rancho bars.

The slappers won't suffer from the problem you are talking about but they ride rougher because of spring clamping and they lift the rear of the truck on launch.

The rancho bars ride better and seem to stabilize the rear under hard acceleration in a turn. These bars would suffer less from arcing than the shorter link bars. The longer the bar is then the less progressive the arcing is going to be at the end. With these bars being 58" long (almost 5 feet) a travel of 4 inches probably wouldn't move the end an 1/8 of an inch. Using 4 inches of travel would be a helluva pothole.

 

Wow thats funny Chuck, I found the opposite

Maybe cause I went from the Hellwigs (which were clamped on the leaf's) to the Truck Traks, but I found the Slapper Bars to have
no noticable change in comfort, (other than hitting speed bumps).

Yet when I put the 58" Bars on, I immediatly felt a much stiffer
ride.

My testing w/the slabbers found that because I kept a large distance between contact point and snubber, (@1-3/4")
when I got on it a little (like 1/4 throttle lets say) the bars absorbed some of that "without transfering it to the ground"
(snubbers weren't locked in YET)

But with the 58" bars, I immediatly noticed the same 1/4 throttle
would instantly transfer that power to the ground and I would do miny smokeys, "even between gears"
I also noticed a little more bounch in the normal around town driving (as I said WELL WORTH THE TRADE OFF THOUGH)
There is no doubt they add strenth and stability to the handling...

It just seemed the Slapper Bars absorbed A LITTLE more before throwing it to the ground ?


now of course this is me talking, so none of this may mean anything hahahahahahahaha

 

Tim doesn't screw around...he removes and waxes every component under there every two weeks.

-Monty

 

I thought I had pretty well researched all of the facts before deciding on a new set of rancho-style 58" bars. My other options were the adjustible Metco's or some cheapy slapper bars.

Always preferring to buy the better of several options, I opted out of slapper bars. But for the difference between Metco's and 58" bars, I didn't think there was any.

Now I hear the 58" bars ride rougher. How much rougher seriously though? I don't mind a little extra bump, as long as it's a performance inprovement. I want to see good 60's at the track once I get my pulley on. But I've also been looking to try out an autocross event or two, and if I get into that, then I don't want to hear later that my 58" bars create inferior suspension movements to the Metco (or any other) bars.

Any thoughts on using 58" bars for autocrossing? I'd tend to agree that the arc travel on a 5' long bar is minimal, especially compared to the stresses placed by a short panhard bar like Ruslow's (no flame intended, but used for a valid comparason).

 

I've been running with the 58 in. bars for 3 years now, not a "rough" ride and I'm down to 1.52 60 ft. times.