I installed a set of Lakewood traction bars on my truck about 300 miles ago and like them for the most part. I had prevoiously researched all the options and you could go nuts trying to decide which to use considering all the options available. The deciding factors for me were price and utility, in that order. I found the Lakewood slappers to be the best bang for the buck. I've used slappers in the past on lots of other vehicles and knew that they worked effectively. And at just over $100 the price was right especially when some higher end devices like Caltracs, JDMs, and Metcos were flirting with the $500 mark!

So the lakewoods arrived and I was curious to see how heavy the gauge of metal that they were fabricated from was and they are plenty thick. In addition they are powder coated black which I like cuz they are not flashy enuff to draw unwanted attention (fits my sleeper motif). They also came with a set of spacing shims, decent instructions, bright yellow urethane snubbers which are a little flashy (but because of the way that the leaf spring perches are mounted on the truck they wound up being tucked up under the bed and out of sight for the most part), and some butt-ugly Lakewood flame decals that got chucked in the trash.

Installation was pretty straight forward. I wound up putting jackstands under the axle (the slappers have to be put in with the suspension compressed the same as it would be like driving down a level road or parked on a level surface) and removing the rear wheels to make things easy to get to. I bolted it all up loosely and positioned the snubbers so that they were directly under the spring eyes and tightened up up on the left side without incident. I wound up using all the spacers to achieve the recommended 1/8 spacing between the snubber & the eye of the spring.

Moving onto the right side I hit my first snag, the snubber & tip were interfering with the exhaust outlet pipe which exits ahead of the rear tire and almost directly underneath the righthand forward spring eye on the 97s. This dilema was quickly resolved by heating the outside of the tailpipe bend to cherry red and slowly persuading it forward by using a pipe inside the tailpipe for leverage. Managed to get it out of the way without collapsing the pipe at all. Because the tailpipe is bent rearward to begin with the end result was not noticeable. If it had exited straight out from under the bed it might have looked wacky facing slightly forward, heeheehe.

After moving the tailpipe out of the way all bolted up as it did on the left side except that there was no clearnance. This was attributed to the fact that the ground was not totally level. Point of interest here : The yellow urethane snubbers provided have steps molded into the shape. It was decided at this point that fine tuning for clearance would be achieved after driving a little bit to let things settle and parked on a level surface.

Another thing I did'nt like was that the rearmost standoff was slightly contacting the steel brakelines on both sides nearly pinching it between the bracket and the axle. This too was easily resolved by bending the line away from the bracket a little bit and then sliding a short length of clear silicone tubing slit down one side over that area on both sides to prevent any future rubbing contact, problem solved.

Moving along now we put the rear tires back on the truck, lowered it, drove it around for a few miles, and then rechecked the spacing between the snubbers and spring eyes. It was zero and the snubbers were flat against the springs. I proceded to jack up the truck in the driveway one side at a time and hacksaw one step off the snubbers. Lowered the truck, drove a while, return to level surface to recheck. Still touching w/ zero clearance - saw off another step on the snubbers, drive, recheck on level spot. This time all is perfect! Both sides just about 1/8 clearance after removing about 3/4 - 1 inch off the snubbers.

After having them on the truck a while I can tell you some pros & cons ( my personal opinions of course ). They do work well and have eliminated the wheel hop that I always had while driving in the rain. I have only launched hard a few times since breaking in the gears and it goes straight and shifts solidly through the gears. It seems like I chirp the tires more often since the install too.

What I dont like is that they make noises when going over bumps & potholes. It's more noticeable when only one wheel hits a bump as opposed to both going over a bump at the same time. It kinda sounds like something is bouncing around in the bed but it's not happening all the time. In the past I've had a little noise from slappers but not like this. I'm guessing it's because the snubbers are urethane instead of the softer rubber ones. and also because I sawed them down to be shorter making them still stiffer.

All in all I still think the outcome was worth the small amount of money & labor involved. If I ever mod my engine to the point that I make some serious power I'll go for the Metco setup. I've seen these installed on a Lightning and they are top notch in my opinion, strong as heck, preload is adjustable, and they are perfectly silent to boot!

Good lord this has been a long one, I hope this info can help someone make an informed decision. I'm outta here, later peeps!

 

So, how much were they? Where did you order them from? What's the part number? Sorry to hit you with all the questions, but I have been looking for a set for a while now. Slappers are very simple and easy to install, and are effective for sure. Thanks for any info,,,,98


Do you think they would interfere with an anti sway bar?

 

98Screamer, I got mine from the local speedshop.

I edited this reply because my the part# on my instruction sheet did'nt coincide with the part# on the Mr. Gasket website. The link shows them to be Lakewood Traction bars #21910 and the proper application too. My sheet says: Lakewood Traction bars #21715 ? This is reason enough to be sure you are getting the proper units for yourself.

Good luck.