I would set it up like the rest of us, i have put down a lot of miles while towing and haven't had any issues with my setup. The longer you go the more you minimize the affects of binding in the suspension and 6' would be way to long for a long bed regular cab. Mine is at the back edge of my door so if you used them on your truck then it would be close to the front.
Clearance shouldn't be an issue. It just depends where you mount it on the axle. My setup doesn't drop below the bottom of my diff so it wont limit clearance

 

Thanks for the reply Ryan. I checked out your pictures in your gallery and your setup looks clean and professional.

Is you bottom mount just a piece of flat iron that goes through the U-bolts undernearth of the block spacer?

What about the top mount? You have it on outside of the frame right?

 

the bottom mount is a piece of 1/4 or 3/8 plate, don't remember what I used, that is cut out in the center for the block and then welded to the block at the center and then has four holes drilled for the ubolts to go through.
The upper is made of 1/4" 3x6 angle with 3/8"x4 flat bar and is mounted to the outside of the frame.
Thanks for the comment, I put a lot of time in trying to make it look nice

 

Same here with clearance. My brackets don't go below the diff. And I havent tried shorter so Idk about binding.

 

With bars like Jeff used, a good length is either where the carrier bearing is mounted if you have one, or the U joint on the back of the transmission or transfer case if you don't.

That way the drive shaft is not trying to get longer and shorter as the suspension works up and down.

 

i undersand how it will stop from bind, but now arent the ladder bars usless because now the ladder bar can move freely with the axle back an forth?? it will stop it from twisting, but what about hopping????

 

Yes, a ladder bar set up with a shackle front mount will move back and forth as the suspension flexes like it is supposed to. (as can be seen in my attached video) That is normal.
In order for the pinion angle to climb, like in a wheel hop or axle wrap condition it needs to push up in a near vertical plane on the shackle, which it will be unable to do.

Btw, a traction bar, not ladder bar, needs to be mounted below the axle tubes, not above. The bar will have much better leverage to control wheel hop mounted below than above.

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