Just wondering if anyone knows of places that have ladder bars for the rear of your trucks, I really wont sum and cant find much.I know andrew as pro comps but thats about all i can find. I would think more of us would be using them.

 

"Ladder Bars"..... Please explain...I do not know what this is...

 

Pretty sure he is talking about traction bars. Procomp has them here. I know Andrew runs these and he likes them.

 

Now....I am with it..
Thanks for the lesson.

Next test question....... Why have them on our truck?

 

Trucktoys has some. One Up Offroad Bolt-On Traction Bars - 2011 F250/F350 2 & 4wd

Those Procomp bars looks pretty sweet actually

 

It keeps the geometry of the drive shaft consistent. Otherwise under heavy acceleration the pinion tends to rise, causing strain on the drive train.

watch this video to see what I mean. 48 seconds, they unhook the bars and you can see the yoke move up.
DKDiesel Traction Bars - YouTube

 

Get video...Thanks.
I understand this is a problem with lifted trucks. Mine is stock. Does my truck have this problem.??

 

Sorry to cut and paste my PM to you buddy

I checked into ladder bars when I did the lift / tuner. The turner manual said if you have a lift you should have ladder bars. BUT the Carli lift I have is only 2.5" in the back. It does not use a bigger spacer, it uses a leaf pack. NADP figured I would be OK and I have been. Even with 497 HP at the rear wheels and 0-60 times at 5.8 seconds I have no issues.

If I needed them I would get them but they decrease the ride quality so I am not going to.

If you do a bigger lift and tuner you may need them tho. But I would check with whoever you are getting the lift from.

Thanks
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no, but darren's post is better

 

I wonder how much ride gets worse? Either way watching and seeing first hand how bad trucks with power twist everything just makes me wonder how & why more problems in drivetrain arent happening more aften.

 

I am not sure, some people say it does not make the ride worse. And on a muscle car with 4" of travel it may not. But my truck is now 12" travel in the rear. A bar rotating on a pivot point cannot move straight up and down like the axle travels, its just not possible. So it makes sense to me that it would make the ride worse as there would be some binding as the axle tries to move straight up and down while the bar is moving back and forth a tiny bit.

Hopefully Andrew will chime in and straighten us out, he is the only one I know that has them.

I just took NADP's advise when they said I don't need them and the will hurt the ride quality.

Thanks

 

I spoke to said SLACKER (Andrew) and he claims to be working 12 hour days. I gave him some "Roy" (you insert your own adjective here) and expect he will try to pop in soon. I have heard both sides of the argument. I think it boils down to if you have track bars installed, you are going to get bound up and break something off roading some day. If you don't install them, you will snap a u joint, bend a drive shaft or blow out a diff someday hitting it hard on the pavement. For guys like me that are off road a lot, no thank you. For pavement princess' like Andrew's beauty, they are great. I bet he doesn't even drive that truck in the rain...lol.

 

 

what? <fillllll>


I really have to quit spamming today. Sorry...severe case of not wanting to work today. Excited for the boys game tonight.

 

Princess' truck doesn't see rain.....

In all seriousness, the traction bars have helped waaaaaay more than I expected. WOT shifts used to be pretty harsh, now it's super smooth. You can hardly tell it's shifting now.

As to making the ride worse, I call BS. In no way, shape, or form can I tell any difference since I've put the bars on. I drive it the exact same way now as I did before I put them on, like I stole it! I guess you would need to see first hand how these bars attach to the truck. It's not like a hard fixed mount on both ends. There's a hard mount on the truck and on the rearend. The bar obviously goes in between, but it's mounted with really soft urethane bushings that give tons of side to side play but not alot of front to back. That way it never gets bound up when the axle is moving around. The traction bars would have more movement capabilities than the leaf springs do, so really there's no way of the traction bars limiting or binding up the rear suspension.

How much lift you have isn't really the factor here, it's how tall your rear blocks are. Anyone with blocks taller than 2" should get traction bars once tuned. These trucks make soooo much torque, you're going to break something if you don't contain the axle wrap. I figured it like this - Spend the money on traction bars now and save the tranny and rearend, or risk paying out of pocket to fix something when it breaks, and it's going to break. The traction bars end up being so much cheaper and you won't be stranded on the side of the road holding your driveshaft in your hand....


Not to undermine your video Andre but this video here says it all.

Ladder Bars - YouTube