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Hello everyone, it's been awhile. I've got an 85 f350 and it has wicked axle twist. I'm trying to make traction bars myself from scratch to save alot of money. I'm drawing a template for the rear axle mounts on cardboard but have have no clue how far away the heim joint should be from the axle. (Is it something i decided on my own?) It's completely stock but would like to add a 4" lift in the future. These mounts have to face straight down correct?
I'm planning on running 3/4" heim joints with nylon ones on the axle.
Has anyone else done this? Id love to know how you did it.
People do it, but it pretty much gives you no suspension in the back. Theoretically you put the front pivot point inline with the front spring hanger. Most kits do. But they forget (or don't care, just take your money) that when the spring and the axle moves up and down, it moves to the rear also. It grows in length. That is why they have shackles in the rear mount of the leaf spring. When you put the bars on there, the leaf can no longer grow. Over time the traction bar mount breaks, or you over build it and just have a very stiff ride.
Look into making slapper bars just make sure they hit at the front spring bolt area.
Next and what I would go with if they make them fro your truck is Cal - Trac bars.
They can be adjusted pretty easy, unlike the slapper bars and yes they can also be adjusted.
I ran Cal - Trac's on my drag car and they worked great,
Wait a 350 truck and you want to lift it?
So this is a 4x4?
Do a Goggle search for traction bars for 4x4 trucks as they make them or did.
You using lift blocks? If so trash them and use lift springs.
Dave ----
Look into making slapper bars just make sure they hit at the front spring bolt area.
Next and what I would go with if they make them fro your truck is Cal - Trac bars.
They can be adjusted pretty easy, unlike the slapper bars and yes they can also be adjusted.
I ran Cal - Trac's on my drag car and they worked great,
Wait a 350 truck and you want to lift it?
So this is a 4x4?
Do a Goggle search for traction bars for 4x4 trucks as they make them or did.
You using lift blocks? If so trash them and use lift springs.
Dave ----
I've never heard of slapper bars, what are the advantages compared to traction bars?
I'll Google Cal trac bars. I want ti build this all my self and not have to buy a kit. I work at a shop and can get everything I need to build it just need to know what to get and the dimensions of everything to cut.
Yes it's an 85 f350 4 spd manual 4×4 with the twin i beam. I don't want to buy traction bars because of the cost. I was gonna try making 4" block myself to save money. What would I have to do woth my steering?
People do it, but it pretty much gives you no suspension in the back. Theoretically you put the front pivot point inline with the front spring hanger. Most kits do. But they forget (or don't care, just take your money) that when the spring and the axle moves up and down, it moves to the rear also. It grows in length. That is why they have shackles in the rear mount of the leaf spring. When you put the bars on there, the leaf can no longer grow. Over time the traction bar mount breaks, or you over build it and just have a very stiff ride.
But if you make the bars longer the softer it will be then a shorter one? But it has to run parallel with the drive shaft?
is it possible to add something like a shock but with only 1" or 2" of travel to prevent this problem?
But if you make the bars longer the softer it will be then a shorter one? But it has to run parallel with the drive shaft?
is it possible to add something like a shock but with only 1" or 2" of travel to prevent this problem?
You are not getting it. All you have to do is research on the internet search traction bars. Among the people trying to sell them, you will find one or two articles talking about how they they bind up the rear suspension. Some of the kits used to come with a front shackle on the traction bar instead of a heim joint. That would free it up and let the rear axle move rearward as it moved upward.
The leaf springs grow in length as they flatten out. The solid traction bar mounted to the frame or a crossmember and the axle itself, will resist that and bind the suspension. Yes people sell them, yes people use them. People do a lot of things in this world that are not correct.
You are not getting it. All you have to do is research on the internet search traction bars. Among the people trying to sell them, you will find one or two articles talking about how they they bind up the rear suspension. Some of the kits used to come with a front shackle on the traction bar instead of a heim joint. That would free it up and let the rear axle move rearward as it moved upward.
The leaf springs grow in length as they flatten out. The solid traction bar mounted to the frame or a crossmember and the axle itself, will resist that and bind the suspension. Yes people sell them, yes people use them. People do a lot of things in this world that are not correct.
You can see if you can find the type with the shackle. You could also make some slapper bars like Fuzz was talking about. I have the same problem with my f250, especially when I am towing. It has a 4 inch lift on it which makes it worse. I was going to custom make a 4 inch spacer with a arm and a rubber snubber on it. It would look like the picture below. The rubber bumper would not be attached, so it would let the spring freely do it's job, but if the axle started to wrap the rubber bumper would swing up and press against the bottom of the spring and stop it from wrapping.
Keep looking at the different bars offered by different companies. No use re-inventing the wheel when you make yours. One thing I think I am noticing, all the bars with the shackles are two bars per side, not just a single bar. There has to be a reason for that. If you find that is consistent with all the shackle type bars, I would copy that on yours.
Thanks for the sources. I would assume the reasoning for 2 bars per side is the it more pushes them up into the shackle rather pulling/pushing. Having 2 bars per will make it so you don't need stoppers on the shackles to help limit the twist. The axle would still be able to move up and down freely just not twist. Just my guess.
I'm looking up traction bars and going through all the images to see what has been done and looking at kits so I dont make things to complicated by making my own.
I was was wondering if with one bar and the shackle, the shackle would have a tendency to "flip" or "flop" when the axle tried to twist. Would two bars with that wide bracket on the rear axle stop that from happening?
With a single bar and one attachment point on the rearend, the one bar on the rear axle bracket would tend to pivot around as the axle twisted. But with two attached bars on the axle, one bar would tend to move forward while the other bar would tend to move back, making the front of the assembly move up rather than back, giving less tendency on flopping the shackle over on itself.
Yes, that was my guess. It would make sense, with the single bar it would be a push pull from the axle and with the dual bars it would be a more up down.
With the bit of reading and analyzing I've done do the arms that mount from the frame to the rear axle have to run parallel with the drive shaft?
Todays little project. This weekend I'm goingdraw out the shackles
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