I made my own traction bars using advice from all you guys. They are 6' long. I did the bushing in the front and did a heim join in the back. I think they turned out great. Any questions bout them just ask.

I welded all the brackets to the truck cause i was to lazy to drill and use bolts. but bolts might be better for someone if they planned making their truck stock again. but also you couldnt see them anyways so it wouldnt matter. but i assumed that the kits you buy use bolts.

Look at my gallery to see the pics.

 

nicely done,.. the design you cut in the plate looks sweet.

 

Nice job Uptown !

 

well done, very cool to say the least. i give you fabricators a lot of credit for your imaginations

 

Uptown, Sweet!... your gonna turn heads with those.. the beauty of fab'd stuff... everyone loves your equipment when theve never seen nothing like it before!!!
As Yeti said
"NICE JOB"
JJ

 

damn!!!! they look great!!

you need to mass produce and start selling those things... just don't promise if you can't deliver (someone around here did that once with shock hoops ).

 

Excellent!!!!!!!! Truck looks great!!

 

Very Nice!!!

 

They look good, and that's a real nice rig!

I have a general question though, and I don't in any way to mean to offend or pick on you Uptown83, but what are the rules about welding to frames and axles? I know that it was severely frowned upon with the HD trucks (ie semis) at work when it came to installing boxes and hoists etc... because it weakend the frames.

Is that apples to oranges?

Waxy

 

Waxy, has a point.. i think it is maybe even "illegal" in some states to weld to the frame.. the reason is metalergy....(forgive spelling) say if metal was heated to a point it will loose strength... well the small tac welds used probably did not change the metal composition... I have welded my track bar braket to my frame and tac welded my shock hoops....So ive done it too... But the correct answer is it is a "no, no".. But only comercial vehicles will ever be checked.. and the minimul chance of my track bar Upper bracket breaking the three small bolts that Hold it , is far greater than the chance of my frame brakeing/bending do to the small weld... My point is, its safer now, than before...
JJ

 

Very nicely done...

Well I can only speak to the welding in two areas... In Florida it is okay.

Welding to the frame is okay if done correctly. (ps - I went to welding school in another life time and owned and operated a welding shop on the side also did all the fabrication for a land clearing company for three years as a side job too). The problem is what type of welding rods/wire that the person uses. Problems occur when the bead is placed on the frame as a liquide, which it is, and it is in it's greatest expanded state. As it cools the weld, which has cut into the frame, starts to shrink. As it shrinks, if it doesn't crack the frame it will place great stress on the frame. Hence a weekened frame.

New break throughs in welding rod technology allow for welding to be done to frames with out undo stress to the frame - as long as the frame is allowed to cool naturally the temper will remain intact. For those stick welders a really good rod, although very expensive is a eutectics (sp). You can weld in all positions all day and never harm a frame...

If you are just a back yard mechanic - get someone in the know to do it...

My humble .02 worth...

 

My opion on the welds is that it really didnt weaken it. The axels have about 2 1.5 inch welds on 1 side of that tab. Im sure its nothing to harm that axel what so ever. Specially im use to doing this, my family and I work on old car/hot rods and we have to weld all over the axel for ladder bar/4 link and coil over mounts and they dont seem to hurt the axel. You are suppose to only weld so much at a time so you dont warp the axel tube. Same applies for the frame. Im not worried about it whats so ever. This stuff is done all the time, just make sure you dont warp the frame or axel tube from welding so long its get to hot. Also sometimes they will weld say like a inch and cool the rest of the area down with a wet rag, but this is so little there is nothing to worry about. I welded the tractions bars with a mig welder and the frame i used a arc welder with 6010 + welding rod ( standard stuff ).

 

My friend wanted me to make a few and sell on ebay, but than i would make them bolt on brackets. Ive thought about it. maybe ask like 200 bucks?

heh who knows

 

Hehe...my brackets are bolted to the frame


but i welded the tabs to the axle or is that ok

 

Welding to an axle tube, is alright as long as the heat was dispersed, Frying in one spot, could cause warpage and or a blow through, common sence prevails.

We heat our bent tubes from the race cars and align them on our diffomatic (paten pending ) many many times with out ill affects.

Welding to a frame, is fine as discussed, as long as your state DOT doesn't forbid it.

Most collision shops have to weld frame parts on all the time when cars get wrecked, my friend just rear halfed a 02 buick, with no problems what so ever.