Does anyone know of a good set of traction bars for my truck? I am looking for the type that use the twisting force of the axle housing to pick up on the front of the truck as much as possible to transfer the weight to the back. Also would like to know the difference between ladder and traction bars as I once had it explained to me but forgot. Thanks

 

I've had good luck with "Sure Track" bars. They are available through J.C. Whitney or four wheel places. Regular bars don't work on the half ton Fords since the springs are on top. Ladder bars are a pain on the street.

Bear Tracks

 

That's a slick truck you have there ratsmoker.I've never seen anyone use traction bars(slapper type) at the track on our type trucks.I've seen a few run ladder bars.Don't even bother with the bolt on type,you'll never get the bolts tight enuff to keep the housing from rotating.The main difference is that slapper bars go right on the springs usually on the bottom,when power is applied the snubber comes up and contacts the front of the spring and tries to keep the housing from rotating but beartraks is right I don't think they will work since the springs are on top.Ladder bars are mounted inboard of the springs and are attached to the housing tubes.Besides not letting the housing rotate up on acceleration they also do not allow any side to side movement.Ladders are generally more expensive and can be a pain on the street in my experiences.The set I ran hung down pretty far and I was constantly hitting on something.Sounds like you may be wanting to do some dragracing since you're concerned about traction.The biggest problem these type of trucks have is that so much weight is put up front.You'd be amazed at the difference putting the gas tank in the back between the rails makes.Hope all this helps.

 

Thanks for the info. Yes I plan on doing a little drag racing. At least smoke some chebby punks. I know it runs a low 14 right now as is being I beat my buddies 14.8 second car. Shifting at 4750 on top of it. There is nothing more annoying to me than watching someones wheels bounce up and down at the dragstrip so I definitely won't be one of them.

 

hey Rat, want me to take some pics of mine? I just made them from some 1 3/4*2 1/2 in tube steel and 3/8" plate. They work fairly good but I'm going to switch to ladder bars anyways. They did make a big difference as far as raising the front of the truck when mashing the gas, but my tires dont get enough traction to do much good anyways. I'm pretty sure that one of the companies makes slapper bars for our trucks I'm not sure if they'll fit our axle tubes though...

 

I modifed a set a lakewook traction bars (slapper bars) to make them fit my truck. I used a longer rear u bolt and put an extra set of nuts on the frount to hold the bar off the axil tube. They work great also the biggest diffrence came from putting a 67 mustang gas tank under the bed at the back. I run about 1/2 tank of race gas at the track. It gets traction better but a set of slicks are still needed on my truck. I will take some pictures and post them on my sight.

http://www.angelfire.com/ok/jwtimmerman

 

I also mounted a '67 mustang gas tank in the back of my truck. The coolest thing about it, is that when it's full, the truck stops better, do to the fact that the truck is more balanced and both brakes do some work instead of it all being on the front. The peace of mind, and extra space behind the seat is the biggest seller, the extra traction is just an added bonus.

 

What did you do for the filler necks? I just got it painted and don't want to cut holes in the bed nor do I want to fill the hole in the side of ther cab. Does sound like a good idea though.

 

Well,
I just cut a square hole right in the bed floor to the tank. I cut the curve out of the mustangs filler neck, and conected it with the old filler hose from the mustang. I'm working on getting some kind of door setup to cover the cap, but the exposed cap is ok for now. I don't know what to do about the fact that you don't want to cut your bed floor. But, as for the old filler hole, you could just leave the filler neck and cap in there, and glue or JB-Weld it to the grommet from inside the cab. It'll look like you still have the old tank, but you wont.

Or, you could leave the old tank, plumb a Tee-valve in the gas line, and use it as an axiliary tank.

Or, this is really getting out there, you could cut a big rectangluar hole in the front of the old tank, and use it as a contaner to keep your loose stuff from rolling around behind the seat. Then you can just leave the old filler neck bolted to it.

Hope my invintive idea's help a little

 

I'm still planning on putting my tank under the bed. My plan is/was to run the fill hose out the back to behind my licence plate, cutting a hole behind the license plate and flipping the license plate down to fill up. But now that I'm thinking about it i'm wondering if that would be too low and not work to fill up the tank. Anyone have any idea?

-j.banks-

 

You can run it into the rear wheel well like a saddle tank. The only drawback is the mess that gets on the cap from the tire and getting your arm against the fender when you reach in to fill it.

 

Ok... It wheel hops.. lets look at that for a sec. What causes wheel hop and what does a traction bar do. Wheel hop is caused by spring wrap among other things, tho spring wrap is the usually the major culprit. So lets look there for our solution. Reduce spring wrap. How do we do that? A mechanical stop, ie traction bar or remove the springs totally, not really a good option on a street truck, or go to a different rate spring. Ah Ha! Engineers are weird folks. So why didnt they put stiff enough springs on the truck to begin with? Well they wanted it to squat! How else would you know you were reaching max GVW? I never weighed mine. Went by how much it squated. But if they really put a spring under it that squated when it was near max GVW it would still ride rough as hell. So with the F-100 especially they went to a stiff but still springy spring that would ride smooth. BUT when we do things like dumpin the clutch at 4 grand and makin shifts at 44 grand the rear will rotate cuz of the soft springs. A "fix" would be a set of traction bars... a solution to the problem would be to mess with different spring rates and see what happens. I dont know what type or rear you have but with a Dana or the Ford Corp. version there of, it dont take much or many time wheel hoping to destroy the ring and pinion. The 9 in will tolerate it a lot better. Good luck and pf course this all is just my opinion.

 

Shifting at "44 grand" certainly will have some strange effects!

Regarding fuel fill: I've had good luck going under the body, over the top of the frame, and coming out in the wheelwell. It's just a little tough to fill in sloppy weather, or with a full load...