Well I had enough of spining tire this year so i'm going with a ladder bar set up but i'm not sure if i'm gona like it. I want the cross member to be mounted up in the frame rails so from the side of the car looks stock. not with xmember hanging down I called chassis engineering but they were no help below is a drawning of the installion just woundering if anyone else as it set up like I want to and if it works good. The drawning show the xmember 8" lower then the rear axle with the xmember up in the frame rails it is 4" lower the the axle what do you guys think?
ladder bars Dubuick, Based on the installation manual for my ladder bar set up.... the lower ladder bar tube should be level with the ground. My ladder bar cross member is mounted between the frame rails. Take a look. Tom
ladder bar The set up I purchased was from S&W out of Spring City, Pa. They are 36" double adjustable.. Nice components. Tom :TU:
Well i have alreadly have a set from Chassis engingeering there 33" double adjustables as the paper work with them read that the lower you mount the front of the bars the harder that it "hits" the tire not to sure what that means ?
The lower you put the front of the bar means, how hard the suspension will grab. Some times they could grab too hard and jump the rear tires off the ground like my no-hops are doing on my car right now.
This seems backwards.........As you lower the frt you move the IC lower and further out which would in affect add leverage by lifting the car slower/gradually. The longer the instant center,The softer the "hit" and vice versa. I also used the 36" S&W's But that was before the RJ stuff,His design is fantastic in my opinion. B&W option was on when I scanned these,Let me know if you need them in color...... PS I highly advise the bracing and straps to re-inforce the brackets that mount the L/B's.........
ladder bars Yeah.... That's a concern I had with the S&W ladder bars.... My plan is to fabricate axle straps for the rear brackets & add bracing to the front ladder bar brackets. Tom :TU:
I have my ladder bar in the same spot as Gary and it works great. On bar angle, there is "bite" and there is "hit". Having the bars at a down angle adds "bite", but you have to have the rear springs and shocks set for it. The front of the bars down is going to push the frame towards the ground making the car "squat" in the rear and trying to rotate the car more causing wheel stands more easily. It only works correctly if you have stiff/adjustable compression shock so the rotation weight does not compress the springs and the energy is applied to the tires. You can try stiffer springs but then you loose adjustablity that the shock gives you for track conditions. Mounting the bars further up only "hits" the tires breifly as the bar trys to push the frame up and walk the tires underneath the car but does not transfer weight to keep the "bite" on the tires. You usually end up having tire spinn problems on high powered cars since the power stays on the tires long after the converter "hit". With the right shocks$$$ you can turn the squat into bite and keep more weight on the rear tire avoid wheel spin. Generally your bottom of your ladder bars are either parallel to the frame or point down a few degrees for best results.
ok so far I understand I think my plan will be to set the bars down with a couple degrees I like the wheel stands!!but I have only 33" long bars it that going to be a problem I don't plan on going much faster then the cars goes now just want to to run the same 60' every time and I plan on spend the $$$ for the right shocks are QA1 the best to go with?
Shocks and Ladder Bars 33 ladder Bars should be fine alot of A-Body car have 36s as well lots of different thoughts on Ladder Bar. I would get a Double adjustable shocks. You might want to weigh you so you no witch coil over springs you need. I would say no lighter than 150s no heavier than 170. Look at Koni's Strange Qa 1 s AFCO'S. They all seem to be good shocks. Some are a little more $$$$ than other. I have two sets of rear shock one set are Strange double shocks they work fine. I also have a set of AFCO'S. I have had both sets on the car no Different's in the 60s.
If you don't want to cut your car up that much you can use the stock coils and the shocks can stay in the same location.(I use KONI SPA1)That way you can keep the stock upper crossmember if you ever want to switch it back in the future just an idea this setup seems to work well on my car and it won't wear the springs out as often like coilover springs small wire .This might also be a little more cost effective than the coil over setup.
Setup One things on the setup. Some people like to leave the factory control arms hooked while they weld in the ladder bars. While this can make things easier, you loose the advantage of moving the rearend back to gain wheel clearance at the front lip. BUT, If you run the ladder bar spherical bearing end that attaches to the cross member all the way in without the jam nut, then run it back out after you remove your factory control arms, you still can pick up some needed clearance. Just something to think about.
rick, I was looking at that last night when I put the bars together and that is what i did i'm going to leave the stock bars in place to hold the rear in place but after I need to push the rear back 1/4" when my tire grows they hit the front lip also I'm going to leave the rear upper sping mount in place that is where my roll bar is welded to. also what leanth shocks are you guys running???
Roll bar or cage??? Do you mean your roll cage or anti-roll bar? With the ladder bar install, Just adjust in the spherical bearing at the front of the bars as far as it will go so you can back it out for the clearance you need. You may have to take out the springs to get the ride height correct as well as pinion angle before welding. Get the the ride height as low as you can get it. If the rear is dropped down when you weld the ladder bars in place, your pinion will rotate down when you push the rear end back up in the car and will give you drive shaft problems. :Comp:
The upper sping mount is were my roll bar is welded to I was using a hr part-n-stuff anti roll bar(which is going to be for sale soon!!) as for ride height I want to lower the car 1" lower then it is now I planed on putting the car on jack stands then removing the rear spings setting the rear end up to the height I wanted then start setting the bars in. I'M going to go with a coil over rear spings just haven't choosen which ones yet and also need the lenth of the shocks this week I will have some time to start working on it more been busy with getting married last saturday so once t-day pasts i'll have so time to get in to it Here are some pictures of the "before" figured I'll take a bunch pictures thoughtout the process P.S. sorry I haven't even cleaned it yet!!
I went with a set of AFCO double adjustable#1750's. They are 11.5 compressed and 16.5 extended. These are not the Drag shocks but close and still a very nice piece. The drag shocks are a few bucks cheeper. I found mine on e-bay for a price I couldn't resist. I would go any longer if want them to fit with the stock cross member in place. YOu can alway mount them lower on the rear end for clearance but remember to take in account for a flat tire. You don't want a tire problem and the shock to dig into the pavement.
Well I got back to work on my car here is a few pictures I got the cross member all welded in and the bars tack to the rear end and it is ready to be removed and welded up as soon as i get to laying out the rear shock which are on there way and should be here thursday so they will be in this weekend hopefully here is a few picture of my progress P.s. the picture look like there is a gray dust all over the underside of the car I think that was in the lighting
Looking good... Looks Good! Things are coming along nicely. I thought you may have been done already and didn't feel like talking to us anymore. :laugh: Not sure if it's in the plans or not but consider putting a diagnal bar forward between the frame and cross bar; and make sure to weld the crap out if the axle tubes where they go into the center section. You mentioned wheel stands, long ones......You should try one of those little blue bottles. :shock: :TU:
