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Competition Axle hop

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Competition DHRA rules??

Competition Mopar Nationals August 12-14

Just ordered my tubes. Went with 1 3/4" with 1/2" wall 7' long. Will have to adjust the length a little bit. They cost me $111 each. The rest of the 3/8" plate cost about $40. Labor will be on me. The design is similiar to LsFarm's or the missing Rob Thomas. (still waiting on a set from him that I won at Fall Brawl). :rolleyes: Still haven't decided on which heims and what size to use. Like BBD, I will thread the tubes instead of using an insert. I am also putting heims on both ends. BBD, thanks for the info from an earlier post I had regarding traction bars. I was going follow your lead and go with the 2" od, 1/2" wall, but decided based on the price difference and current power level it will be a while til I need something bigger. Thanks for the help.



Thomas
 
Single bars are on borrowed time, sled pulling. Throwing steal at them(making them bigger) is a poor attempt at best to fix the problem.



Just because you have seen some pullers with gaudy monstrous round tubing hanging underneath them, doesn't mean its a good idea.



Replace steal with engineering. You need a bar top and bottom, with bracing in between. The top bar ideally should be parallel with the frame. I ran mine 7 feet to get to the double part of the frame, then built a U-saddle that covered the frame, and welded the bracket to it.

Just bolting them to the side of the frame will crack it.



Mine are solid, because I only run 1" of suspension travel. You would need to shackle the front mounting point to be truly useable on the street.

Future plans for mine are to have them shackled, with another pin to slip through at pulling time.



Now, after all that, first pull at TiM 03, bent them both-sideways! I straightened them with a forklift, and then put a truss on the inside, adding very little weight, but lots of strenght. They have been on ever since.



Not saying mine are right, but there is some good ideas that have worked you can improve on.
 
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For driving, if you go with sled pullers ladder bars, you might add a pivot like the cal tracs have, with a way to pin them for pulling, otherwise any real world suspension travel will ride like hell.



When Poisonspyder customs was still avalanche engineering, they suggested to build the bars from DOM in either 1" I. D. or 3/4" ID depending on how you planned to attach your heim joints. To cure bending it was suggested to use the tubing as a sleeve and insert bar stock into the center... You coud have 1. 5" bars wthat would hold up until the heims let loose.



Also, someone else asked about bar stock. The smaller diameter a tube is, the easier it is to bend. I don't remember the equivalencies because I haven't built any bars since I was in highschool, But an X" diameter tube of DOM can hold up the same amount of weight a solid bar of steel can, but the DOM will be lighter given that it's hollow. Clear as mud right?



I don't know about sled pulling, but in my four wheeling days, I dropped a 5000 pound bronco onto some boulders and the first impact was on the 1. 5" DOM tie rod I had built. Heims where 3/4" thread, 5/8" bore from (then avalanche engineering) Poison Spyder customs. The tie rod is still straight.



I don't know how you could keep a tire beaded long enough to bend a rod due to axle wrap but i'll take your word on it.
 
You really just don't like me huh Gene.



I was hoping you'd go into your particular beadlock setup... :D maybe i'll just hush.



I actually hadn't put any thought into holding a tire beaded while pulling until I typed that the other day.
 
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