I need traction,,,,,,,,

[Bad340fish]

Caltracs

I went out and looked mine over very closely, I don't see how or where they would cause additional bind at all. The only issue I have had with them is ground clearance, but that makes them rank right down there with my headers, oil pan, and exhaust. It would also not be an issue with the rams either.



Gary, they make the caltracs for the 1500s for sure. I am pretty sure(uh oh) that the rear axle is setup just like the 2500s but with smaller parts



A poor boy way to stiffen the front of the spring up to reduce axle wrap is to clamp the ends of each one of the springs(in front of the axle only). I built some for my sagy ole springs that were starting to cause some tire hop(pre-caltracs). Clamping the fronts of the leaves got me 1" higher in the back with no wheel hop. Its cheap



See they work

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[HVAC]

Yup, they do make the Caltracs for the 1500 Ram. I would hope they could be used on the 2500 with minimal modification. They assured they could build me a set.

 

[Gary C]

Bad fish,



Nice looking cuda, going to do what you said for the quick fix.



thanks



Nowel, call.



thanks



Your side kick



Tonto

 

[WOWZY]

The trouble with ladder bars are thay hang too low. Steves traction bars mount on top of the axle and are outa the way.



I made a similar top mounted setup like Steve's for my 2. 5ton Blazer after I bent a set of Lakewood Ladder bars. Steve's set up takes advantage of physics by the axle pulling on the bars by them being mounted on top as opposed to pushing on the bars if they're mounted on the bottom of the axle.



With the torque our BOMBED trucks can definately bend up a set of bars mounted on the bottom of the axle.



Steve can you repost the pics of yours?

 

[HVAC]

I agree, the bars up and out of the way is a plus.



Here is the link to Steve's trac bars-



https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5973



I can't really make them out from the pics, so I plan to check out a truck the has them installed.

Willyslover has them on his dually.

 

[Bad340fish]

Kinda shady

This sounds kinda shady and is unproven lol.



Myself and another TDR member pondered doing this to his 3500 but haven't yet. Take some kind of block(wood?) and insert it between the overload sping and the stop(front only). That way when the axle wrapped up it would have the extra stiffness of the overload to deal with. Limiting wheelhop(most likely) and shooting you down the track . You would have to clamp/bolt them in somehow. They would also be removable for stock ride home from the track. Like I said these are unproven





Gary, I made the clamps for my car out of 3/8" steel. Put one on eash side of the spring(duh) and bolted them together with some 3/8" grade 8 bolts. I tightened them until the clamps bent and you could see a noticable change in the arc of the springs after clamping them. I lost a few of them, they require some periodic tightening for a week or so.

Clark

 

[WOWZY]

I remember a few years back a friends '93 Cummins Ram had 4:88 gears installed and had bad axle wrap. He was lifting his truck up anyway and got a 2" traction lift fom Trailmaster (I think) and it worked pretty good and worked similar to the wooden block idea. But I know that most aren't looking to lift the rear any higher than it already is.



Wooden block HaHa reminds me of watching my Uncles' spray painting the 2x4 blocks that they put under their Chevelles to jack them up back in the early 70's

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Sure, here's some pics:



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Passenger side front mount



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Passenger side rear mount (front view)



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Passenger side rear mount (rear view)



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I try to avoid posting on threads such as this one since I am both a moderator on the board and a vendor - I generally prefer to let satisfied users do the talking for me. Rodney, from what you've said about your setup on here it sounds like your TAD is very close functionally to the bars I'm distributing. The primary difference is that yours is a triangulated design whereas mine use two seperate bars on each side. I assume that you are using heim joints at the axle and some kind of rotating attachment point at the front. I have to disagree with your statement that you can't eliminate all bind from a ladder bar setup though. If the geometry of the bars (length and width) relative to the axle and frame is correct then you will have zero bind in the suspension. The bars I'm distributing were designed by a monster truck chassis builder and racer and do not bind the suspension at all. The geometry is set up so that as the suspension moves upwards (or downwards) that the axle is allowed to move rearward in the chassis as well as rotate rearward the proper amount so as to not bind the suspension. Before and after mine were installed we used a fork lift to lift each tire individually and got the same amount of travel both with and without the bars. Because the geometry of each bar is correct it allows each side of the suspension to work properly, therefore causes no problem in a crossed up situation either.



I've since taken the truck rock crawling in the smokey mountains as well as off roading at the sand dunes many times and they work great as well as at the drag strip (my bed lifts almost two inches off the tires at launch, that's how hard they're forcing the tires into the pavement, I can launch at 2100 rpm now whereas I could only launch at 1450 before them).



-Steve St. Laurent

Supplier of SS Ladder Bars

 

[Gary C]

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27812



I just posted this for a quick fix.



340 and Steve thanks for the help and photos.



Steve, the way I see it, if you have the good goodies post it, tell the world and so on.



thanks again

 

[willyslover]

let me chime in here . . as a VERY HAPPY customer of the Steve St. L's bars

I purchased mine for another reason than being talked about here . . I live in the snow and up a very steep hill about 3/4 mile up. . in deep snow my dually wants to buck and jump off the road and give a cheep thrill. . having already done that [wrecked my 98. 5 dually over a cliff ] thought it would be best to control the hop and make it home... I have been involved in racing [albet it was a few years ago] Sprint cars , Super Modified, and some open Comp. cars and started out in drag cars. I have never seen any that worked with the suspension as these do. also they totaly control the spring wrap.

a side benefit I have since found is that they allow total straight braking under hard peddel on very curvey tight twisties [mountain driving]. . also another neat thing is they allow you to pick up the loud peddel much sooner in the mountains to drive off the turnes much harder. as some can attest to my driving "style" I run the hellll out of my dually in the mountains [can you 6 wheel drift one. . I can . . want a ride ]

to say I am happy would be an understatement... my rig has never handled this well and I'm not even launching it hard yet ... ya sure

top drawer materials used in production so you don't have to buy a set and replace the junk stuff right off the bat.

THANKS STEVE for the quality. . Gary

 

[R.Brooks]

Steve, I did not mean to doubt your product, and for the realistic usable stock travel, the single bar approach that you use I am sure works well. As you stated, if at the proper angle, and of the proper length, they can work excellent. The advantage to a more complex system is that it can not only control wheel hop / axle wrap, but add downforce to the tires in the form of weight transfer above and beyond the spring rate. The weight that is applied to a properly designed, non-binding ladder bar is multiplied by the length of the bar. It really comes down to what you are trying to do with the truck. As you may have gathered from my posts, I do not do much with "street" performance. I prefer to work with race only, or race/street vehicles, emphasis on race. There certainly is not a one size fits all traction device. If any body would like to discuss merits of one system over another for YOUR usage, feel free to contact me.



Rodney