Thread: any drawbacks to using a watts link?

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I wanted to install a watts link in my 65 truck . I will be baggin it and will have a adjustable suspension ( nothing wild). Just want to lower it when parked.

No real drawbacks, performance and function wise. The only potential problem is adequate clearance below the floorpan.

What horse power rating can they handle. I have a the longest panhard bar for my 65 truck (aftermarket) but I have read that a watts links performs better and it just looks better

Horsepower is totally irrelavent. All this linkage does is locate your chassis side to side in relationship to the rear axle---it does not "see" any of the torque related to horsepower. It will work equally well whether you use a 1 cylinder Briggs and Stratton lawnmower engine, or a 600 horsepower big block.

A Watt's linkage is better, as Brian said the only drawback is the amount of room they consume... With a pickup, should be plenty of room to get one in there. Of all the rear end centering devices, they will do the best job of keeping the rear end centered under the car...

It controls side to side movement so horsepower is not a consideration. As for controlling lateral G's, I doubt a pickup would ever corner hard enough to do any damage. There are two bars to distribute the lateral load over, so they would by design be even stronger then a panhard bar...

Thanks Brain and Dave for pointing that out once you guys explained it it made it cleared things up.

OK next question is do you guys know who sells a quality kit. I found 2 different sellers for trucks that hop but 1 has a price tag of 550 and the other has a wacky (very ugly) design .

If your truck "hops" as in wheel hop, that is not going to be fixed by a panhard rod nor by a Watts link. Speedway Motors sells Panhard kits and Watts link kits

This is my understanding of the two setups to this point - any corrections to this statement are welcome.

Panhard bar has 2 pivot points, so any up and down movement of the axle translates into some lateral movement. The amount of movement is inversely proportional to the rod length. That is, longer rods create less movement.

The Watts link was designed with 2 rods, 4 pivot points with a swivel in the middle to eliminate the inherent 'shifting' of the earlier and simpler 'panhard' technology.

The Watts link when constructed correctly, allows the axle to travel its full range of motion without any skewing.

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

If your truck "hops" as in wheel hop, that is not going to be fixed by a panhard rod nor by a Watts link. Speedway Motors sells Panhard kits and Watts link kits

No I meant that the kits I found were from vendors that were in the business of jumping there vehicle up and down. You know front,back,side,to side.


Video of watts in action

http://totallypolished.com/watt's_link_kits.shtml


http://www.sportruck.com/news/KP-Watts-Link/

Absolutely correct, SBC.

I have a template that is quite similar to the Speedway kit and two different style mounts for the center pivot. One mounts on the rear of a 9" Ford housing brace (I use a full length rear brace on all my big horse stuff), and the other mounts off three of the bolts that attach the center section to the housing. On street cars I usually use aluminum tubing (7075 T6) for the tubes, it's light and strong for straight line loading and looks great when polished up!!!!! Take a look at the kit Speedway offers, and get that new plasma arc to work!!! I would recomend either 1/4" or 5/16" plate for the center pivot and frame rail mounts and of course grade 8 for attachment hardware..... On my big horse stuff, I make all the frame bracketry and center pivot out of chrome moly plate. Probably a bit of overkill, but I hate breaking things!!!!!!

I would go with the totallypolished one..........it just looks to be better quality.although the other is totaly bolt on..........