Thread: Ladder Bar Q

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Originally Posted by ojh

I agree with the antirollbar analogy - hadn't thought about it but that is about right.
Matt167, can we have a little more info? If it is the fleetline you are doing this on, does it have leaf springs? If so, bad ju-ju there. You will have some serious binding issues as the springs want to go straight up and down while the ladder bar travels in an arc. There are ways around this but the project becomes more and more complicated. Many on here can give you good, safe advice - just more info so's we can be confidant when we tell whats best to do.
Those long radius rods you see on the rear of an old hot rod that run up on the outside of the frame rail? Real bad ju-ju there. Don't even think about copying that setup.

This isn't the Fleetline but is my scratch built rat.. Altho I know that to use ladders and leafs, housing floaters need to be used...

This hotrod, has a custom built cab, setting on the front section of a 1994 Ford Ranger with a custom 'back half' kicked up 10" from the Ranger frame, 32.5" wide and just about 5' long. Cab is 4'x4'x 45" tall with a cowl that is 16" deep

I kinda figured that the radius rod setup wasnt good to be copied. I actually took Roadster32's advice and ran them triangulated a bit, Everything fit like it should, except the crossmember which, as of right now is right in the path of the pinion, but I put a 2x3 crossmember right above it ( overkill, but I had no more 1"x1" 11ga ) that I can run 2 smaller scrap/ cutoffs of the 1"x1" 11 gauge up to and the 2x3 will carry the load and be super strong/ cut out for the pinion. It's all tacked in place, but the coil over mounts that came with the coil overs are less than stellar, and I'm not comfortable with them, so I'm cutting them back off once I get the chance and putting some better 1's on. The 1's I have were handmade by an Ebay seller but the coil overs were new and discounted, so I picked them up a couple years ago and themselves are not bad.. Few other things bother me, but I'll work them all out well before it's on the road.. I'll have pics in a few mins

Originally Posted by Matt167

Well, the Jegs bars are Jegster branded, Altho they could be used on the street ( and will be ), they are drag bars, and I'm 100% sure the instructions ( what little there is ), is for a Drag only setup.. As far as 3 or 4 links binding, paralel 4 links ( more commonly reffered to as 4 bar ) deffinetly will bind just about like the ladder bars... Visualize the rear of the car, one tire goes over a bump. If the ladders are perpindicular and mounted farther apart, say right inside the frame rails. the ladder will bind and push into the frame, the other ladder will pull the frame because the ladders are basically rigidly mounted in a fixed position and they both act together. The only movement they can provide is within the front heim joint, and that is up and down. The setup effectivly turns the axle into an anti roll bar. Triangulate it and it provides a bit of an arc for suspension to travel in.. Same with the paralell 4 link, they will bind in some cases side to side without an arc intergrated

No offence Matt, But if you already had all that info about ladder bars, what was then the point of your question seeing that it seems that you already had your answer?

Measure twice, cut once and make sure it's safe.. I only know those basics like that from reading and searching over the past week, Never did a ladder bar install before, and just checked 1 last time before I installed them so I know there right

fair enough.