I am looking into ways to make my Tacoma handle better. I plan on lowering it, of course, but lots of ppl complain about wheelhop when blocks are used to lower. Then i checked out the readers rides section here and found another Tacoma owner here who uses CalTracs bars on his X-Runner that he autoxs and road races.
I know CalTracs are most popular w/ drag racers as a more sophisticated version of the "slapper bars" used on lots of primered Novas. I'm just wondering if anyone has any thoughts, opinions, or experiences w/ them in a handling situation like autocross or road racing.
Also, for those interesed, i found this link to designing and building your own set:
http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com/Traction.html
Bueller?
no one's ever tried CalTracs style "slapper bars"?
arn't these sort of what shelby had on the rear of the gt-350? i remember they were called traction masters back in the 60's. worked ok as i remember.
my good friend and $2002 - $2004 challenge partner jason has a very low S10 (LT1/4L60, 285/40-17 rear), and he complained a lot about wheel hop with the low suspension. so he got some steel tubing and some rod ends and welded up some brackets and made a set of "radius rods" or whatever you want to call them, that keep the leaf springs from wrapping up while still allowing normal suspension travel. the key is to make the rod about the same length as the distance from forward spring eye to forward u-bolt on diff. no more wheel hop! jay's design packages above the leaf spring, which is very cool for stealth and also for ground clearance. i have pics somewhere.
I'd love to see pix if you can find them. or if the setup has a "name" i can google...
Mite
New Reader
8/12/08 1:23 p.m.
I built a set for my Sprite. I get no wheel hop at all, even with massive 155r13's on the back!
see here: http://the-mite.com/mite7.htm
problemaddict wrote:
I'd love to see pix if you can find them. or if the setup has a "name" i can google...
ask and ye shall receive, mike:
the axle end bracket is welded directly to the lowering block. the forward end is welded to the spring perch bracket. they're shorter than i remembered. truck rides as good as you can expect from a truck that's on the bump stops at all times.
more pix at:
more pix of S10 radius rods
MikeSVO
New Reader
8/12/08 4:43 p.m.
In my Pinto, it wasn't wheelhop that I was trying to fix, just the springs wrapping up. I smoked a few u-joints before I did the fix.
I bought a leaf spring from the junkyard and cut it in half. I bolted each piece between the existing spring set and the retaining plate (that the u-bolts go through). Since the new spring section was long enough to reach the front spring eye, it acted like a traction bar thing without the ridiculous look.
In fact, unless you were looking for it, you'd easily pass over it. I tried to keep the car kinda low profile.
Thanks for the info guys!
The "radius rod" setups that Angry and Mite have here look promising and alot simpler to fab than the CalTracs. It seems so simple that i'm surprised i haven't heard about them before....
