Suspension: designs, shapes, sizes
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====Ladder bar==== | ====Ladder bar==== | ||
| + | V-shaped bars which attach the front point of the bars to the frame toward the front of the car and the other end to brackets which are welded to a solid axle differential housing. At the housing brackets, the differential may be "clocked" or rotated to change the pinion angle. At the front, or Vee point of the bars, they may be moved up or down in their brackets to change the way the load of the differential is fed into the frame structure of the car. | ||
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| + | Ladder bars are a low-cost way of controlling differential rotation, although they may be overly harsh in a street application. Where the car has to negotiate an uneven entry or exit such as angling into or from a driveway, there is no compliance in the bars like there would be in an OEM system. You could find one of the front tires being pulled off the surface of the roadway due to chassis twist and non-conformity of the bars. Another peril is the bending or breaking of brackets or welds from the flexing, a good reason to limit ladder bars to a race-only vehicle. | ||
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| + | At least one manufacturer has addressed this non-conformity. Auto Weld Chassis has developed a compliant urethane member in the Vee-point. This is a low-cost, new generation of ladder bars for Pro-Street use. They place a heavy duty urethane bushing in the front with a heavy duty outer sleeve welded directy to the ladder bars for extra strength. The bushing has an inner steel sleeve which accepts a drag legal 3/4" bolt. Stainless steel adjusters and double shear plates are employed at the back of the bars. The flexibility of the urethane bushing allows the rear to twist and float slightly to soak up road irregularities and bumps for a better handling, quieter, maintenance-free ride that is still able to supply the necessary traction. | ||
====Truck arm==== | ====Truck arm==== | ||
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