Traction?

[Steve-o81]

Hi, I was wondering whats my best bets for rear mods to get the rear to hook up the best with more power out of a 350 without altering the feel of the ride on my 2wd 1981 Silverado longbed? I was going to add some Lakewood slapper bars and put in a 12-bolt or Dana 60, and that’s it. I’m not welding anything or adding an extra leaf. Welding isn’t safe and an extra leaf will alter the original rides feel.

 

[idahovette]

Depends on what you are welding and who's doing it!!!....Lotta guys on this forum that are EXCELLENT welders, makes a BIG difference

 

[Bextreme04]

Hi, I was wondering whats my best bets for rear mods to get the rear to hook up the best with more power out of a 350 without altering the feel of the ride on my 2wd 1981 Silverado longbed? I was going to add some Lakewood slapper bars and put in a 12-bolt or Dana 60, and that’s it. I’m not welding anything or adding an extra leaf. Welding isn’t safe and an extra leaf will alter the original rides feel.

A ladder bar setup supposedly helps a lot. I was going to use a Tuff Country ladder bar setup on my 14 bolt. https://www.suspensionconnection.co...hCWf9nHSKemO2Fpz-dDo7AobAtsv59poaAqKAEALw_wcB

I've heard good things about Caltracs for the 2WD's... https://westernchassis.com/1973-87-...Hh3sLJTiLNCvIC45aQGB0HFV9jhb0Mw4aAiZfEALw_wcB

Both of those systems bolt in using the leaf spring U-bolts. I'd probably at least tack weld the Tuff Country ladder bar bracket onto the bottom of the diff tube. The comment about welding not being safe is.... comical.

 

[shiftpro]

Ladder or traction bars do not help with traction, despite being called that. They stop the diff from twisting and rebounding (wheel hop) caused by;
power and tire traction.
A 12 bolt isn't really any stronger than a 10 bolt and whatever the rear end is, if you have enough power and a light duty set of leaf springs, tires will hop.

 

[Bextreme04]

Ladder or traction bars do not help with traction, despite being called that. They stop the diff from twisting and rebounding (wheel hop) caused by;
power and tire traction.
A 12 bolt isn't really any stronger than a 10 bolt and whatever the rear end is, if you have enough power and a light duty set of leaf springs, tires will hop.

Yeah, I guess I forgot to put that in there even though I was thinking it. If that 350 is making significantly more power than stock, the best thing for it is probably not hooking up. The traction bars will keep it from twisting, binding, hopping, and breaking more things than just the diff though. The Dana 60 or a 9" would be your best bet if you want to hook up and not destroy the diff though.

 

[Craig 85]

Tuff Country also sells this style of traction bar or Lakewood #21715 by Holley photo #2 & #3.

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[82sbshortbed]

Are you having traction problems now? Are you predicting that you will? Is it tire hopping now? If not I'd worry about it after you do the mods you want to. Then see how it acts afterwards.

I got stock suspension on my c10 short bed with 275/60/15's on it. A bbc 454 with intake, cam and Lt hedders. I can punch it from dead stop and it spins both tires(no wheel hop)gets a little sideways but, when it hooks it gets it.

I like it like that! It's all preference. I'm currently adjusting it to bark the tires shifting into 2nd too tho so....

 

[Steve-o81]

Are you having traction problems now? Are you predicting that you will? Is it tire hopping now? If not I'd worry about it after you do the mods you want to. Then see how it acts afterwards.

I got stock suspension on my c10 short bed with 275/60/15's on it. A bbc 454 with intake, cam and Lt hedders. I can punch it from dead stop and it spins both tires(no wheel hop)gets a little sideways but, when it hooks it gets it.

I like it like that! It's all preference. I'm currently adjusting it to bark the tires shifting into 2nd too tho so....

Last I ran it it had a stock 10-bolt with a medium duty workhorse 4 barrel Edelbrock carb and intake 350 from a P30 step Van. I had major hopping, twisting and hook up problems when I punched it. Next I’m going to put an Edelbrock 350/310hp and a DANA 60. I know it’ll be worse traction wise then.

 

[bucket]

Ladder or traction bars do not help with traction, despite being called that. They stop the diff from twisting and rebounding (wheel hop) caused by;
power and tire traction.
A 12 bolt isn't really any stronger than a 10 bolt and whatever the rear end is, if you have enough power and a light duty set of leaf springs, tires will hop.

How do they not help with traction?

When power is applied, the pinion tries to point upward. Traction bars, ladder bars, etc use this motion to force the tires away from the vehicle, which then in turn helps plant them into the pavement. Reducing wheel hop is a nice additional benefit.

 

[CoggedBelt75]

What shiftpro said. Bars on the back will help keep things straight , but without the right tires...your just spinning your wheels. Hooking to me is the tires grabbing the pavement. A pair of ET street radials will do wonders for ya. If you’re LE is cool in your area, slicks are the thing to run. Just mount them on some spare rims for when you plan on having some fun.

 

[shiftpro]

How do they not help with traction?

When power is applied, the pinion tries to point upward. Traction bars, ladder bars, etc use this motion to force the tires away from the vehicle, which then in turn helps plant them into the pavement. Reducing wheel hop is a nice additional benefit.

What Cog said, lol!
We all ran 'traction bars' on our hot rods in the 70s. They actually did burnouts even better when the diff wasn't hopping and stretching our leafs to extinction.

To be fair, you comment has relevance if we were talking about a 4x4 with big tires and some power. In sand for example, a traction bar that stops the leafs from getting 'wound up' and releasing that energy to the wheels would to a degree help with traction. The tires can dig and spin and make a trench even which is days ahead of hopping.

To be thorough, the OP hasn't really explained what's going on. Are his tires just going up in smoke? He didn't mention any wheel hop. He mentions changing rear ends and I don't know if he is speculating that will effect hos traction. Of course we know it won't..

Building a true trial ready rig would require soft flexy rear springs and an anti-wrap device (better name than traction bar). Imagine
a 496 with 38" mud tires and soft rear springs with no anti-wrap device! Broken parts here we come.

 

[shiftpro]

Last I ran it it had a stock 10-bolt with a medium duty workhorse 4 barrel Edelbrock carb and intake 350 from a P30 step Van. I had major hopping, twisting and hook up problems when I punched it. Next I’m going to put an Edelbrock 350/310hp and a DANA 60. I know it’ll be worse traction wise then.

You're going to gain a lot of weight adding the D60, not that this should be a deal breaker... the extra weight will help with traction!

 

[shiftpro]

Tuff Country also sells this style of traction bar or Lakewood #21715 by Holley photo #2 & #3.

You must be registered for see images attach

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The ORD/Tuff Country anti-wrap bar is for the buck, a hellova bang. But they do cause slight binding when the suspension compresses as the leaf stretches out it also stretches the anti-wrap bar. The rubber mounts take the movement.

The second set would be terrible on a truck as they clamp to the leafs, basically rendering them solid.

 

[shiftpro]

Last I ran it it had a stock 10-bolt with a medium duty workhorse 4 barrel Edelbrock carb and intake 350 from a P30 step Van. I had major hopping, twisting and hook up problems when I punched it. Next I’m going to put an Edelbrock 350/310hp and a DANA 60. I know it’ll be worse traction wise then.

Prbaby easier to find a GM 14 bolt, 10.5" full floater and then a D60 rear end. Don't get a 9" 14 bolt semi floater... however it is strong but not as much as the 10.5. That's our Holy Grail rear diff.

 

[bucket]

What Cog said, lol!
We all ran 'traction bars' on our hot rods in the 70s. They actually did burnouts even better when the diff wasn't hopping and stretching our leafs to extinction.

To be fair, you comment has relevance if we were talking about a 4x4 with big tires and some power. In sand for example, a traction bar that stops the leafs from getting 'wound up' and releasing that energy to the wheels would to a degree help with traction. The tires can dig and spin and make a trench even which is days ahead of hopping.

To be thorough, the OP hasn't really explained what's going on. Are his tires just going up in smoke? He didn't mention any wheel hop. He mentions changing rear ends and I don't know if he is speculating that will effect hos traction. Of course we know it won't..

Building a true trial ready rig would require soft flexy rear springs and an anti-wrap device (better name than traction bar). Imagine
a 496 with 38" mud tires and soft rear springs with no anti-wrap device! Broken parts here we come.

That hasn't been my experience with Camaros, Novas and S10's. Traction has been improved with street tires and stock or mild engines where wheel hop wasn't even a problem to begin with.

Obviously with some real power, the little street tires are just going to get blown off anyway.

Actually I thought of a good example. The old Southside traction bars for the 3rd gen Camaro. Those are are torque arm cars and actually hook pretty good to start off with. But those traction bars were set up to replace the torque arm and the lower control arms, making them similar in function to a ladder bar setup with coilovers (as opposed to leaf springs and a shackle mount on the ladder bar). Or similar to a leaf spring style traction bar, but without the slop of a floating snubber. But anyway, they worked really good. There have been a lot of high power cars that can hook and book with smallish tires and no tubs.