Slapper Bars

-
1BAD72

1BAD72

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2016
Messages
89
Reaction score
41
Location
Fort Myers, FL
Hello... I put on a set of Lakewood slapper bars and have the snubbers within 1/2 of the leaf spring eye bolt centerline as recommended. The bars are parallel with the springs but as you can see, slightly angled down about 4 or 5 degrees (see picture). I understand the Lakewood warning in the installation instruction sheet regarding a downward angle and I understand it is to ensure a safe condition under hard braking when the slapper bar can angle down even further and possibly make contact with the ground or a raised surface... but is a slight angle like 4 or 5 degrees a concern? Those with slapper bar experience, would you shim these slapper bars shown to get them closer to parallel with the ground or does the clearance look adequate? Thanks in advance.
20170114_145835_resized (1).jpg
 
Ive had slappers on my duster since I got it. they too angle down a bit but the only time they've ever contacted the ground is when I go over a small dirt ramp I have just near my car port. never under braking or other obstacles. then again, my car is standard height, so if you lower the car at all, you might find an instance or two where they contact.

I think those should be fine (IMO)
 
i think the answer you will find is that slapper bars are counter productive on mopars, because they counteract the way the suspension is set up and you will actually loose traction because of it

BUT someone will give you a much more detailed answer

(now, if you want them on there to look like a 70s car, go for it)
 
Never used them, used a adjustable pinion snubber and never had a traction problem, only if I put the stiff torsion bars in then burnout city!
 
The real trick is to make sure the bars are the proper length to have the snubber contact as close to the front spring eyelet as possible. Slapping the spring farther away from the eyelet puts undo stress on the spring. But, the more energy you transfer to the rear section of the spring.

You limit the front spring wrap with the bar. But the energy created has to go somewhere.
 
No need for those eye sores with a properly adjusted pinion snubber.

But hey if you like em then by all means run em

:thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
Sell the slapper bars to the Cheby boys. You want traction help for leaf springs....Caltracts.

JMHO
 
Caltracs and pinion snubbers ride way to harsh for my tastes on the street. They are great on a smooth track though.

If you are going to run slapper bars on the semi-elliptical designed rear springs of a Mopar, you have to adjust them correctly. This requires that the rubber snubber to be cut to about half the original length and positioned directly under the front spring eye where it must barely touch the spring eye. I had to cut and weld mine to get them to fit correctly.

I can tell you they are very effective in spite of what those folks who don't know how to set them up or have never used them say. Just ask the Hellcat owner in the attached picture when I pulled 3 car lengths on him out of the hole or any of those new Scat Pack Challenger owners I have schooled in my local area.

I did paint them matt black, so I don't have to listen to it.

JohnRace2 (Large).jpg
 
Last edited:
How does a pinion snubber ride harsh? It doesn't make contact anywhere unless its under a load like during a launch
 
Except every single speed bump drives it into the floorpan until there is nothing left of the plate. And when it crashes up there it's BAM! IMO snubbers are for the Track. Then you drop it back down,waaaay down, for the street, so you don't have to crab-walk over the speed bumps like the tuner boys do.My car is lowered now, beyond the range of what any adjustable snubber can accommodate.So my adjustable snubber is languishing on the shelf, along with so many other parts that either didn't work, or didn't work out, or didn't work the way that I expected them to.
I well remember my custom made slappers from the 70s; they worked!
Today I could care less if the rear spins, that makes it all the more fun for me,lol.
My car 60fts at 2.2,lol
 
Last edited:
71DodgeDemon340 said:
How does a pinion snubber ride harsh? It doesn't make contact anywhere unless its under a load like during a launch
Click to expand...

I hear what you are saying. The factory pinion snubbers are several inches from the floor, but a performance based pinion snubbers should be adjust slightly contacting the floor for a manual trans and about a 1/2" off the floor for an automatic or visa versa. I gave up on them and forget what the DC Chassis book recommends.

At any rate, this close contact effectively stops the travel of the entire front of the spring. The rear of the spring is then limited in its travel too, as it is part of the same spring as the front segment.
 
Lol i think mines adjusted about a inch or inch and a half from the floor with my 340 4 speed and no issues at all. I do a 4k hole shot and she squats, spins lightly (not enough to smoke em) for about 15ft then goes. Im easy on speed bumps anyway, gotta be carefull of that scatter shield lol
 
Thanks for the feed back lads. I have a pinion snubber and it does go bang on several otherwise normal street encounters like speed bumps and some driveway curbs. I'm not drag racing these days. The car is a 1972 plum crazy Duster with a 440/727 and the yellow Lakewood bars just add to the period correct car "look" when I go to shows, meets and the occasional A to B on the way home. My reason for the post was the concern for a slight downward angle of the bar but it seems others with more time using slappers seem to think it's ok as is so I'm leaving it as is.
 
This is incorrect. Traction bars take advantage of the same force that pinion snubbers do. There are simply two of them, instead of one. They are designed for leaf spring suspensions. Period. They will work fine on a Mopar, Chevy, Ford or whatever with leaf springs as long as they are set up correctly.

diymirage said:
i think the answer you will find is that slapper bars are counter productive on mopars, because they counteract the way the suspension is set up and you will actually loose traction because of it

BUT someone will give you a much more detailed answer

(now, if you want them on there to look like a 70s car, go for it)
Click to expand...
 
RustyRatRod said:
This is incorrect. Traction bars take advantage of the same force that pinion snubbers do. There are simply two of them, instead of one. They are designed for leaf spring suspensions. Period. They will work fine on a Mopar, Chevy, Ford or whatever with leaf springs as long as they are set up correctly.
Click to expand...


you may very well be right, i was just going by what i read on here...kinda like the "cancel each other out" in the following quote

RustyRatRod said:
They don't work as WELL on a Mopar. Mopars have a short front spring segment that acts as a pair of traction bars already. Because the front segment is shorter than say a Camaro front spring segment, it is a lot stiffer. This inherent stiffness causes the rotational force of the rear axle to literally lift the body and plant the rear tires. This is even prevelant without a pinion snubber. Add the pinion snubber and the effect is several fold. Adding traction bars to the Mopar leaf spring suspension does not work as well because in effect, the traction bars coupled with the short front spring segment cancel each other out. In order for the Mopar suspension to work, the springs MUST flex. When you add traction bars, you are taking away a lot of that flexibility, while adding a pinion snubber takes advantage of that flexibility and turns it into traction.
Click to expand...

or i may just still be mistaken
 
diymirage said:
you may very well be right, i was just going by what i read on here...kinda like the "cancel each other out" in the following quote



or i may just still be mistaken
Click to expand...

They are not used together. You either use traction bars OR a pinion snubber, not both.

Traction bars do not cancel each other out. They act independently on each spring. Some say they are more effective than a pinion snubber, since they can be adjusted independently.

I won't get into that debate, but rather simply say that each does the same job but a little differently.
 
i understand the two bars do not cancel each other out, but it was my understand bars AND a snubber do


so, as long as the OP does not have a pinion snubber, i guess the bars should be fine ?
 
diymirage said:
i understand the two bars do not cancel each other out, but it was my understand bars AND a snubber do


so, as long as the OP does not have a pinion snubber, i guess the bars should be fine ?
Click to expand...

That's correct.
 
Idk still couldn't get me to put those ugly things on mine, if someone doesn't mind them than cool im glad for em, i just cant personally do it. I think the pinion snubber works to good to try the bars
 
In the 70's, these were a must have. It was part of the look. The matter was not how effective they were. They were billed as the **** and you had to have a set on your car to be bad ***. Illusions and delusions, aren't they grand. I had a cool car and I got laid. What else could matter?
 
I think yours (op)are fine the way they are.

I run them on several of my cars and trucks and like them better than the snubber mainly because they don't beat the crap out of the underside of my cars....really can't tell a difference in performance between the snubber and bars and I do track and street.

Most of my stuff is low tho,so really can't use the adjustable snubber.
 
In answer to the OP about them pointing down, better slapper bars come with a U Bolt that goes over the top of the front segment of the spring, and keeps bars from diving during hard stops. On really violent applications, they keep the front segment from going S shape when torque is released, as in manual trans gear changes.
The reason that the pinion snubber became "the" traction device used in performance mopars is the primary axle, the 8.75 has a sheet steel housing. By limiting axle wrap from the center, it takes all the torsional load off the housing. You can literally dead hook 1500 horsepower in a 3000 pound car and not distort the stock housing, if you are using a properly set up snubber. Early Funny Car guys did it every day.
Once you go to any sort of outboard mounted traction device, the housing becomes a weak link and thats where back bracing comes in.
As for effective traction control..absolute toss up between the slappers and the snubber.
 
Blind Squirrel said:
In the 70's, these were a must have. It was part of the look. The matter was not how effective they were. They were billed as the **** and you had to have a set on your car to be bad ***. Illusions and delusions, aren't they grand. I had a cool car and I got laid. What else could matter?
Click to expand...

The look was and is a big part, especially if you are going for period correctness. I like how they look, as long as the rest of the car is period correct. That was a cool time for cars. People who've not lived it simply don't understand.

That said. traction bars can be just as if not more effective than a snubber if you know what you're doing. So if you do it right, you get somethin that works good and looks cool too. lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top