Has anyone tried to measure the improvement from subframe connectors? I get that intuitively, thicker tubes and designs that follow the floor would be stronger but how do we know if lighter pieces might not do the job well enough?
You’d literally need a full finite element analysis of the chassis and different connectors to figure that out. Comparing different installs on different 50 year old cars wouldn’t likely get you good information. Just a really large margin of error.
With the connectors something is better than nothing. Even the bolt in Mopar Performance connectors, welded in, make a difference. Eventually you reach a point where adding more wall thickness or tube diameter doesn’t matter, you’ve strengthened the chassis as much as you can with that single reinforcement.
I think the weld to floor US Cartool connectors probably look best, but they’re a royal pain to get fitted and fully welded to the floor if you’re not working on a media blasted chassis on a rotisserie. And you have to re-route all the lines. I used 1.5x3 tube with large landing plates on my Duster. They work great, fit flat to the floor and frame, and were a lot easier to install than the US Cartool connectors I installed on my Dart.
