Street Driven Ladder Bar Cars

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mopowers

mopowers

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Who here has a ladder bar/coil over car that is street driven? Do you run poly bushings in the front mounts, or spherical heims? Any longevity issues? Any trouble with bending mounts or anything else from driving on on the street?

Thanks
 
bOb shingler said:
ladder bars DO NOT BELONG on the street, period.
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Yeah, that's what I understand as well. I was just curious if anyone has one they drive on the street. The car I'm building is a 1/4 mile car, but I'd like to retain the ability to drive it on the street.
 
What about switching to 4 link, or a triangulated 4 link, know theres one for sale in the mechanical section.
 
I have a old ford coupe with a ladder bar set up with coil overs and have driven it 34000 miles and had no problems.
 
Do'nt know what you would call them.Where there are connected by the trans they are like 1/2 thread that screw into the ends of the bars and have like a 1/2 inch swivel ball on the end your bolt goes through.Hope that makes sense
 
yes i do solid heim ends jist not the weak ones. rises good just not a corner carver woth a spool amd 32x14x15s
 
Thanks guys. I'm still trying to decide between caltracs/monos vs. ladder bars/coil overs. I've already got the ladder bars and front crossmember. All I would need are coil over shocks, springs, crossmember and locator. Or I could sell what I've got and go with caltracs. Decisions, decisions... The car will likely be 50/50 street/track.
 
My old '69 Dart was street driven for years with a ladder bar and a spool, no problems.

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mopowers said:
Yeah, that's what I understand as well. I was just curious if anyone has one they drive on the street. The car I'm building is a 1/4 mile car, but I'd like to retain the ability to drive it on the street.
Click to expand...
I had a 72 vega w/ a 600 horse 406 sbc in it. tubbed , ran 14 x 32`s on it w/ a spool. Drove it about once every 2 weeks to work -28 miles each way, and quite a bit locally. raced it some, (best time was 10:40`s w/ a 4:10 gear, should have been lower gears to dragrace), wasn`t too bad w/ 32" rear tires. ladderbar , coil overs, shortened 9" ford-- no problems. Smoked a calaway corvette, and a turbo porche for about a mile before running out of room-in traffic on the 4 lane. Got to be continually thinking about getting on the gas in corners and watching for wet roads w/ a spool tho.
 
Friends son used to fabricate pre runners/race trucks that were often street driven. These things seen lots of sand. Spoke with Jared about the life of the uni-balls and rod ends. Told me as long as the el-cheapo stuff was avoided the left span was never an issue. Been said that the Baja 1000 was the equivalent of 100k pavement miles...not uncommon for high quality stuff to survive several Baja 1000 races...
 
Local buddy here runs a ladder bar setup on his Dart. Car runs 8:20's and street drives it quite a bit. No issues related to street driving it and he runs heims. He's upgrading it now with heftier bars just to handle the power it's making.
 
Meeting a guy this weekend with a 1070hp turbo ls, runs 8.8 in a 67 Chevelle...he mentioned ladder bars, will find out details Saturday..
 
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