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Torque rod, ladder bar?

Old 05-31-2009, 07:05 PM
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Torque rod, ladder bar?

This picture is from a Dodge Semi tractor. Why wouldn't this work on a Dana 70/80?
Old 05-31-2009, 07:08 PM
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Edited, sorry...
Old 05-31-2009, 07:12 PM
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Are you talking about doing it with full length leaf springs? You will get binding because the leaf springs are always changing length during travel.

The walking beam setup you posted is completely different.

A pull bar like that could work well with a trailing arm air bag setup provided the geometry was correct.
Old 05-31-2009, 08:59 PM
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With leaf spings, looks just like an ole IH setup...
Old 06-01-2009, 08:29 AM
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Hendrickson walking beam suspension will be beat your bowels out unless your loaded heavy. Are you asking if the torque arm like this will work? I've seen a couple on duallys like that, the owners claim they work good. They were mounted level and claimed to eliminate most of the axle wrap, maybe they did maybe they didn't I don't know. What are you thinking about doing it for? Traction? Stability? I think for traction you would want traction bars somewhat farther out closer to the springs. Or you talking about the whole suspension package type for your truck?
Old 06-01-2009, 10:03 AM
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I was surprised at how much the axle travels fore/aft with my 6" Skyjacker springs.

http://stuff.is-a-geek.net/PhotoAlbu...cs/CTD_140.jpg

You can see in this pic, there is about a 3" fore/aft stroke between full droop and full compression at the front mount of my torque links.
Old 06-01-2009, 01:40 PM
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check out my thread on the ladder bars I built. You could build some easy. They work great and it cost me less than $40.
Old 06-01-2009, 06:30 PM
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a setup similar to that would work, you just have to include some sort of a swing shackle to mimic how the axles moves during it's travel. That way you could minimize the bind.

Without the shackle, like others have said, I'm sure it'll ride like a brick since it will cause the suspension to bind.
Old 06-01-2009, 06:35 PM
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A swing shackle would make it completely useless.
Old 06-01-2009, 06:46 PM
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All of our gravel trucks with spring suspension have torque rods like that and also have one from the housing over to the frame. The reason they are on the top of the housing is because it is attached to the walking beams with a bushing on the bottom. Our trucks housing are mounted to the springs on the top side of the tube so I would think traction bars that mounted lower on the tube would prevent axle wrap the best. Not sure if I'm right on this but makes sense in my world
Old 06-01-2009, 07:06 PM
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Originally Posted by wannadiesel
A swing shackle would make it completely useless.
Not this way. I just sketched this out in AutoCAD....

Old 06-01-2009, 07:14 PM
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That's an upside-down ladder bar, not a pull bar.
Old 06-01-2009, 07:19 PM
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Originally Posted by wannadiesel
That's an upside-down ladder bar, not a pull bar.
But wouldn't something like this work? I mean, it allows the springs to do their up and down thing, but lock during acceleration.
Old 06-01-2009, 07:22 PM
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Yeah, it would work similarly to a set of ladder bars from the standpoint of controlling axle wrap.
Old 06-01-2009, 08:31 PM
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92smoking blacky did a good job on his ladder style bars. I would say they work pretty good. For $40.00 you can't beat-em. mhuppertz i'm not saying your wrong at all by looking at something else and improving it. Great things have been redesigned and went on to be other great things. But for $40 bucks guy it's like money in your tank after trying to redesign these high dollar truck suspension parts. But as I said your not wrong in trying to redesign something. Good luck.

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