well, I may have explained it poorly, but what mhuppertz sketched up in AutoCAD is what I was basically thinking about. He just took it one step further and made it into the so-named "upside down ladder bar" since he triangulated the mount to the lower part of the axle tube instead of just the upper, like the OP showed in his pic.

 

what about a slip joint so it didn't bind??? instead of a shackle? just throwin out an idea.

 

Like this?

 

i dont think a slip joint would do anything for axle wrap

 

That as a bad idea, didn't think it through (me).

 

I'm going to pull "real" measurements from my truck and design a set. I'll post the plans when I am done.

 

Nevermind, it won't work. You have to remember the whole bar moves in the vertical plane with spring compression/decompression using a solid axle mount. You need a pivot on the axle mount, which would be negated by the slip joint. That's the advantage of the shackle. It will allow minimal up/down travel, depending on shackle length as it arcs back and forth. The slip joint doesn't allow any.

A traditional bar with solid attachments of any kind in either front or back is always going to involve some degree of bind because it has to move in two dimensions (a variable arc) in the vertical plane to track the springs. The trick is to find the right measurement, mount point and mounting pivot fitments to minimize that.

 

True, but the leaf spring's shackle will provide some of the articulation required to make this setup work. This will result in less bind than a ladder bar, but more than the shackle arrangement. If you desire maximum articulation niether of these setups are ideal, but for everyday street use and some offroading, they'll get the job done. Full articulation need to swap out to a link setup with coils, etc.

Indeed