Single Ladder Bar?
 

I have a Diesel Ramcharger and will need some axel control here pretty soon in the rear.

Looking at building my own ladder bars, and a question came up as I have seen them on many jeeps. Would a single ladder bar mounted as close as possible to the center of the rear axle work?

Heavy duty, and could be attached to both sides of the pumpkin or just at the axle tubes and come up to one attachment point on the drivers side.

With the narrow frame duals may get in the way on the exhaust side and I wouldn't mind a nice single setup.

Thoughts, am i smoking something??? I am limiting the amount of block I use by reversing the shackle and the springs on chargers are pretty short, but wouldn't mind the extra stability if I am in sand or soft dirt.

Thanks,

Your solid axlle will most likely give to one side or the other more, won't be equal.

Hmm,

I was curious about that as well. I could imagine the twisting forces being quite strong.

I found this a while back and thought it looked pretty interesting.

http://www.jeepaholics.com/tech/bamb...71608_new3.jpg

You can read all about it here; http://www.jeepaholics.com/tech/bambar/

I don't know if it works well or not, but it looks like it should. Contemplating building one for our 88 Ford mud truck.

That is interesting.

I guess as long as it follows the natural arc of the springs it could be good.

More idea, thanks,

I was just reading this today,maybe theirs some info in it you may find helpful http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/susp/axlewrap/

SRobertson,

Sorry, just seeing this thread now. Essentially you are mimicing a torque arm suspension when using a single ladder bar on the rear axle.

Since you may not be able to cradle the bar around the center of the axle (depends how much effort you want to put into it), I believe you would want the bar to run down the passenger side of the truck as near to the driveshaft as you could get it.

I believe the passenger side of the truck has more induced torque into the housing due to the rotation of the driveshaft/gears/etc.

The advantage this system is that you should retain more articulation that a traditional ladder bar setup.

If you could see the relative motion of the leaf springs and recreate it in a link, that jeep arm looks interesting.

What you're talking about (and what's on the Jeep) is a 3 link, not a ladder bar.

Mixing a third link with a leaf spring can be a little difficult. The 3rd link moves in an arc, where the leaf spring moves straight up and down. As the link moves in it's arc, it will try to move the top of the pumpkin fore and aft, changing your pinion angle. The longer the link is, the less impact it has. But the more articulation you're after, the greater the effect.

If you want to prevent axle wrap and wheel hop, the most versatile system is a single bar from the bottom of the spring perch to the foreward spring eye area.

A simple slapper bar is inexpensive, easy to fab and install, and will still provide a lot of articulation while preventing spring wrap.

It's all a trade off.

this is actually what I was referring to ...
http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/tra...installed1.jpg
http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/tractionbar.htm

The axle is still free to move in this application via the swing shackle. It has a spherical rod end so it doesn't impede articulation.

Mods: I haven't looked up how to post a pic from a website without just throwing a link up - I'm in no way affliated with ORD - it's just a great example of what I was referencing ...

As it says on the web site, that's a traction bar, and not a ladder bar. It appears to be a ladder, only because they used a second bar and a center piece of steel to brace the traction bar.

Not long enough to really qualify as a torque arm. And a torque arm suspension needs coil overs. It usually has a 4 link or 3 link, but that's not a true requirement, they can be designed with a 2 link.

A true ladder places one attachement point well below the axle center line, and the other well above. And there's 2. And they allow little articulation.

The articulating shackle at the front allows the bar to move fore and aft. This is a good thing, as it will allow the bar and axle to move up and down without changing the pinion angle.

That's a pretty neat design. Enough range to allow good articulation. But should control axle wrap without resorting to ultra stiff springs. I'd buy that.