We are getting closer and closer to sled pulling season... I figure I'm going to be safe this year and put a couple of driveshaft loops on. The last thing I want is to smash a fuel tank or manhandel the oil pan. I remember someone had some on here... just curious on how they mounted...

 

I made my own for $110 of steel. If you take a look at this photo you can see how they hold up to a yoke explosion:


That's the top half with the bottom half unbolted. The bottom half bolts to the 4 holes you see in the flat part of the clam shell using 1/2" x 2" grade 8 hardware. The plates are made from 1/4" thick by 6" wide steel which covers 2" on either side of the yoke like the DHRA rules require. The rear rear loop attaches to the rear diff. The front rear loop attaches to the cross member behind the transfercase (where the fuel tank sits). The front front loop attaches to the front diff. The rear front loop sucks since it's on top of the tranny crossmember. Let me know if you need more pictures or dimensions.

brandon.

 

That's the one I was looking for. Do you have any pics of the other mounting points?

 

Here's four more pictures of the front rear loop. The other loops are off the truck until I have a chance to revise them some more. I don't have any pictures of putting them together since we finished fabrication at 4am then left for the race at 7am the same day.






Some things I missed: The ID of the loops is 6". Make sure you paint them or they'll look like mine after 3 months in the salt.

brandon.

 

Perfect!! Thanks for the pics!

 

Excellent!!

Thanks for sharing the knowledge and expeirence.

I am going to be doing the same thing as soon as it gets warmer.

Are the rules different if I use aluminum?? I thought I read somewhere thicker material needed to be used if I went with the beer can material???


Justin

 

Yep. Here's the rule section:

"Driveshaft Loops:
All trucks must have at least six inch wide u-joint shields around the rear u-joints constructed of at least 1/4 inch steel or 3/8 inch aluminum that will safely contain the u-joint and the ends of each shaft. In addition there will be at least one shaft loop in the middle of the drive shaft. All shields must be securely mounted to the vehicle. Any front shaft u-joint that is visible from the side of the truck must be shielded to contain the u-joint and the end of the shaft."

It looks like they took out the rule for the rear ujoint on the front shaft. They also added a loop in the middle of the drive shaft. That shouldn't be too hard to add to my setup. The rules also changed to allow loops that are further than a 2" radius away from the ujoint itself.

Please let me know if you need any dimensions of any of the pieces.

brnadon.