Thread: Ladder Bar Q

Tweet

I agree with the antirollbar analogy - hadn't thought about it but that is about right.
Matt167, can we have a little more info? If it is the fleetline you are doing this on, does it have leaf springs? If so, bad ju-ju there. You will have some serious binding issues as the springs want to go straight up and down while the ladder bar travels in an arc. There are ways around this but the project becomes more and more complicated. Many on here can give you good, safe advice - just more info so's we can be confidant when we tell whats best to do.
Those long radius rods you see on the rear of an old hot rod that run up on the outside of the frame rail? Real bad ju-ju there. Don't even think about copying that setup.

Originally Posted by ojh

I agree with the antirollbar analogy - hadn't thought about it but that is about right.
Matt167, can we have a little more info? If it is the fleetline you are doing this on, does it have leaf springs? If so, bad ju-ju there. You will have some serious binding issues as the springs want to go straight up and down while the ladder bar travels in an arc. There are ways around this but the project becomes more and more complicated. Many on here can give you good, safe advice - just more info so's we can be confidant when we tell whats best to do.
Those long radius rods you see on the rear of an old hot rod that run up on the outside of the frame rail? Real bad ju-ju there. Don't even think about copying that setup.

This isn't the Fleetline but is my scratch built rat.. Altho I know that to use ladders and leafs, housing floaters need to be used...

This hotrod, has a custom built cab, setting on the front section of a 1994 Ford Ranger with a custom 'back half' kicked up 10" from the Ranger frame, 32.5" wide and just about 5' long. Cab is 4'x4'x 45" tall with a cowl that is 16" deep

I kinda figured that the radius rod setup wasnt good to be copied. I actually took Roadster32's advice and ran them triangulated a bit, Everything fit like it should, except the crossmember which, as of right now is right in the path of the pinion, but I put a 2x3 crossmember right above it ( overkill, but I had no more 1"x1" 11ga ) that I can run 2 smaller scrap/ cutoffs of the 1"x1" 11 gauge up to and the 2x3 will carry the load and be super strong/ cut out for the pinion. It's all tacked in place, but the coil over mounts that came with the coil overs are less than stellar, and I'm not comfortable with them, so I'm cutting them back off once I get the chance and putting some better 1's on. The 1's I have were handmade by an Ebay seller but the coil overs were new and discounted, so I picked them up a couple years ago and themselves are not bad.. Few other things bother me, but I'll work them all out well before it's on the road.. I'll have pics in a few mins