Question on leafs and Cal Tracs

[Van B]

Drove my car this weekend for the first time in about a year. I am really wishing I had gone with a 4 link or other coilover rear suspension.

Will Cal Tracs bars make the ride rougher than with leafs alone? I have DSE dropped leafs and will probably take the car to the dragstrip once or twice, otherwise most of the time it will be street driven or on the road course. Should I ditch the Cal Tracs?

[Tom Welch]

Wheel and tire size, shocks, springs and I guess the caltrac bars all have an effect on ride smoothness. I suggest reviewing the entire rear suspension, then modify it in order to accomplish your ride smoothness goals. I have had 3 leafspring cars and 3 coil spring rear cars, 1 is as good as the other if set up according to the intended use.

[Steve68]

Cal-Tracs and any type of traction bars are a rough ride, from what I understand not to be used on a handleing car, mainly straight line,

[Madspeed]

I can tell you from personal experience..
I had slide a links on my camaro with a 468 Cid BBC in it and it SUCKED ass,, it was bumpy as hell.. I might as well had solid tube in place of shocks (it would have been the same effect)

as far as traction? I still had none with dot MT slicks 11" wide.
I could smolder them through 3rd. as well as light them on the fwy at 50 +

[myclone]

My cal tracks didnt make any difference in ride quality. I back them off a few turns for any driving other than drag strip duty. A couple of turns on the bars to back them off after some drag racing renders them ineffective and theyre just along for the ride so other than a lb or so of unsprung weight they dont hurt anything.

[6'9"Witha69]

I have slide-a-links also, not worth it at all. My Hotchkis springs do enough for controlling wheel hop and axle wrap. This is all helper bars are for anyway. Also ensure the leafs were tightened in with load on the rear (same principle as when tightening contraol arms w/ non-delrin style bushings). This can cause ride issues also.

[MonzaRacer]

In my world I would just use spring clamps on each leaf about an in back from end of each leaf on multileaf sprung cars. This makes the front of the spring act like a traction bar and doesnt become a detriment to ride or hanfdling as bad, remember the front of the the spring is locating the rear end and the rear is holding you up.
But for me I would try this as I had absolutely awesome traction in my 71 Monte with my air springs:
http://www.ridetech.com/productinfo/airbarstang.asp.
give em a look.
Lee Abel
AFTERMARKET PERFORMANCE