Adjustable Panhard or Super Trackbar Kit???
 

I bought some Airlift 2600's from suicide over the winter, ive finally gotten around to mounting them and realized that i want to get things all aligned properly before i drill into my frame to mount the things. So, i need to get a different panhard to correct for the drop. Problem is, ECE sells both a adjustable panhard for dropps 4" or less, and a super track bar kit for drops greater then 4". I'm not sure which one to purchase. I know that when totally deflated, i would probably want the super track bar, but when im driving around inflated, will it give me any trouble?

oh, btw, i fabbed up som blocks for the bags to sit on, so that adds about 1.5 inches to the bags. that would factor into the total deflated height and the total inflated height.....

any thoughts or ideas?????

one more thing.... suicide lists those bags as having a max height of 9.5" and a designed ride height of 8". they also list them as having a 3" or so deflated height. i won't want to max them out, and i probably wont want to bottom them out either. so lets say i want to go from probably 8.5" @ high, and 3.5" at low, that gives me a range of 5"...... so the super track bar seems to make sense, BUT, again the problem is, what will happen when i inflate them to 8.5" while im driving around...... the drop then is inside the adjustable panhard bar range....

If you stuff your fenderwells w/as much wheel/tire as possible, it makes a difference which one needs to be run if you lift/lower to the bags design limits. Lifting/lowering to the limits will allow the rear to shift more so than small height adjustments. If you plan on adjusting to the min/max heights alot, go w/the super-track bar. If your plan is to set the ride height & adjust air pressure as needed to maintain that ride height, the adjustablr panhard bar will work just fine.
Yes, it does add to the height of the bags. The 3" minimum bag height + the height of your blocks is now your minimum ride height. Just remember to keep the bag within the minimum bag dimensions & you won't tear them up.

sounds pretty straight forward, but i just want to make sure....

1) adjustable panhard will not let me go to min ride height...

2) super track bar will give me problems at max ride height...

and you (scoti) are saying that panhard will give me most flexibility with heights...

i just want what will give me the best of both worlds (high and low)... although it kindof looks like that may be impossible....

No matter how much drop you have a longer panhard bar will give you less side to side movement period...optimum panhard bar setup is level at ride height. Scoti does make a point you have to take tire/rim combo into consideration, the tighter the combo, the less side to side movement is allowable. Trust me, with 5" drop springs on the back of my burb the side to side movement was obnoxious with the stock length panhard bar when I hit a good size bump...and you know as well as I do how shi**y Michigan roads can get. Check your pm's...I'll let you know what's up as soon as I get word...

No. A longer super track-bar will allow the most flexibility & the least amount of side to side movement vs. suspension travel.

The best of both would be the super track-bar. Since both are adjustable, the down side is the super track-bar is more expensive ( @ least the last time I checked they were).

For my set-up, since I don't adjust the height very much, the adj panhard bar worked fine.

Since your plan calls for extreme extended/compressed heights, the super track-bar is the way to go.

thanks much fella's. Looks like its going to be the super track bar... unless your plans work out shev.... i'll wait and see....

thanks again.

Not to but in guys, but are you saying that if I have a 6 inch drop in the rear that an adjustable panhard bar won't help me?

No, it will work fine. On adjustable drops (air) where there is significant changes in height, the longer track bar works better.

If the ride height is static, or your air rides drop doesn't vary much in height, the shorter bar works fine.

If you want the best of both worlds check out a Watts linkage setup.

where should i look for the Watts linkage?

Take a look at the post on the next page.

im pretty sure im missunderstanding you when you say look at the next page....
cuz im only seeing one.????? next post?

I believe neonlarry was referring to this post.

thanks, wow, looks liek alot of work... perhaps i'll just stick to the super track bar.....

I've got the ECE super track bar, and here's why...

The ECE bar is 35.5 inches long; longer bar means less side to side movement. How much movement? Let's look at the geometry involved. The attached diagram I threw together should help explain.

With the added suspension travel afforded by air bags, side to side movement can get out of hand. Take the Air Lift bags that I'm using. Their minimum height is 2.8 inches and their maximum height is 9.5 inches. That equates to a 6.7 inch range of motion (stroke).

In the top sketch, the bar is horizontal with the bags deflated. When the bags are filled to their maximum height, the side to side movement is .64 inches. This is just an example though. On our trucks when the bags are fully deflated the bar is angled up to the passenger side.

In the real world, the geometry is more like the bottom sketch. The bar is horizontal at ride height, and travels up and down past horizontal as the suspension moves. In this scenario, the side to side movement is lessened even more as the shift is "split".

Get the ECE super track bar. If your clearances are so tight that .32" is critical, then look into a Watts set up.

excelent. thats exactly what i was looking for. thanks.