where to find ladder bars

[ochs99]

Hi everyone, first-time poster here.
I have '67 C10 that I'm restoring. Does anyone know who makes ladder bars that will work for this year of truck? There seems to be a number of manufacturers, but all have been for 4X4 trucks.

Any help would be great.

[kelsfine69]

Are you looking for something like this??

[ochs99]

yes!
where did you find those, or did you build your own?
I'd build my own if I had a set of plans/prints to go by. Do those bolt on the axle with a U bolt, or are they "floater" type?

[Old Yeller 1970]

I've kept my eyes open for years for ladder bars and never found any. I even asked a major company that manufactures ladder bars if they had a set for 67-72 trucks and got the No, are you stupid answer.

Most ladder bar setups are intended for leaf springs which are bad to wheel hop. Since we have trailing arms built into our coil spring set up, I guess they figure there is no need for ladder bars on a 67-72 Chevy PU.

So, if this thread turns up some one who makes ladder bars for our trucks I'd find that very interesting.

[kelsfine69]

Yes I made them myself. then had them chromed. they are the ubolt type. they are mostly for looks, and boy they do get looked at, but I did take them off for a couple of weeks to get chromed and I did notice they wernt there. It made the back end feel kinda loose.

[Old Yeller 1970]

I wondered if those were home grown ladder bars. They look pretty good.

When you talk about the back end feeling loose, what kind of driving made you notice the difference? Everyday driving? Drag racing? Off Road?

Now that you've let the cat out of the bag you're going to have to show us pics and do the big write up on it so we can make our own.

Who knows, maybe you should get a patent and make a killing selling them to the 67-72 crowd.

[kelsfine69]

LOL yea Patent... Im pulling the truck out tonight I will take some better pics. The back end felt kinda softer in just everyday driving. Really notice around corners. kinda like taking the swaybar out, but in the back. I belive i started with a 73ish Camaro ladderbar for shape, then stretched it so it fit the truck. then just made a u-bolt clamp for the diff and a rubber pivot for the front.

[kelsfine69]

Here you go...

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Nice looking ride....

[ochs99]

check this site out:
http://www.anninengineering.com/Products.html

they have truck ladder bars, "55 ones that should work for '67-72 trucks. I've emailed them asking to whether they will work or not. I'll let everyone know their response.

[Solver]

not to hijack thread but kelsfine69 who makes that front air dam and how much trouble was it to install?

[raggedjim]

Those look good, but I thought ladder bars prevented/limited axle wrap, (which isn't a problem on the trailling arm suspensions)???

Rg

[ochs99]

I wasn't aware that the stock rear control arms would prevent wheel hop. I guess this would be the right place for input on this. I'm putting a 383 stroker in, with a 2500 stall and low rear end gears. I was told that I should be putting ladder bars on to keep the rear end stable.
Let me know what others have done.

[Old Yeller 1970]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

Those look good, but I thought ladder bars prevented/limited axle wrap, (which isn't a problem on the trailling arm suspensions)???

Rg

Yep, that's why I got the "No, are you stupid," answer back when I asked about it.
It's true that our trucks don't really need ladder bars because of the trailing arm design. But I've noticed that not all all lader bar setups are the same and by modern standards ours is fairly low tech. This page gives a good explanation of the different designs.

Ours would be the single bar setup. But there is still a use/need for double bar designs.

One way to make a 67-72 truck work like a double bar design would be to add another trailing arm from the top of the axle back to the cross member where the existing arms attach. That would make it into a 4 link suspension.
It seems to me you would need some very sticky tires and lots of horsepower to need that kind of set up.

Physically, when you give the truck a hard launch the axle wants to rotate backwards. In a four link setup this force is transfered to the front of the vehicle where it tries to pickup the front end. This causes the weight to transfer to the rear axles giving it more tractive force to launch with. On our trucks the trailing arm prevents the axle from turning but where it attaches to the cross member some of this energy is lost because the trailing arm is allowed to pivot freely. In the four link set up when the bottom bar tries to pivot the top arm is pulling it back (because of the torque from the axle attempting to twist) so all the energy is transfered into the frame of the vehicle to pull it back onto the rear wheels.

I do think it's interesting that kel can tell a difference in how his '69 rides with and without his setup.

[ochs99]

Thanks for the link to the info, helped explain it more than what I knew about it.
I do have the horsepower and torque, but I don't plan on running big stickys out back, just something fairly wide. If the rear suspension performs the way it's explained, then all I'll have to worry about is a little smoke.

[Old Yeller 1970]

I think you'll be satisfied with the way your stock suspension performs. I've never had any wheel hop out of mine and as you can tell by the engine in the sig I'm putting some pretty good power to the ground. Probably one thing that would help traction wise is drag racing shocks or adjustable street/strip shocks. That would let the weight transfer to the back and give a harder launch.

[kelsfine69]

Solver.. the air dam is off a 73-87, cut in half the re-glassed to get the front end shape. then 2 boltd to the frame and a couple on each side.

[mplex2000]

If you're going to get ladder bars, your best best is to completely replace the rear suspension with ladders and coilovers. No point in adding another set of ladder bars really. Just make sure you get an appropriate length bar for your truck.