Traction bars

[jlah69]

I have a 69 GMC C15 with rear leaf springs and I've been looking for some traction bars to help with wheel hop. I'm not having any luck finding anything other than Caltracs. Can anybody point me in the direction of some cheaper traction bars that will work?

[69gmcc10]

I was in the same boat as you with my 69 gmc c15, It had leafs and I wanted to keep them and make the truck stick to the ground. I looked everywhere, slapper bars, caltracs, leaf pack modifications (removing and cutting springs), and it was very complicated and in some cases expensive. I even went so far as to find a web site that ripped off caltrac geometry so I could build them myself, time consuming and expensive.


Then I finally got honest with myself and asked the real question, "what do I want this truck to do?" The answer was I wanted it to handle well so I could enjoy driving it all the time and not have any regrets about doing something differently. Once I started from a blank slate about the rear suspension and handling I realized that a trailing arm swap was the best option, and having driven the same truck with the 2 different suspensions I highly recamend it. The trailing arms are the CHEAPEST and BEST way to achieve what you are looking for, they are also easier and cheaper to lower like you are looking, based on your other posts.

I got the arms, brackets and springs from a junk yard for $75, the saddles for the axle mounts and poly bushings for the arms from Early Classic for $58, and the shock mount cross member with mounts for $30 from some guy. I went with the no limit long panhard for $200 but if you source the pan hard bracket form a junkyard or a from member and use the early classic long panhard bar kit (includes u bolts) for lets say $150, you will be in the project for $320 and 2 days of work. That is over $100 cheaper than the caltracs, it works better, is less complicated, easier to work on and is more supported by vendors.

Consider it, if you have any interest or more questions please let me know or look at my build on page 4 and 5.

[andrewmp6]

What about building a torque arm for it?

[jlah69]

The option of converting to coils seems like thes best over all results but sounds like more fabrication than I'm capable of doing at this time.

[69gmcc10]

Gathering all of the parts was the biggest part of the project. The cross member that the arms mount to is already in your truck with holes waiting to mount the arms, just bolt them in. The cross member for the shocks has the spring mount hole indexed on it and that cross member indexes off of an existing hole on the frame rail, just drill 6 holes on each side and bolt it in. The pan hard bar mounts to the frame with the removal of a few rivets and replaced by a few bolts. The only fab work is drilling the 6 holes for the cross member indexed off of a hole in the frame (easy), cleaning up the axles (easy) and set the pinion angle on the new saddles (not complicated, just allot of remeasuring to make sure you have it right). I did some other modifications and other projects going on when I did it so it took a few weeks, but if a person is just swapping to the trailing arms it should only take a realistic 2 days.

[chevjayfsd]

Don't know what your budget is, but you could go with Porterbuilt Stage 2 setup.