Ladder bars, lift bars, traction bars, no hop bars. What the best to reduce violent wheel hop? My car has it because it sits real high in the back and NO im not lowering it. I know the best way to reduce wheel hop is to lower it, and im not doing that.

I don't mean this to sound derogatory in any way, just a friendly suggestion.

You'll probably get more answers on this in the Performance forum with a topic line that gives an idea of what you're asking. Lots of drag racing suspension guys over there who can help you out tremendously.

My first thought, since you want to retain your stance, is for you to get adjustable upper arms and set your pinion angle to compensate.

I'll move this to the Performance forum

oops this isn't my forum

oh well smile.gif

Shouldn't it go in Brakes and Suspension Forum??

I don't get over there b/c of the Chevelles having coil spring rearend setups with my First Gen. car having leaf springs...

pdq67

I thought Performance because the drag racers hang here, and they're the most knowledgeable with respect to wheel-hop, etc.

The topic line really could stand to be changed though....

To answer the question to the best of my ability:

Ladder Bars- clamp around the rear axle, and bolt to the frame. Act almost like additional control, arms. But I think they mostly just bind-up the suspension, and make it as if there were no suspension. I don't like them, I had them, and never will again.

Lift Bars- As I'm aqainted, change the geometry of the rear suspension, to change the "instant center". I think for you they might be a way to get the rear bar parallel to the ground, which is part of the reason, people say to lower the rear of the car untill, the lower control arm is level with the ground.

Traction Bars- Kind of a generic term thats applied to any traction device. But for this post lets talk about slapper bars. They control the rotation of the rear axle. As your car accelerates the rear axle wants to "back flip" Slapper bars use this rotation to push up on the car at the snubber, effectively pushing the rear axle down, onto the pavemant for better "bite".

No-hop Bars- These relocate the upper control arms, chaging the geometry of the rear suspension, and that "instant center" bussiness.

The speedy guys on this site (no, I'm not one) seem to favor the no-hops , or the lift bars.

You will also see some of the speedy guys running stock boxed arms, sway bars, and air bags.

The real serious, and Very speedy guys have full on drag race set ups, that require a full understanding of all of the "instant center" and other factors. It would take a book and somebody more knowlegable than me to explaine all that stuff.

Good luck.

Thanks guys,
i think im gonna go with the lift bars. Anyone ever use them? They replace the lower control arms right?

does jegs still sell the ssm lift bars? Anyone know if anyone sells them cheaper? And do these make for a ridgid ride? I ride have that than wheel hop.

Not a rigid at all. They ride like stock control arms. Yes, they replace the lower CAs. Have you tried calling SSM? You can get the number at Superpages.com

Lots of folks use the lift bars. I recently installed a set. Got one of the last ones from Summit. They and Jegs no longer carry them. Call SSM directly as they say they are still producing them.

The ride feels fine with them on. No track time yet so can't comment on that. The car hadn't been to the track before anyway so I wouldn't be able to compair them to stock.

Tim.

Make sure none of the bushings are dead and get a very good set of 50-50 heavy duty shocks. It worked on every Chevelle I ever owned.

Well i bought the SSM lift bars from Jegs. Does the forward part of the bar actually push against the underside of the car or is it the rear brackets that push down on the axle. I was under the impression it did both, but the is a brake line in between the front part of the bar and the underside. Also can someone give me a quick installation demo, those instructions that are included are a little sketchy. thanks

They don't really push on anything. They work exactly like the stock lower control arms. They just have brackets that mount the rear part at a lower location than stock.

Didn't realize Jegs was selling them again. They weren't when I bought them.

You will have a little clearence problem at the brake cable. If you look at your stock arms, they are clearenced there. It's not a real problem, though. I just forced the arms through their full range of motion (didn't have a rear end in) a few times to let them settle their differences. smile.gif

If you don't have adjustable upper control arms, be sure to set your pinion angle before you drill the hole. That's the best I can clear up the directions for you. I couldn't figure out exactly when everything was supposed to be done, either. I have adjustable uppers so I just bolted it on.

Tim.

thanks for clarifying tim. Yeah jegs doesnt have it in the mag anymore, but in the online catalog. How many and where do i drill the holes at?

One hole for each bracket. When you put the brackets in place, you'll see a half inch hole that you won't be able to put a bolt throught. You have to drill through that hole through the rear end bracket.

The drawings in the directions show it. It's sort of in the middle of the bracket.

Tim.

oh ok thanks tim. So you have no more wheel hop at all? What year and specs are your car, any pics?

Well I never drove the car hard before I put them on. May not have needed them to cure wheel hop at all.

I was swapping from a 10 bolt to a 12 bolt rear end so while I was in there, I put in the SSMs. Also heard they were getting harder to find so I figured I'd better not doddle.

Pics and info in my sig. Not much about the rear setup as I got lazy with the web page while doing the work.

Tim.

Nice webpage, its cool to see pictures to go along with the resto process. Good luck and thanks for the help. I ll let you know how well they work once i get them on, probably in the next week or so.

dave

Well i finally got the ssm bars on and they work great! I had a little trouble with lining up some of the bolt holes because it was almost as if the bar actually needed to be twisted, but i eventually got them all good. I let it rip at 6000, and it made a great sound peeling down the road. It actually started to hop slightly near the end but that was because i was going sidways at that point :eek: Gave it another test run, on an empty road and left some mean tracks with no hopping at all. I am pleased with the results and can finally not worry about shattering my car into a hundred pieces at a red light. At least now when people say "light em up!" i dont have to say, "I cant, because i have bad wheel hop in the back....just forget it." hahaha