My Traction Bars

F

FosterW

How Now Brown Cow
Joined
Oct 28, 2008
Messages
460
Here's a little something I've been working on. Tell me what you think.

Started with some 2"x2"x1/4" wall square tubing, 1-5/16"x 3/16" wall tubing, and four forged 5/8" hiem joints.







My good buddy made some threaded inserts for both ends of the tubing, and I cut the front and rear mounting brackets. The rear mount will bolt to the bottom shock mount that is welded to the axle tube.





Here is what I have so far. The threaded inserts will be welded to the ends of the tubing. Final install pics are coming soon.

 
i wouldnt run those heims.

i bent a 5/8" one that only had about 1/2" of thread sticking out.

grab some 3/4" fine thread ones.
 
I made mine out of a 1" bolt diameter by 30" ish long tractor top link cut it in half and welded some pipe in the middle. Used 3/4" reducer to run some 3/4" SS bolts. Has not failed yet. Dang bolts, washer and nuts were the most expense part buy far.
 
I think the tubing is too thin also. At least for sled pulling.
 
the tubing is plenty thick, 1/4" wall square tubing is more than enough unless you make them pointlessly long.
 
Rollin Coal said:
the tubing is plenty thick, 1/4" wall square tubing is more than enough unless you make them pointlessly long.
Click to expand...

Didn't think his tubing was square, seemed like he said it was 3/16" thick also.

I have seen some .20 twisted like a pretzel. The other .20 I have seen would flex while running. A lot of it depends on the material too. Use some chromoly and you can go crazy thin comparatively speaking. A lot of it depends on the use. Sledpulling I wouldn't mess with less than 2" tubing that is less than 3/8" wall, but that is me.
 
oh yeah, i see now, he used the 2x2 for the brackets. i thought the round stuff was just for the collars and the bars were box.
 
Rollin Coal said:
oh yeah, i see now, he used the 2x2 for the brackets. i thought the round stuff was just for the collars and the bars were box.
Click to expand...


Yea I saw the box tubing and thought the same thing. Thought it was an awfully short piece to make two bars out of.

I have thought about making some bars out of chromoly, just to save some weight. My bars are fairly long, and .5" wall 2" tubing. I didn't want them to bend, and I didn't want to tweak the frame by having them too short.
 
These are 60" center to center. I wasn't really sure if the 3/4" hiem would be overkill or not so I just decided on 5/8". If they break I'll replace with 3/4". And I won't be doing much of any sled pulling, once a year at most. Thanks for the input zstroken!
 
Made mine out of 1 5/8 solid stock, drilled and taped for 3/4 heims. Dont forget to put some never seez on the threads.:doh: You will wish you had when you change the heims.
 
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