ladder bars vs 4 link

i am building a 4000 lb prostreet truck as a street truck. I bought ladder bars but am now in a debate. Do ladder bars have enough flex when driving on the street or will the brackets crack from flexing over time? Is a 4 link better or are there better choices?

I dont think a LB is the best for a street set up.

X2,

Conventional ladder bars really don't allow enough body-roll to happen that's needed for "real-true" street driving (turning into/out of driveways and parking lot entrances, into/out of road hazards & potholes). The "pro street" type ladder bars (rubber/urethane front bushing/rod-end) help some, but the farther apart you mount them, the less the "soft" front bushing/rod-end will actually help.

About the only way to give a conventional ladder bar setup a little more body-roll for a truly street driven car/daily driver is to replace the rear solid rod-ends with the same soft bushings/rod-ends at the housing mounts like what would be used at the front. Also, using a lot longer ladder bar (than "normal") might help allow a little more body-roll to happen, as would mounting the ladder bars real close together. But these "crutches" most likely still wont allow a ladder bar to have as much body-roll as a street 4-link will.

On the other hand if the truck is in truth really going to be mostly a race car, and only be driven on the street maybe less than 10% of the time, then conventional ladder bars might work OK if you're real careful how you drive it around on the street.

i was afraid that my ladder bars would be a mistake. the truck will be a 600 hp tubbed truck and street driven 90 % of the time. Any suggestions on which rear suspension would be best and who makes it.

bought the competition engineering MAGNUM 4 link kit today, not to bad, only $500.00. Money well spent i think. thanx for the replies

Never messed with any 4-link stuff from Competition Engineering.......but....

Looking at their "regular" Magnum stuff the housing brackets look pretty good, not the best on the market IMO, but still pretty damn good (from a drag race only standpoint). And the chassis brackets (again from a race-only standpoint) look OK, they could probably be a lot taller with a few more top bar holes (for more adjustment). But still they are probably very usable as they are.

But how is their Magnum 4-link from a street driven car standpoint......that's kinda hard to say. If you're going to use 8 rubber/urethane street rod type rod-ends the ride quality might not be too bad on the street. But if you go with all metal rod-ends the ride quality will of course be more harsh.

If you look at a some of the "street/street rod" type 4-links out there they have a lot fewer hole choices (a LOT fewer) vs a drag style 4-link. And they have the top & bottom bars angled a lot more parallel to each other (when viewed from the side) than some drag 4-links do. This is because the street rod guys really aren't as concerned with adjusting/moving the I/C around as the drag guys are. For them a real long I/C length (from the top/bottom bars being almost parallel) on the street gives them more available/usable body-roll to work with, a somewhat smoother ride, and almost zero pinion rotation change throughout the total rear suspension travel.

The Magnum stuff might be OK on the street depending on how it's setup. Just be sure to mock-up/tack the stuff in the truck and run the rear suspension through it's total travel a few times with the bars in a few different holes each time to see what the suspension & driveline geometry looks like before welding anything 100%.