ladder bar questions

Getting ready to build a new chassis for the Fairlane! In stock form the car has a wheel base of 115" When I did the chassis the first time we stretched the wheel base to 118". The current ladder bar length was 30" measured from the CL of the rear to the CL of the front hiem. I believe this to be an ok length in a shorter wheel base car... What length is everyone using? What should be the ideal length for 115-118" wheel base car? also...solid ends or moly heims? Thanks Jason

mine are 32" with a 110w/b.what you have will work fine IMO,the motor placement will mean more than bar length.the heim is all up to you,either will do the same thing.solid will need a little lube and a lock nut and/or bushings on each side.

no real input from me but I just can't believe the wheelbase difference. wow!! big difference from the little ole fox mustang.

'65 T-BOLT wrote:What length is everyone using? What should be the ideal length for 115-118" wheel base car?

My truck has a wheel base of 117" and I'm using 36" S&W Ladder Bars. They seem to work well.

for those that replied...Thanks for your input! Guess everyone else is using the four link!

32" here with the solid heim, I also used a shouldered bolt for the front.

richter69 wrote:32" here with the solid heim, I also used a shouldered bolt for the front.

Jon, that a solid heim on the front? My 30" deals have solid rears and moly front......S&W recomends 36" bars for a long wheel base car, C A Chassiworks says its basically an old wise tail.

All mine are solid except for the diagonal bar. As mentioned in the other thread, I ditched the wimpy diagonal bar they sent and made one from 3/4" cm, the tabs are welded to the LF and RR of the ladder bars themselves..........has zero side to side "sway".

thanks Jon! my diagonal link mounts are at the lf and rr at the bolts themselves.I had trouble with the brackets twisting, so i welded the rear bracket onto the housing bracket......So a shoulder bolt in the front only? or at the housing as well?

yeah shoulder at the front, rears are just the regular bolts.

On the front of a track-only car with the "normal" 1" x .156" wall tubing ladder bars I usually prefer a 3/4 x 5/8 'moly rod-end vs a solid rod-end to keep from having to keep it greased. On the beefier ladder bars with bigger bottom tubing & a bigger front thread OD (where a regular spherical rod-end might not be available) the solid rod-ends are used.

Regardless of what Alston might say, I still think having ladder bar length choices are important. Having only one bar length to choose from means some guys might end up having to chew up a lot more of their shock valving adjustment window if a "generic" 32" bar length ends up being too short/long for a given combo.