Just thought I would throw this out: My 57 had lakewoods for traction bars when I first got it was not real crazy on the looks but they did work good One week we were building a 55 210 del ray with a high winding 289 sbc that dude had its own sound very cool. 4.11 gears with short g60's well the dad was a old racer he came walking in with a pair of leaf spring helpers like the ones in the pic I asked what are those he explained and they were cheap they take the rabbit hop right out I went out and bought some for my car have any of you used them before I just found those old dudes in the cabinet and the old lakewoods were out in the other shop buried for you budget racers this could be a cheap traction device it worked for me
those where primarily used to add strength to the rear springs on older pickups. guys would load those old trucks with heavy stuff like watermelons ,cordwood ect. and the rear end squatted down and the frnt came up and the steering was easier than power steering. for the street Cal tracs are the best on a tri five. a clamp on set of slapper bars will not cost much.
Yep, I have a pair of those that I kept when I sold a hot rod pickup. They do work well for keeping the bunny's from getting too excited. I may use them on my current build.
quick thought I had: If anyone would like to race their 55-57 or any other leaf springer in southeast gassers super stock class these might work as no cal tracs aloud and if you run Lakewood style traction bars they would add 100lbs to your car im sick of rain
Try this sometime, get a second main leaf for each side and cut the front just behind the eye and the rear about six inches behind the center bolt. Remove the center bolt and clamps from the front of the spring and bolt the modified spring on top of the bundle. Then on the bottom replace the short spring with a short spring from a half ton pickup and replace the center bolt with a longer version. Add clamps to the front of the bundle and remove all the clamps from the rear. Your adding the thickness of two leafs so you may need longer U bolts but when your done you have a spring that looks stock but will hook a ten second car. I've done this to several different vehicles over the years and have never had it not work, I use 1/4×2 aluminum flat strap for the clamps with 3/8 bolts. I did this to an Fbody Plymouth of mine with a big block and it ran some 1.40 sixty foots foot braking with the fronts two feet in the air.
Back in the 60,s there was a article in a hot rod magazine where they did the exact same thing to a brand new mustang to stop the wheel hop. It does work.
The helper spring in the first post does nothing to strengthen the front half of the spring, and the front half is the side that has to transfer all the power to the chassis.....the rear half is the half responsible for holding the body up is all(load). The doubled up main leaf section on the front half is a long known "cheater" trick that works. The cut off and added main leaf piece should be put under the original main leaf though, not on top of it.....you want that cut off front eye end supporting the original main leaf directly under the eye....You can even leave nearly 1/2 the eye still on the cut leaf, to cup under the original leaf. Basic premise is to turn the front half of the leaf into an inflexible bar so it can't bend and hurt traction.
The...adding of more full "front" leaf sections was a big Dodge/Chrysler thing back in the day. There was full instructions on what to use and how to modify stock springs (leafs) in their "Power Manual" to accomplish this. Most if not all of the Chrysler cars did this "trick". I had a copy of the Power Manual, and built a set for my 56 Chevy. They worked, with only a slightly stiffer ride. Mike
I believe guys running mopars also used to put spacers between the pinion snubber and the body to lessen axle rotation.
if I remember right (we) being me and my friends 55 installed these helpers springs facing forward on the front half just like a Lakewood they really worked with out them or some other kind of traction device forget it jump jump jump.
Ah, I see now how it cold help a little....I thought you were talking installing them on the back half like they would be for load helpers.. Part of the old Chrysler Super Stock trick was also to turn each leaf(other than the main leaf obviously) around, as they are longer on the back half originally, nearly all leaf springs are. When they are all clamped back together every few inches on the front half this reverse bias also helped with preventing spring bending....spring bending and unloading rapidly is what wheel hop is. That fact is what makes the Cal-Trac so successful, using the link pivot it is pressing back down on the spring at the point the spring is trying to bend, right behind the spring eye, half way between the eye and the end of the second leaf. Same reason the doubled up front half of a main leaf and the Chrysler trick help - stiffen the front half of the main leaf is 90% of the battle. If you look at Calvert's or Landrum's Split Mono race spring, the front leaf half is very thick, and the rear leaf half is much thinner, overlapped and bolted together in the center..
The blue 55 chevy that runs with the sega called the Undertaker does big wheelstands with slapper bars
Are those old traction master bars the same as cal tracs ? sure look alike yep the helpers are good not saying they are the best but they seem to work now is that blue 55 in sega a gasser or super stocker if gasser I did not think it could run traction bars or so called Slapper bars
The old Traction Masters are NOT the same as Cal-Tracs….Traction Masters did not have the pivoting front bar mount that change the forward push on the barinto downward push on the spring right behind the eye where the spring is trying to bend. That is the big feature that makes the Cal-Trac work so much better. Competition Engineering's Slide-A-Link is the next closest thing to Cal-Tracs, kind of bridge the gap between Cal-Tracs and Traction Masters in design, just adding the slip tube and bushing into the bar. Smith RaceCraft Assassin Bars are a variation on the Cal-Trac .
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