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Alright, I have to ask.

What is the difference in what you just described vs the old traction bars you bolted under the spring? The rear is trying to rotate but the traction bar is stopping it from rotating when the snubber, front of the traction bar, hits the bottom of the spring? Isn't this the same principle, to keep the rear from rotating up?

Or, I'm just not getting it?



I've run both slapper bars and Cal-tracks on my car. I've looked closely at how my Caltrack setup works, and here's what I see:

Once the slapper bar touches the spring, it just stops the rotation of the axle. The leverage it creates will push the axle down a bit, but with no flex in the front segment, it is literally just pivoting off the front eye with all the lift flex coming from the back segment of the spring.
With the Cal-track bars, it takes that axle rotational force, and transfers it into down-force on the front segment. So it not only stops the rotation, but now you're actually pushing the front segment down, forcing it to flex in the opposite direction that it normally would. This is where I would dissagree with Monte somewhat. Coupled with flex in the rear segment, this pushes the axle down squarely, instead of rotating off the front eye. This keeps your pinion angle more correct.
If you look at it this way, the difference in Cal-Track bars vs. slapper bars, is very similar to the difference between a 4 link vs. a ladder bar.


When you bend a leaf spring......where does it bend?.....answer, right behind the spring eye........Now, where does the Cal Track push DOWN on the spring......answer, right behind the spring eye.

The answer to all this is the same as it has been for years....make the front segment as solid as possible. Calvert developed these for one reason. As already covered, slapper bars, J bars, South Side bars and all the others contacted the spring under or right behind the spring eye. YES, this stiffens the segment, but as power increases, you WILL bend the spring. No ifs ands or buts. By designing a bar that actually pushes the spring in the opposite direction of where they bend, the Cal Track bars solves two problems.

Here is what we did years ago on our Super Stocker, when we realized the "J" bars were not keeping us from bending springs. We stacked the FRONT of the spring segment with 6 or 7 leaves. We had two that came completely under the spring eye and the rest were incrementally shorter, as factory spring packs are. We adjusted the REAR of the spring pack to get the desired ride height. We then measured the ARCH of the spring pack with the car sitting on the ground. At that point we took the springs out from under the car, placed then in a press and flattened the pack, until we reached "as under car" arch. Then proceeded to drill the front pack all the way through at every leaf and bolted the pack together with grade 8 hardware. Did it work......you bet your azz.........was it heavy as hell and a ton of work......you bet your azz. The Cal Track and similar devices do exactly the same thing. Just much lighter and less labor intensive.

And by the way, while the Cal Tracks work great, I personally prefer the "Assassin" bars. They are more adjustable and I think work a little better..........plus are much easier to mount on most cars, especially Mopars

Monte