Ladder bar suspension

I have been thinking of adding more tire room on my Savoy and I thought about taking the easy route and going with a ladder bar suspension. I was going to re-locate the springs into the frame rails but that might conflict with my plans for 3" exhaust out to the bumper. Should I just move the springs or go with the ladder bars. I just want more tire clearance and if I could make the suspension just a little better in the process I would be stupid not to make an improvement

Gus

What type of rear suspension do you have now

Just SS leafs 3800# with Rancho 9 way RS shocks.

If you want more tire and want to hook up
better then put the bars on but if you really
want a better suspension then go with a 4 link
but the ladder works great also

I have 3" exhaust to the bumper on my '72 Dart with relocated springs, and there's lots of room including glasspacks for resonators under the trunk floor. Of course the fuel tank isn't under there any more

Ladder bars and coil over shocks would drop a significant amount of weight off the back also.

My Duster was a real hoot on the street and strip and it was real easy to hook up with 36 inch ladder bars and double adjsutabel strange Engr. 15 inch long coil overs with a diagonal link
I had three inch exhaust all the way to the rear bumper but do to the coil overs the pipes went under the rear end and around the rear tires do to having fender well headers on the car, the 14x7x3 inch inlets and outlets old school Magnaflow mufflers where mounted behind the rear end and between the rear 1/4 panels and rear sub frames I ran the stock Duster gas tank also for the stock not modified look

was just reading on yellow bullit,can take timing out or 4-link with the right set up can curve wheel stands,a chebby owner thinks hes big with 200 ft wheelies here at local track,i prefer myself to keep the nose down,which equals faster et,you dont see pro stocks on the bumper

I lost about 90 pounds when I switched from leaf Link style suspension to ladder bar and 60fts improve as well

You will drop weight, increase your hook, and keep the nose down all at the same time with a set of ladder bars and coil overs. I did this on my Cuda and a SBC powered Foxbody.

I went with ladder bars on my Rampage.. the
race car has a 4 link.. they both hook very
well... the 4 link can hook in mud.. I
wanted the Rampage LOW so I went with the
ladder bars.. if you go with the ladder bars
and drive it on the street you should add a
bracket on the rear so you dont crack off the
bar at the rear.. if you need a pic I can show
you what I mean

Big difference between a Pro Stock and a stock '64 Savoy. There's a reason many Super Stock cars are set up to wheelstand. They go faster when allowed to pitch rotate.

Would doing a mini tub get you the room you need? If so, you can retain the leafs by just moving them in. With the Caltracs and stuff available for leaf spring cars now, ladder bars with leafs and sliders are not seen much anymore. Ladder bars and coilovers can also be used with stock framerails.

Or are you looking at a backhalf? At that point, I would consider ladder bars (or a 4 link) and coilovers. Lots more money, work, cutting up the car, etc., than the first option.

my 64 sport fury has 3"exhaust. gas tank, leafsprings it all fits.
Yes its tight. i want too mini tub it to fit bigger tires.
backhalf,4 link big bucks. but worth it if your looking for that ET.
i'm staying with leafs cause its a street strip car.

Plenty of people going fast on leafs. Some are very fast.

I have seen some big Hoosier Quick Times mounted on 10" rims and they looked perfect. I'm hooking OK with a 9" slick but I would really like a 10.5 tire and it wont fit with my present configuration. I'm going to mini tub it and probably make my decision up then. Also considering a 9" when I'm doing the job if I can get enough money out of the Dana
Gus

A few things to consider. If this is for the street I vote for 4 link or leafs due to the one fact. Ladders do not allow for any articulation.
This is very hard on the car.

As for 3 inch exhaust out to the bumper. It's a challenge with all 3 set ups. Inboard leafs have 3 inch less room to the gas tank, than original and the bar set up needs a panhard bar.

I agree with this but I think you could get by with a diagonal link instead of the panhard bar for more room.

Just go ahead and back half the car with a 4 link Gus. You won't regret it and you will have all you need for the future power upgrades.

I did a very similar thing.

1967 Charger 3800# Super stock springs relocated to the frame rails. CE shocks up front and C-body shocks out back.

The car ran mid elevens. I handled ok on the street, but I didn't like the way it sat or moved around under launch.

I mini tubbed the car and added CE Ladder bars with double adjustable QA1's at all corners. I also swapped 318 t bars in to replace the drag bars I had.

The added wheel room was great. The ability to adjust the rear ride height was also a nice feature.

The final result at the track was a quicker and more consistent launch a definite improvement of the leaf springs. A lot of this improvement can be attributed to the superior dampers.

It was just as difficult to move the springs inboard as it was to install the ladder bars.

This is a good way to go an a street strip car that doesn't see a lot of miles a year.

I was able to keep the interior and back seat functional, I'm not sure if that would be possible on a four link setup.

My only regret is that I bough QA1 instead of AFCO or Stanhuff for dampers. This change demonstrated to me how important good dampers are.

If exhaust clearacne is an issue using relocated super stock springs. I would think that ladder bars will have issues as well. Take a good look under there and decide what works better before you make a decision.

The ladder bar setup on my 69 Dart looked like it would have been pretty hard to run tailpipes in my opinion. The diagonal bar and front crossmember would have been kinda hard to get around so I just ran turndowns. A good welder/fabricator could probably get it done though.

I think a re-located Caltrac setup would be perfect for your car.

How did it handle on the street compared to the SS springs?

I run with 3" exhaust to the bumber in my 69 Dart with mini tubs and a 11 x 29" slick, Caltraks and mono leafs. I would suggest you look a cars you like and barrow ideas from them. I used TTI tailpipes and modified them a little

What are you looking to do? Big tire, biggest tire? You can only get a certain size tire under the wheel well with the spring into the frame , a mini tub will help some. Are you up to a back half? If so , 4 link is the way to go.

I prefer the ladder bars to the SS springs for driving around. I think having good shocks/dampers had the most to do with it and not the ladder bars.

Like a lot of bracket guys I had given hardly any thought to shocks

On my street car I run a split mono spring moved inboard.

If you want a good street/strip car with full exhaust Calverts set up is what you should do.

It will be the easiest for exhaust routing and is capable of handling lots of power, plenty of guys go fast on them.

Yes plenty of guys do go fast on CalTracs...until the track starts going away. Ask me how I know. My 4 link will hook in a car wash, can't say the same for the CalTracs

If you have some pics of how you braced ladder bars for the street, i would love to see them.

The big thing is the lower bracket on the
housing... the brace on the axle keeps the
lower bracket from flexing.. its on the
right hand side..sort of hard to see since
its all black

Cool, thanks for the pic.

So the diagonal link is the best way to go then? I have seen some cars "Watts link" but it looks like another whole day of fabrication and another $200 in rod ends and material.

Gus

the diagonal link is the simplest and easyist

Mine work excellent, no sway or any other stupid actions driving it on the street with bias and radails tires mixed or on all radials or all bias ply tires front and rear

I made my diagonal link from thicker dom material because I had heard and read that some people were having flexing issues and the bar bending. Then I thought Hey! why not make it into an x-brace. Unfortunately the car is not ready to drive yet.

Ladder bars will work very well - and you can leave your frame rails in - If you ever want to go a NSS class - there are strict rules on altering the rear frame rails - hence the reason the majority of cars are ladder bar. If you do go ladder bar you want to use the longest bar you can and have the ladder link feature to make adjustments easy. Caltrac set ups work really good also - in a 3800 lb car I can yank the front wheels footbraking on 9' slicks

My car has 3" TTI exh Gus and you can see in this pic if you moved the springs in the springs would be right up to the exh tailpipes as it would be tight. Everything on my car is stock. You would need to go with a fuel cell most likey if you went with just moving the springs in and going with Cal Tracs or ladder bars. I had the Hoosier QTP 29 x 11 on my car with this stock wheelwells and they cleared but would rub to much on turns. For a race car only they would have been ok but not for me driving on the street. Thats why I like the 30 x 9's as they have plenty of room and dont rub at all. And hook fine for me. Good luck what ever you decide. Ron