So after my shock post and reading about the OLD page on FB, what's the new trend as they suggest 5+ inches of travel and I'm now being told maybe 2"'s max so what gives.........Also, bottom hole w/1 flat is how my bars are now and am told I should pre-load em 1 to 2 full turns and others say an air gap.........

I hate to say this, but...
- it depends, and...
- "you can't get there from here" only making 2 or 3 passes at the track once or twice a year.

From what I THINK I know, restricting front end travel on your car would likely cause it to unload the rear tires after the 60-ft. However, being able to slow down the rate of front suspension extension while keeping the 5" of travel could help.

That's what I used to think till guys way faster than me do the opposite.......... I'm going to limit the ft. and just got my poly snubbers from Vato-zone and will play a bit on the street and at a minimum rear shocks but this could change in 20 minutes............

Leave it as is.. you dont test enough to know
any difference

buy Dave Morgans chassis book!!

Well, using MF front ends tends to restrict the travel of the front suspension over stock by a bunch....Typically you get about 3"-3.5" of travel with a MF front end.

We have found adding as long of front coil overs as possible really helps with consistent 60fts...This is why I had a set for sale earlier this year. I went and ponied up for a longer set. I have forgot what we got the front end travel back to with the longer coil overs, but I want to say its around +4.5" of travel now.

As far as Caltrack's go, I put weight on the drivers seat, brought them up till they touched, and added about 1-2 flats pre-load. Haven't touched them since, and that was a long time ago. Best 60ft so far....1.35!

Only thing I tinker with on the rear is tire pressure and shock clickers...

I had Morgans book, loaned it out years ago and havn't seen it since........Speaking of tires, my 1.33 was w/old MT 28x10.5 w's and these soft walls aren't happy from 11 3/4-15 lbs..........

Yep. At some point there is a crossover between cars that still need the extra front-end lift to pitch-rotate and plant the tires, and those where limiting the front-end travel improves the launch.

I see enough 9-sec Stock and SS cars, etc., that obviously still rely on a good amount of front-end extension at launch to suspect you're not in the "Strap it down and it'll 60-ft better" category, yet.

Re CalTrac setup... all I can tell you is that John C. told me to stick my butt in the driver's seat and have someone put the preload at one full turn on both sides. When it pulled slightly to the right, he said to add 1/2 turn on the passenger-side bar. It went straight then, so that's where I left it ever since. I, too, ended up using the #4 of 5 settings on my old Ranchos, but don't know if that setup will still work best with the new engine, etc.

I struggled with my rear suspension for the better part of year...
Monoleafs
Caltracs
Relocated vertically behind the axle DA Vikings
Spring sliders...

A local 8.5 guy who is friends with some of the fastest Caltrac guys in the country came to the track to help me after talking to his buddies.
Before I unloaded off the trailer, he put my caltrac bars in the upper hole, 1.5 turns preload and changed all my shock settings front and rear...

In four passes I went from the blowing the rears off to pulling the fronts an inch or two.

Caltracs need a lot of front end lift..You can slow it down with DA shocks, but the lift still has to be there, and you don't want the front end to just drop down, that will unload the rear....Front is as important as the rear.

Ya gotta watch it in slow mo...Period.

Paint a stripe on your tire and have a buddy video your launch and slow it way down, the stripe lets you know know it's slipping...

May or may not help you, but over on yellow bullet, there is a thread lots of pages long about adjusting them and getting them to work. Get a big glass of your favorite beverage if you decide to read it. LOL

In my opinion, this is a good read. I do not run alot of front seperation. I do not have a lot of preload on my caltracs either.

http://www.baselinesuspensions.com/info/Launching_A_Drag_Car.htm

I read some of that Ray and the last story about the truck said they ADDED 4"'s of travel and solved all issues yet you and others suggest reducing travel so this is one of those "give it what it wants" scenarios...........lol

I still have 4 inches of travel .
I took 1 1/2 out .

2 7/8 in of travel in the front end

Morgans book is good, but dated. And I don't remember it having any information relating to a Cal-Trac type deal, but it's been awhile since I looked at it. Still worth reading for someone trying to learn this stuff. It should not be the only read though.

Every car is different.

Use the best shocks you can afford.

Testing and video is essential.

Learning what doesn't work, and why, is at least as valuable as learning what does.

Yep, The more Power, the Less front end travel is desired and needed. Show off..

I had 5 1/2" travel in the front of my Dart, since installing the 434 I put the bumper back under the A arms and now have 4 1/2". After installing the Viking shocks at the first T&T I tightened the front way up thinking with the extra power the front needed to be slowed down. It didn't like it, after loosing it up some (tighter than the 90/10's) it ran 1.40 on a marginal track.

That's not smokin' I know but my car had never been down this track clean on a T&T night until the Vikings were installed on all four corners. The 408 on a very good track went 1.38 with 90/10's on the front and 9 ways on the back, bars in the bottom hole, no preload, just touching the spring.

Dom, from what I saw on that crappy FB video from the other day it looked like it spun after the front came down. The rear separation looked about perfect but the front needs more travel. My ...

Restricting the front end travel on our car did not work, all we gained was a lot of wheelspin from the line. I thought the car was at that stage where it might benefit from less front travel but it did not like it at all. Spent a weekend racing and trying to tune it out but we struggled. Put everything back to where it was for the next meeting and the launch was fine, uncovered other issues doing so but that's another story

Don’t worry Morgan’s book has nothing on Caltrac tuning...

In my Belvedere I had 5 inch front end travel and QA-1 set on 5.
Rear bottom hole with QA-1 set on 5. Weight in driver seat I’d adjust driver side with width of a nickel gap, passenger side 2 flats preload. 1.39 60ft@ 3750 lbs