Traction Bars

Bigfatts

Bigfatts

Joined
Mar 12, 2012
Messages
2,453
Just got an '04 Ram 1500 with the 5.7 Hemi. Short bed, 20" wheels, Flowmaster duals and a few other go fast parts. Good looking and sounding truck. And for a full size pickup, it's quick. But the traction, as you can imagine, is terrible. And if there's rain anywhere in the forecast, it gets even worse. My brother had a hot running Dakota and I remember traction bars making a huge difference with it. Anyways, looking for a decent, affordable set of traction bars. Lakewood makes a pair specifically for the 1500 that look a little better than the universal ones I've seen. They run $200-250. They also make one of the more decent sets of universals in the $100 range. Anyone have any input on these or any alternative suggestions?
 
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I'm not familiar with your particular rear spring set up, but back in my misguided youth did a lot of drag racing... the "Jenkins" type bar (what we called the Lakewood style bars then) worked very well with the single leaf rear spring... for a "stealth" street set up, a pinion snubber... a rubber body snubber attached to a plate on the top of the rear gear housing over the pinion, adjusted so that under acceleration the snubber would contact the floor pan and prevent the rear axle from winding up and causing wheel hop
 
As Les says, a pinion snubber is just as effective, and also leaf spring clamps in front of the axle.

I, too, had a misguided youth which involved many years of street racing Mopars. My everyday driver is a 2012 Challenger R/T with the 5.7 Hemi and a few mods.
 
I've looked at the pinion snubbers, but almost all of them I find seem to be for specific vehicles- none of which are the 1500. I don't plan on doing any drag racing mind you, those days ended for me when my Mustang was trailered away. It just sucks having poor traction trying to pull into traffic where I live. A little more traction would save me some time waiting to merge.
 
Traction bars work to control axle wrap which contributes to wheel hop. Not saying that you won't have to deal with that to some extend but usually a pickup has a weight distribution problem and if driving on wet roads is what your worried about abour the only thing that will make that better is more rear weight.
 
beau5278 said:
Traction bars work to control axle wrap which contributes to wheel hop. Not saying that you won't have to deal with that to some extend but usually a pickup has a weight distribution problem and if driving on wet roads is what your worried about abour the only thing that will make that better is more rear weight.
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True, but it's not just wet roads that it's a problem. A little more traction in general would be quite welcome.
 
But that's the thing, they don't give you more traction unless your launching off of a starting line with your wheels spinning, then they will give you more traction by keeping your axle from wrapping and causing wheel hop.
 
beau5278 said:
But that's the thing, they don't give you more traction unless your launching off of a starting line with your wheels spinning, then they will give you more traction by keeping your axle from wrapping and causing wheel hop.
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Exactly. Short merge lanes and heavy traffic sometimes make it necessary to launch hard or sit for 10 minutes. And the occasional heavy foot off a light is just fun. And right now the wheels spin SO easily, anything that will help get a handle on that is a good thing.
 
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Traction bars will not stop wheels from spinning, on a pickup the only thing that will do that is a couple of hundred pound sandbags in the bed. Why do you think drag racers spend so much time transfering batteries and anything else heavy that they can into the trunk instead of leaving it in the engine compartment.
 
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