anti-wrap bar
#1
anti-wrap bar
Ever since I did the lift, axle swap, and went to 37's, I could feel the rear axle 'bump' a little when accelerating from a stop. Determined it to be minor axle wrap.
I got an anti-wrap bar kit from Ruff Stuff, and made the lower part of the bar from .250 wall, 2" OD DOM tube, and the top part is .120 wall 2" DOM tube. Overall length is roughly 60". I used this program http://www.metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi to creat patterns to fishmouth the ends so everything seats for a good weld.
The crossmember is a chunk of 3/16" thick 2" square tubing, welded and reinforced along the top and sides. Everything is very stout AND heavy (the bar weighs roughly 52 lbs)
Biggest obstacle was having to rework the exhaust as the factory mongo sized muffler was in the way. Lopped it all off and used a 30" cherry-bomb up by the catalytic converter, a loong section of 2.5" exhaust pipe, and a Flowmaster 40-series back where the spare tire used to hang. (BTW - Sounds very mellow and no interior drone.)
I also had to fab a new rear brake line as the factory location conflicted with there the anti-wrap bar bracket mounts to the axle. Made it from some brake tubing I got from http://store.fedhillusa.com/. (Great stuff to work with.)
There is 1/8" clearance from the bottom bolthead to the side of the shock absorber. Tight fit there. Thats the only part I worried about.
Got it welded up yesterday (paint still wet when I took the pictures of the crossmember)...test drive proved instantly that it drives better and feels more solidly planted. Hooray to finishing a pain in the *** project!
Picture during the mock-up phase:
And completed.
I got an anti-wrap bar kit from Ruff Stuff, and made the lower part of the bar from .250 wall, 2" OD DOM tube, and the top part is .120 wall 2" DOM tube. Overall length is roughly 60". I used this program http://www.metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi to creat patterns to fishmouth the ends so everything seats for a good weld.
The crossmember is a chunk of 3/16" thick 2" square tubing, welded and reinforced along the top and sides. Everything is very stout AND heavy (the bar weighs roughly 52 lbs)
Biggest obstacle was having to rework the exhaust as the factory mongo sized muffler was in the way. Lopped it all off and used a 30" cherry-bomb up by the catalytic converter, a loong section of 2.5" exhaust pipe, and a Flowmaster 40-series back where the spare tire used to hang. (BTW - Sounds very mellow and no interior drone.)
I also had to fab a new rear brake line as the factory location conflicted with there the anti-wrap bar bracket mounts to the axle. Made it from some brake tubing I got from http://store.fedhillusa.com/. (Great stuff to work with.)
There is 1/8" clearance from the bottom bolthead to the side of the shock absorber. Tight fit there. Thats the only part I worried about.
Got it welded up yesterday (paint still wet when I took the pictures of the crossmember)...test drive proved instantly that it drives better and feels more solidly planted. Hooray to finishing a pain in the *** project!
Picture during the mock-up phase:
And completed.
Last edited by jeff351; 01-19-2015 at 09:33 PM.
#2
#3
It extends roughly 1 foot forward of the driveshaft carrier bearing. Im not too worried about it as the bar is almost 5' long, and it flexs on the same horizontal plane as the driveshaft yoke.
#4
#5
Why didn't you make the lower bar parallel and offset slightly lower than the driveshaft for protection? That's the most typical thing to do when adding traction bar. It would have avoided the interference of the bolt with the shock.
I think you could have done way better with the cross member too. I do like it's forward position since the fixed shaft doesn't move. But now you have bump to be worry about for clearing obstacles. I like the tube size choices and paint. My buddy with truggy Dakota just did the same kit this past weekend, with slight changes, but his pinion is offset higher up making the protection more easily accommodated.
I think you could have done way better with the cross member too. I do like it's forward position since the fixed shaft doesn't move. But now you have bump to be worry about for clearing obstacles. I like the tube size choices and paint. My buddy with truggy Dakota just did the same kit this past weekend, with slight changes, but his pinion is offset higher up making the protection more easily accommodated.
#6