im a welding engineer so alot of the things on my truck and friends trucks are home made. one of the ideas that i have been toying around with is this. one of the major problems with trucks when you race them is the light rearend so you cant get traction. you can fix this by puttin weight in the bed but that is also added weight to the truck. i think you could get a z06 corvette rearend which has a tourqe tube that goes from the motor to the transmission which is part of the rear end and put that in the truck. basicly you would be moving the transmission to the back of the truck puttin more weight over the rear wheels without makin the truck weigh more. plus you now have a transmission/rearend thats rated for 600+ hp

her is a link to what the rearend looks like to give you a better mental pic
http://www.thewarfields.com/img/Cars...Drivetrain.jpg

 

I don't rac3 trucks or cars, so my opinion may not matter, but I did spend some time on ice ovals racing three-wheelers, one of the key things wasn't weighting down the vehicle which would be detrimental - but rather getting the available weight to transfer to the rear.
Would softening or reducing the rear springs' spring rate to allow the truck to squat down when under power be of benefit to increase traction?

 

what about traction bars from moes?

 

thats one thing your can do, thay do make after market suspensions that do just that. and im not saying that puttin a corvette rearend in is a good idea, its just an idea. i like to do thinkgs with my trucks that have never been done b4. you have to think outside the box

 

That is a very inovated idea and not only would be very cool on the street but also be an effective way to install a manual 6 speed and dump a lot of weight. Are you seriously thinking about this or just burning rod?

 

im just makin small talk about it for now, but the more i think about it the more i wanna try it.

 

I hear you, I like this idea. I've done a lot of fabrication (machinist) over the years and without knowing the dimensions of everything I certainly wouldn't say it can't be done. If you move forward on this please keep us informed on what you are doing.

 

one of the thing with it though is with how the corvette rearend is i couldin use a normal leaf spring suspinsion, but i can convert it to a coil over rear suspension much like in the new 09 dodges. and it would make it way smother ridding.

 

IDK anything about the corvette, but first thought is to use the corvette spring system. But Coil over shocks or bags would give you what is needed. After all that's the advantage of building it yourself it can be fabricated to suit exactly what you want it to do. Basically build a sub frame to support the corvette assembly. Graft that to the truck frame. Might even be able to use a bell housing from the corvette with an adapter plate to the hemi and keep the entire rear assembly all original. No doubt the shaft lenght would need to be adjusted once the rear axle location was determined. But that should be easily solved. The width is what would present the biggest challenge. If the stock width is wrong then there is a lot of fabrication needed to correct the under fender fit. And that would be the show stopper for me.

 

What I personally would be doing is run an axle over leaf spring setup. This reduces wheel hop drastically and wheel hop = no traction. Another mod I would make is to run a traction bar clamped near the centersection of the diff (maybe make a cool trussed rear setup) this traction bar would run parallel to the drive shaft and attach to a cross member near the yoke on the transmission and be connected with the cross member with a flexible joint (currie johny joint). The flexible joint prevents a twist binding from occurring but holds the pinion angle firm to further reduce wheel hop. The purpose of having the arm this long is to transfer the rotational force to the front/middle of the truck. That effectively lifts the front and plants the rear. If you are really into going fast down the 1320 then some drag shocks (adjustable) would help the rear squat and the front droop (big weight transfer here). Take these ideas or leave them but these mods will make a nice difference and are easily made with some decent fab skills and the right tools.