We all know that traction bars help us get the rubber to the ground off the line....

But what does a traction bar do for the handling of the car? Ive heard it both ways... some say it hurts, some say its great and was the single most effective part of the suspension setup.

So whats the bottom line??? Does it help or hurt your handling, and what other components benifit it if it does help??? (in ex... sway bars/tire bars..ect..)

 

anyone???

 

i guess nobody knows...

 

All that a good set of traction bars will do is to keep the front lower arms from moving out of their intended travel arc forward or backward. If the bushings are shot or spongy, the arms will still move, just not as much as they would without the bars. They try and triangulate the lower arms to make them stronger...it's not rocket science, it just takes a little bit of time thining about the rotation axis of the lower arm.

If you want to be super accurate, they should be called radius rods, not traction bars

See the picture below.



-dave

 

^

 

 

There are many Hondas with "Radius Arms" that still get massive wheel hop. Gen2 Integras and Preludes to name a few. Preload is the difference.

 

Of course. If the bushings in the arms are shot, or the arms are left loose, the wheels can still move all over the place. The radius arms will only be 100% effective (from a purely mechanical perspective) if the bushings are replaced with solid inserts and if the radius rods are properly adjusted so that the system is ideally triangulated.

The reality of the triangulation system is that it's only as good as the rest of the suspension, and the setup. Compromises are made. Sloppy bushings will allow the lower A arm to twist and shift, despite the best efforts of a radius rod. Improper preload will either pull the suspension further out of line or have no effect at all. Guess what that can cause? Harder bushings will help to alleviate the shifting that causes hop, but a radius rod will always have an effect if properly implemented.

There are also a few 'radius' systems being sold that aren't. Their geometry is all f'd up. They can make wheel hop even worse, if the conditions are right for it. If you can't draw a straight line from the center of the front radius pivot thru the centers of both LCA pivots, you've got LCA connectors, not radius rods, and they WILL bind.

Put radius rods on a suspension with sloppy bearings, and you'll still get some hop.
Put radius rods on a suspension and adjust them wrong, and you'll still get some hop.
Put out of whack radius rods on a suspension, and you'll still get some hop.

Oh, and radius connectors/rods aren't just for drag racing. They make a BIG difference in some cars on road courses, where cornering forces can push and pull those bushings all over the place. Suspension work isn't black magic, it's just basic geometry. Triangles. Pay attention to the details and it's easy to get right.

-dave

 

Saying some w/traction bars have hop, some don't, is like saying some with a turbo are fast, some are slow. Suspension required everything to work together, and most people focus on the engine rather than suspension first. The truth is they work like all other go-fast items. They have to be configured correctly to do so.

My personal experience is that they can make a light NA hatch with a heavy-*** driver do reallly fast, no wheel hop with fat slicks. I can also attest that just stiffening the motor mounts and the suspension bushings makes a huge diff. My EF uses the stock radius rod w/poly bushings everywhere (susp/engine), and its really night & day.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HiProfile &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Saying some w/traction bars have hop, some don't, is like saying some with a turbo are fast, some are slow.</TD></TR></TABLE> I never said some had hop. I said some had improper geometry.

Bad geometry will always cause hop. In stock suspensions, the worn out bushings will cause the arms to shift out of alignment, changing the steering and travel geometry enough to throw the car into hop. Radius rods can band-aid that problem, but the real way to fix it is to put tougher bushings in AND keep the radius rods. This prevents the arms from going out on their own just because there inner or outer end is sloppy (Heim joints would be perfect, but the Honda suspension is designed around flexible links, and doens't quite work right with solid metal bushings). The radius rods still help the hard bushing guys by helping to keep the arms in line when the forces on them exceed stock design limits as in hard cornering on a road course or at launch on a drag strip.

Harder engine mounts will help because the inner end of the axle will stay close to where it was designed to be, in a straight line with the hub (give or take). If it wobbles around, those big heavy CV joint ends will start to swing in a parabola, causing huge force peaks, pushing the lightweight and floppy arms around, and bam, wheel hop.

High horsepower and lightweight cars need stiffer bushings everywhere, suspension, engine, shifter.

Things that flex more than they need to are bad on race cars. Built it right, don't cheap out, no problems.

As for your EF HiProfile, I think if you're swapped, you might want to look at curved radius rods. The stock ones are really close to the trans brace if I remember right.

-dave