I looked at the different designs, and drew up some plans real quick. Went to home depot and got some square and round tubing and some 1/8" flat plate and grabbed some nuts, bolts, washers... I bought some pre made mounting tabs from a race shop along with the heim joints. I had a peice of 3/16" steel plate and I used it to cut out the new moutning plates where the old tow hooks were. I had to make them about 3/4" longer than the factory tow hooks to clear the bottom of the rad. support...


I mounted the brackets I made, and held up the cross bar which I cut about 1/2" short by accident, it all lined up and cleared so I marked it and welded it up. I just used the old tow hooks on there as spacers and it fit perfectly. I took some more measurements for the bars connecting to the LCAs and cut em and welded nuts on the ends.


then painted it all(black of course)


It all fit great, I expected some problems but it all fit perfectly I was surprised since Ive never really made anything like this before. heres pics of it all installed on there--
BEFORE:


AFTER:






Can someone describe to me what its supposed to feel like with the traction bars on? The steering feels a LOT tighter and it turns kinda different. I havent really launched hard yet to see how they do with that either. Im gonna put my car on the rack and do an alignment when I get a chance.

Heres the airbox and rear strut bar I made in class too, schools a lot of fun when you can do **** like this

 

You wont be able to see them at all when I get a new front lip, mine got ripped off as you can see, and yes I know I have an oil leak its my cam seals

 

I hope that square tube will be strong enough. I made a set a while ago and ended up bowing the tube a bit. I didn't much like that... ended up going back to stock.. for the time being.

 

Damn, did your hood melt?

 

that bar will bend. i had one exactly the same and it bent the first autocross i went to. i replaced it with 1x2 and added the braces to the stock cross member location. no issues.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by drewzilla &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Damn, did your hood melt? </TD></TR></TABLE>
huh?????

I guess I will put some bracing on it then, I dont autocross, hell I dont really even go to the drag strip that often anymore I just made these cause I was bored

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboCoop &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
huh?????

I guess I will put some bracing on it then, I dont autocross, hell I dont really even go to the drag strip that often anymore I just made these cause I was bored
</TD></TR></TABLE>

whats the point of having them if you arent going to drag your car?

 

make sure the caster is still within spec.

 

I was thinking of doing this for my Crx as well. Not to hard to make the bar across and the 3 holed brackets, but what I dont get, is how do you do the heim joint on the radious rods? Thats what I dont get

Id love to make my own set

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gritsak &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">whats the point of having them if you arent going to drag your car?</TD></TR></TABLE>
I said I just made them cause I was bored and I wanted to see if it helped any. Im sure Ill go to the strip sometime

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PINKS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what I dont get, is how do you do the heim joint on the radious rods? Thats what I dont get</TD></TR></TABLE>

what do you mean? Its really simple, I just dont understand what you want to know to be able to explain it to you

 

fabrication looks great to me !

post a materials list at the beginning including where you bought and how much you paid for the parts!

thanks man
-Luke

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboCoop &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I said I just made them cause I was bored and I wanted to see if it helped any. Im sure Ill go to the strip sometime

what do you mean? Its really simple, I just dont understand what you want to know to be able to explain it to you</TD></TR></TABLE>

I just cant see it form the pictures. Dont get how it attaches the rad rod to the control arm. And those Heim nuts, arent they reverse threaded or something, and are they going inside the bar there? I just dont get it

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PINKS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just cant see it form the pictures. Dont get how it attaches the rad rod to the control arm. And those Heim nuts, arent they reverse threaded or something, and are they going inside the bar there? I just dont get it</TD></TR></TABLE>

The nuts on the heim joints are not reverse threaded, but I guess you could do it that way. Mine tightened up perfectly fine though. For the bracket on the LCA I just cut out some peices of 1/8" steel and welded them together, then put a peice of square tubing in between the middle and drilled the holes on a drill press.


PARTS LIST:
homedepot--
square tubing -$10
round tubing- $8
1/8" flat steel- $5
bolts- 1/2"x2.5"L x4
washers 1/2" x 12
lock washers 1/2" x4
nuts 1/2" x4

race shop--
heim joints 1/2" thread x4- about $25
fine thread 1/2" nuts for heim joints x 8
precut mounting brackets x4- $10
3/16" steel plate for brackets- $5-10

+ a can of high temp paint- $5

Total: about $85
I got some stuff for free that was laying around school though

 

Would round tubing be better for teh support beam? Round like teh tube they use in roll cages...

I was contemplating using a stock crossmember at one point and welding one or two support beams in the center of teh mounting points to replace that bulky center support. The main reason people buy traction bars for crx's is for clearance anyways, so what does it matter? I think that by doing this, it souldnt be too difficult. Just have to get some accurate measurements and strong tubing.

 

Question: Does the car not come with these bars stock? Or did you replace the stock one with a replacement to save weight?

Just asking because my cheap-*** Kia has bars from the lower control arm to the rad support, so I assumed all cars had them.

 

^^^some crossmembers are too heavy and big... it'll also open up some room for bigger downpipe for turbo application.

 

no all cars dont have them stock, and I dont know anything about kias but ill take your word for it. I put a before pic in there, you can see there wasnt anything going across there, it sits right below the rad. support.

I used square tubing cause I read this thread and supposedly its stronger, but I think I used too thin of a wall tubing... -- https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1419573

 

So all the connections realy are is a piece bar across and you weld your nut into it and your Heim joint with another nut threads into it?

**** that seems easy

Connecting the radius rod to the control arm seems to be done differently by everyone though

 

Did you cycle the suspension through its range when placing the radius rods to be sure no dynamic caster changes occur?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboCoop &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">no all cars dont have them stock, and I dont know anything about kias but ill take your word for it. I put a before pic in there, you can see there wasnt anything going across there, it sits right below the rad. support.

I used square tubing cause I read this thread and supposedly its stronger, but I think I used too thin of a wall tubing... -- https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1419573</TD></TR></TABLE>


Offline

428 posts [100%]
Sacramento CA
7-10-2004
« Re: Traction Bars I made... pics (dragline) « » 11:55 PM 11/1/2005 Reply Edit

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Sorry to argue, and no offense to the square tubing crossmember because it looks great, but square is NOT stronger than round tubing. A circle is the strongest isometric shape, which is why all "safety equipment", like cages are made of round tubing. The triangle is the second strongest isometric shape, which is why you see gussets, and braces(like and x-brace in the back of a cage), all using a triangle shape. Again, dont want to argue, just setting the facts straight.
Dragline, the ones you built look great! Mild steel or 4130? Where did you buy the end mounting brackets, or did you have them cut? Just a word of advice...dont HAVE to do it, but if it were me, I sure would....don't use any rod ends unless they are QA1 or Aurora. Aurora has the BEST rod ends in the world, and really arent much more. I buy 1/2" ones for like $6.25 each. I have seen a few rod end failures, and believe me, they are not pretty. Just something to think about if you start marketing them...
Again, LOOKS GREAT!
Kyle



I cut and pasted this from your thread you linked to. I remember an engineer once explaining this concept to me as we were building something and he said "you ever notice how submarines are round and not square? There's a reason for that" Kyle gave a good explanation of that above. Round has no weak points (corners) to start failing. So nice work, but round is better for your next attempt.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kookz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">While Kyle is wrong about geometry etc, you're wrong about your bar being stronger.

1.5" tubing in your standard .095" wall thickness has a Polar Moment of Inertia of .10394 in^4, while even if your 1" square bar was solid, it would have a PMI of only .08333.

That means that your bar will bend 20% more than his when subjected to the same load.

If you made it out of 1.5" 16 gauge (.065") square tube, it would have a PMI of .26547, or be 2.5 times as stiff as the 1.5" round tube, and it would also be lighter than the round tube.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You cant argue with the numbers, even though Ive never heard of any of this **** theyre talking about... Round tubing is used in roll cages cause it is designed to take impact from any direction, traction bars are only going to have to hold up being pulled from one direction. To tell the truth I originally planned on using round tubing, but when I was buying the metal I didnt feel like driving the extra 30 minutes to go to the shop that sold the roll cage tubing so i just grabbed this at home depot.

 

here is my old bent bar and the 1"x2" that i replaced it with and added bracing.




as for the round vs. square debate, well i still agree that from most directions round will be stronger, but from a flat position, square will be far stronger and rectangular will be even stronger than that. i am speaking from first hand experience here, not from what someone else posted somewhere else.

the 1" square traction bar was good for more than a year on the car, it only bent under hard braking, not acceleration so you should be ok.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PINKS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So all the connections realy are is a piece bar across and you weld your nut into it and your Heim joint with another nut threads into it?

**** that seems easy

Connecting the radius rod to the control arm seems to be done differently by everyone though</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

yep thats all, I dont think my way of attaching it to the lcas is the best but its holding up

 

I foudn some round tubing today at work, was hoping I could use this for both my radius rod arms and the main support bar

The diameter is 1.125"
Wall thickness is .190"
Inside diameter is .750"

Would that support the front piece as well? or does it have to be solid? I'll probably be jacking my car up form this point if it makes a difference