The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Traction (Anyone hooking 60-72 trucks)

So previous the truck made 362rwhp. I have just swapped heads and cam and thinking it should make about 415rwhp on the motor. I have a direct port that is pilled for a 200 hit. I'm about to do the suspension both front and rear and I am wondering what some others may have done to hook their trucks. So I would like to know:

Stock style truck arm suspension? If not what rear set up are you running.
Lowered? If so how. Springs, blocks, spindles a combo of the mentioned components?
What shocks are you running?
What tire and size?

Any info you can give would be great. Nothing is worse than having a ton of power and not planting it.


Shaun

The one thought I have is that the long arm suspension has been used on NASCAR cars for years and more recently there is at least one hot rod shop selling a kit to use it under hot rods.

It does have advantages, though I don't know if its the best option for hooking up a pickup. You'll have vitrually no wrap-up unless you install some sort of lowering block.

Isn't the biggest problem getting a pickup to hook up the light weight?

Wraping an axle from what I know doesn't help to hook just causes pinion angle issue and wheel hop. Having a good ICG does. I have a few ideas that I am planing on trying but I would love to see what others have done before I throw money away. There is a guy with a 71 on performancetrucks.net hooking a 1.4x with a close to stock set up. I'm trying to get more info there but thought this would be the better site to try.

You could get some adjustable front pivot brackets fabbed up for the cross member so you could adjust the ICG . I think Air Ride or one of the NASCAR truck arm manufacturers make custom arms and brackets ( as shown on Musclecar last Sunday ).

Rick

Ronin,

I was thinking about fabbing something up while laying in bed last night. The issue that I would have to overcome at that point is the pinion angle changes I would see fron raising and lowering the front of the arms. I could use shims between the LCA and rear until I found what I wanted angle wise, then cut the bracket loose from the rearend and reweld it.

This is similar to the idea I would go with (Post #20) http://performancetrucks.net/forums/showthread.php?t=384688&page=2

But at that point it would almost be easier using a ladder bar with and adjustable lnik to adjust pinion angle.

That was really my point. You won't hook if your wheels hop, and the long arm prevents hop.

The typical poster here isn't building a serious acceleration machine. Most the dialog is about trucks but even here in the HiPo shop you don't find much drag truck dialog.

This board is really my online home, though I'm active in several others. It wouldn't occur to me to ask this kind of question here, I'd probably try Club Hot Rod or Hot Rodders dot com with something like this. Or maybe 67-72 Chevy Trucks.

My '55 1st GMC Suburban with a stock type 270 and original leaf springs suffers from wheel hop--the once I pushed it that hard. My '72 C10 with the long arms and a 350 never has. My Corvette with short trailing arms doesn't hop even when the clutch is dropped at high RPM.

I think trailing arms, and especially long arms, are a great suspension design, what I can't tell you is if its the best for your application.

Built for the Silver State Classic. Have you run it in the Silver State Classic?

Running that race has long been a fantasy of mine, to build something to run in that race. I've even thought of doing an AD truck on C4 Corvette suspension running either a big block or an LS7.

The budget required means I'll likely never do it but its fun to think about.

One of the problems I noted with my "other" brand(BBF)hot rod truck, was that the stock pickup frame is subjected to some tremendous tortional forces. Especially if you are planning on tubbing and/or running slicks.

This is most obvious directly behind the rear cab mounts and I had some pictures that showed the bed to cab alignment went from 1" at the bottom to a full 3" at the top during launch. It became obvious that hooking up was going to take a toll on my driver's side frame. It was a factor that I had overlooked that should have been addressed early in my build.

Regardless of your rear suspension choice, you should be aware that big rwhp comes at a price and that to get a pickup competative, you'd be wise to make reinforcements before the fact! Just something else to kick around!!!

Dave

Dave

Oldsub, I appreciate the input. This and performancetrucks.net are the only truck related sites I have visited. This site does seem very stock geared. Thanks for the others. I might try my hand over there.

I have not yet run the SSC. Once the 73 is done, I'll start in the slower classes and over a few years work my way up.


Dave, I do have plans to reinforce.. Just not sure how I want to do it yet. Cage, box the frame ect. I know it's going to need something when the giggle juice starts aflowing.

Have you thought about HUGE tires?
JoeG.