OUO's forward mount is along the same lines as the strut rod on my 1967 Mustang, it passes through a hole, the polyurethane bushings limit its fore/aft movement w/out interfering with the up/down movement. Rough Country has an over ride traction bar that goes from the top of the leaf spring pack to the forward leaf spring mount. Again, the spring lift meant this would need modifying. The Pro-Comp fwd mount is like a shock or leaf spring mount, round bushing.

Both bars are going to limit articulation to one degree or another. From street car building we know that leaf springs and ladder bars fight each other, the answer is a floater housing for the axle that allows it to rotate with the ladder bars and the leaf spring is there for suspension only. This is the best option.

But back to trucks. Guys with trucks and traction/ladder bars have to choose between articulation and hook. Screw it, quick disconnects and I have both.

 

The pro-comp fwd mount is solid mounted though, not on a hanger, at least what's in your picture, so not like a leaf spring at all. Round bushing doesn't matter, it's a fixed location, where as the leaf spring can move forward and back. Right?

 

Ooooh I found this:

 

GREAT PICTURE, Mike! Here we can also see that either design is going to bind the suspension with enough travel. Those bars are going to move in a linear arc, leafs move in some what of an arc, but the stretching (flattening) means its not as linear as the traction or lift bars. This is where coil overs or axle housing floaters come in to play.

I am NOT knocking OUO one bit, let me be clear about that. On a truck that had their bars on it, when lifted with a fork lift (personally I prefer RTI ramp), it still lifted the one tire very high, but instead of stuffing it into the wheel well, the frame flexed. I didn't notice this until I looked at the box to cab relationship in the before and after shots.

The bottom line is this, you can build a lift bar (aka ladder bar), a traction bar, or take one out of a box, but if your goal is off roading that requires flexing, best look into a coil over, possibly 4 link set up.

Personally, my truck is no stranger to off roading, but I'm willing to give up a little articulation for the removal of the axle wrap.

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Sorry, Mike, I meant FWD leaf spring mount, not aft.

 

Okay Mike and Karl, what are you thoughts on these ? I am not an off-roader by any means but I do tow a lot and do a lot of DD. Are these a good option for my style of driving?

 

Is your truck lifted? I feel like they would be to short for mine.

 

Yes it's lifted. As stated in the opening comments, it has a spring lift out back, 6" Pro-Comp spring to be exact. The side pic illustrates that the bar goes to the trailing edge of the front door.

Clearly, our speculations were WRONG! I just went up the RTI ramp and it went just as far as it did when before the traction bars. Guess you need to have more articulation than a Souper Doody on a 6" spring lift to bind up with traction bars.

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Those were the ones I was talking about in post number 11. Honestly, much like the Shelby over ride bars on the 65-66 GT-350 Mustangs, I think they're a pretty good idea. It's harder to pull a bar apart than it is to push it into a taco. This is why I believe that the OD of the tubing isn't monsterous. Back in the 80s when trucks with 12-18" lifts and 44s were all over Phoenix, AZ where I grew up, this type of traction bar was very popular.

These would be on my truck if I didn't have a 6" lift spring out back.

 

Those are the ones I thought you where talking about. They look like they would work great for my application. Thanks for the info.

 

That's a damn simple way to do it too. Seems like one could make those pretty easy if you made sure the angles were right (I wonder if tuff country even checks the angles)

 

I was hoping that the traction bars would help with the right turn, one tire fire True Trac, nope. Damn thing only slipped one tire going up the RTI ramp, too. Even tried the e-brake pressure trick. REALLY wishing I would have bought a Detroit Locker.

Straight line, two stripes. Left turns, swings rear end out. Right turns, one tire fire. IMO, True Trac is a POS!