Ladder Bars and Tie Rod Sleeves....
 

Ok, here is what I need, a buddy of mine that has a machine shop is going to custom fab some ladder bars for both his Dodge and My 2500HD. I need some advice about the best placement for the front mounts for the Bars on the frame, and some overall dimensions for the tie rod sleeves. We are going to make them ourselves, but I need some dimensions to go by and common sizes if anyone knows any??? We are going to be working for the next three nights to get them done for a Sled pull Saturday Night.
Any and ALL advice and comments are welcome!!!

for the sleeves, they replace the lock nut on the tie rod, and they go up to about an inch away from the boot at the end.

my traction bars are like 5ft long. they mount right at the back of the cab and i welded the tabs to the plate that the u bolts bolt to on the rear end so they are centered to the axle...... it may not be the correct way but they work very nicely.....

Thanks guys, with the sleeves here is what we were thinking of doing: taking 1.5 in stock and boring it out and putting a taper on the inside "side", while leaving a good thick wall for added strength, and then cutting a flatspot in the outside end for a wrench...

With the bars, we were basically wondering if there was a common rule of thumb about proper placement, but apparently it all about getting the bars long and spreading the tension out over more of the surface area of the frame so that you do not bend the frame right???

Check out Yaz'z garage on dieselplace. He has a cad drawing that he used to make sleeves with all the dimensions. That's what I used to make mine.

do you have a link for that ??
right now I have almost decided to use a design that a friend of mine suggest for those, what he did was to make them out of the tube he wanted and then cut it right down the middle with a band saw and then weld tabs at each end of the two pieces so that they can be installed or removed when it is convenient. that way they can actually cover more of the rod without losing or messing with the adjust ability of the rods either,...

For the bars I have decided to weld a couple of ears to the bottom of the plates under the u-joints on the axle and attach them there, while welding the mounts up front far enough to keep the angle of the bars equal to the angle of the springs.

Sound about right????:pca1:

Well, I did not manage to get the work done before tonight, I am going to try to make another pull next week with my truck, but tonight I am hauling a buddies' truck to it for him, so I will get videos and pics to upload tomorrow or Monday.
But thanks to everyone who gave advice so far, and I will make the next one and will also keep everyone updated when I do...
Chris