Clat trac vs. SS springs vs 4 link

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SS springs are designed to lift the car to plant the tire. Cal-tracs are made to squat the rear of the car to transfer weight to plant the rear tire hence they accomplish the same thing two different ways. The Cal-Tracs react the exact opposite way that the SS springs do and this is what causes the binding when using Cal-Tracs with SS springs. Have you ever watched a car with SS springs leave the line.......the whole car rises up on the suspension......with Cal-tracs the front rises and the rear squats.
 
If you are so f'ing smart then why don't you explain to us all the theory of leaf spring suspensions. I think the whole deal is that you have SS springs with Cal-Tracs on your car.......call Calvert and ask them if you should run the SS springs with their bars.......I bet you don't like their answer.
 
it is no myth, I know for a fact the two do not work together. my question, is, what kind of car do you race? how fast, etc? don't tell any whoppers either.
 
I still use ss springs, an in 2 weeks im going to try to get my 8.99 pass. I have went a 9.07 @ 149. I have spent 10yrs prefecting my setup though. But ss springs are not the best suspension to have.
 
Sorry guys, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Check out my pohoto gallery, that is all you need to know. I noticed perfacar has nothing posted there. And DusterB: Is that pic of the backside in the other thread your car? Just curious, cause if it is, you're the one telling whoppers. Bye!
 
Nope neither of those pics are of my car. Why do I have a reason to lie to any one. The pic with the spring block is the car of a friend of mine in Georga and the pick with the shackles in the forward postion is a pic of Mikel Becks car after he installed the Mancini XHD springs. Shawn you have gone far and above what anyone could ever expect from SS springs. I'll never say SS springs won't or can't work just they don't work with Cal-Tracs. Ace we are all here to share info that has worked for us.......seems to me all you do is bad mouth people who try and help others. If you want to help then explain why something is wrong don't just mouth off saying that the person is wrong. Explain why they are wrong......and what should be done to fix it. All I want to know is your theory on why SS springs and Cal-tracs work fine together. That is what this is all about. Explain to us all why and how they work together. I'm not saying they are totally incompatable but once you start putting more and more power to the ground and start tuning them more and more you will find that they are fighting each other and the bars will not work as designed and then the springs won't work as they were designed and that creates a problem. I'm done being a smartass and I do apoligize for that comment in the previous post......there are no facial expressions when typing so it is hard to read people but comments like you are wrong and then not explaining why are not the way to figure out the answer. We are car guys helping each other not politicians.
 
Ace said:
Sorry guys, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Check out my pohoto gallery, that is all you need to know. I noticed perfacar has nothing posted there. And DusterB: Is that pic of the backside in the other thread your car? Just curious, cause if it is, you're the one telling whoppers. Bye!
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I looked at your photo galley and the only pic that relates to this subject is the floor level pic from the rear........from what I can see your shackles are angled about the same as mine in the rear which is just past vertical. You run a set of Cal-Tracs but I can't determine what springs. Are they SS springs? If so how fast has your car gone in the 1/4? What was your 60' time? That set-up might work for you and if it does that's great....good for you. Calvert does not recommend using SS springs so in order to get the most out of their system I am going to listen to their suggestions? Tell us why you feel it works for you?
 
Chassis and suspension tuning for drag racing is a very dynamic subject with lots of options and ways to achieve good results. To make blanket statements like "caltracs don't work with SS springs" without explaining and proving it is wrong. You and perfacar are the ones making those statements and so far have not explained or justified it. Of course Calvert doesn't "recommend" using their bars with SS springs, when they can sell you a set of expensive monoleafs instead!

Don't answer a question with a question or ask me to explain something that is clearly documented in the reference links I provide. I get a little bit peeved when I see people throwing out unsubstatiated and in some cases downright bad advice around here. I call it the way I see it. My car hooks hard with SS springs and custom homemade Caltracs I fabbed up myself. The question is clearly answered for me personally in my setup and remains to be answered why it is wrong in your comments.
 
Dusterb318 said:
SS springs are designed to lift the car to plant the tire. Cal-tracs are made to squat the rear of the car to transfer weight to plant the rear tire hence they accomplish the same thing two different ways. The Cal-Tracs react the exact opposite way that the SS springs do and this is what causes the binding when using Cal-Tracs with SS springs. Have you ever watched a car with SS springs leave the line.......the whole car rises up on the suspension......with Cal-tracs the front rises and the rear squats.
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Ace this is an exact quote of your post above:

"You still haven't said exactly what the SS spring is trying to do and why the Caltrac is working against it. I think you are just parroting some myth you heard."

I thought this post I made explained why they are not made to work together. They re-act exactly opposite to each other? Try running that set-up in a 10 sec car and you will have problems. Calvert is not trying to sell "expensive" mono leaves. I have called them a couple of times to get tuning suggestions and they have never said a negative thing about me running stock springs. The Cal-Tracs work fine with stock or their mono-leaves....sure they will work better with the mono leaves but they have the front segment spring rate set to optimize the use of the bars but they work just fine with stock springs.
 
Ace said:
Chassis and suspension tuning for drag racing is a very dynamic subject with lots of options and ways to achieve good results. To make blanket statements like "caltracs don't work with SS springs" without explaining and proving it is wrong. You and perfacar are the ones making those statements and so far have not explained or justified it. Of course Calvert doesn't "recommend" using their bars with SS springs, when they can sell you a set of expensive monoleafs instead!

Don't answer a question with a question or ask me to explain something that is clearly documented in the reference links I provide. I get a little bit peeved when I see people throwing out unsubstatiated and in some cases downright bad advice around here. I call it the way I see it. My car hooks hard with SS springs and custom homemade Caltracs I fabbed up myself. The question is clearly answered for me personally in my setup and remains to be answered why it is wrong in your comments.
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I agree with you that things are dynamic and some things do work on one person car and will not work on another car. I feel that I explained why the two set-ups are not made to work together. Can they work together? Maybe. They work for you on your car......but you are not running "true" Cal-tracs they are bars you made which is great and they probably look exactly like my Cal-Tracs without the powder coating. Calvert Racing doesn't want SS springs ran with their bars PLAIN AND SIMPLE. That is what we are trying to relay. I don't feel I just made a blanket statment saying they don't work together......I felt like I explained myself. I don't know how to explain it anymore than I did in the post above. So far you are the only person I have EVER talked with that said they work together.....are there more out there that run them together probably.....does that make it right or wrong? Neither. The original question was what kind of suspension should he run on his car? He got a lot of different suggestions and I'm curious what direction he went. I know perfacar and myself are not the only ones out there that have been told why they shouldn't be used together. If you read in the MP Chassis manual you should never use anything other than a pinion snubber with SS springs so MP doesn't want and type of traction bar used with their springs either. If you need to have exact proof of that I will try and find that in my MP chassis manual and scan it.
 
Maybe that is because MP sells pinion snubbers. Snubbers and Caltracs both perform the same function, only in different ways - mitigating or eliminating spring wrap. That is the whole point, two different approaches to solve the same problem, in the same type suspension. A leaf spring is a leaf spring is a leaf spring, and of course there are big differences but the basic principles in how they work is the same. SS are built way stiff up front to reduce or eliminate wrapup. I said this in another thread awhile back and I'll say it again: ANY spring will wrap, given enough torque and traction combined if something else doesn't break first. Where is the weakest link in any suspension and drivetrain setup? With enough power and traction, you WILL find it - the hard way. Caltracs and snubbers may be the things that eventually expose that weakness. Or get you down the track that much quicker. But none of those basic parts in terms of different types of leaf springs and add-ons is fundamentally incompatible. And I should add what hopefully everyone also already knows: Caltracs are much more efficient at this by transmitting that torsional energy "down" into the spring, as opposed to "up" into body the way snubbers do.
 
I agree with you on that. I feel you are kind of conspiracy theorist on why manufactures recomend certain things so they can sell other parts why this might be true I think they recomend those parts to compliment each other....yes it is to sell parts but it is also done to make a customer happy. :thumblef:

Well I feel this topic has been exhausted and there is a ton of good info presented on each side in here for others to read and make their own judgments and decisions on what to use with what.
 
Our caltracs and ss springs worked too! Until we made a monster. Check out my post in general discussion
 
I have the Caltracs with the mono leafsprings and rancho 9000 shocks ,i love them they hook great ,i wish i had more horsepower to push them harder my best 60Ft with 256 HP to the rear tire was 1.758
 
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