Cal-Tracs vs. Competition Engineering Slide-A-Link
 

Anyone running either one of these traction bars? I was about to order me a set of Cal-Tracs and ran into a guy useing the Slide-A-Links and he said they have more adjustability than the Cal-Tracs. Any opinions on either one of them?

Thanks,

Chris

Well, the Slide-A-Link does nothing except to keep the front of the leaf spring stiff and straight. It works a little like an original Traction Bar but can not bind up because the tube slides together.

Cal-Tracs are tried and proven.

No contest.

Ed

chris go over to yellow bullet.com there some very go info over there about this. i run the cal-tracs with qa1 double adjust and the best time is 7.70. but i didn't setup the rear susp. good luck

slowman

Who do you think is going to respond to it over there?
Ed prolly will be giving him the same info as he got here.

Ed has been around this stuff a long time,he has very good advise.

Stop trying to get people to go to YB.com, thats some thing you won't do cause your afraid you might get Chomped up LOL

Go join and follow the lead woosie

Only the thick skinned can handle YB, that place is not for eveyone

sorry i wasn't saying ed didn't know what he was saying and you don't have to join the site to read all the post about the topic. leave me alone tom you bully. just a fyi there's a brand called maxi-trac that are the same thing as cal-tracs with more adjustment tom.

Tom is right about Yellow BULLET..I am a registered member on YB...and i can assure you that its not what RACING JUNK IS...ITS HARDCORE STUFF AND THEY WILL CALL YOUR BOOTY OUT REAL QUCIK...NO EDITING OVER THERE..

its a good place to watch and listen..i have jumped in a few times but i choose my words very carefully......

i like YB..but RJ is my home.. :lol: :lol: :lol:

also i ran cal-trac on my 69' street driven camaro with a mild cam steel headed 468...i could really tell the difference in how the car transfered weight etc..i also went with their composite mono-leaf spring that has the off set tension on each end of spring ..and i went back with alumimum solid spacers instead of rubber (this came with kit)....i think 3 years ago this set up cost me $650.00 if my memory is correct...

real good stuff in my opinion.

good luck- Brian

ya got that right.... :lol: those guys will chew you up and spit you out, even if you are right.
lots of good info if you take the time to sort through all the bs

Tom is also right about that I would give the same advice there. I do talk the same no matter which forum I am on.

If you will look at the slide-a-link it really does nothing except to keep the front of the leaf spring from bowing or winding up. In the 1960's on street performance cars we had what was called traction bars. They really did help traction some but not like we all thought. WE knew that they stopped the font spring from winding and releasing making wheel hop. That was what they were for. They did bind up the suspension some when the suspension was in movement so they gave a rougher ride.

Brilliant Ed Wilson, decided to try a diferent idea to keep the binding out. I still mounted the rear brackets to the same place. I still ran a bar from that to the front under the front leaf, just like all traction bars of the era did but my bar was a little heavier. Instead of the front mount welded solid to the frame like everyone else did, I made my front mount to pivot with axle movement not allowing any binding. Bear with me a little in your imagination. Attacjed to the lower part of that front pivot was a shock absorber pointing forward and up at an angle, the other end ogf the shock was mounted to the frame. It did work to keep the front spring stiff with no spring windup. The bottom bar was not binding anything because the front mount would pivot. The shock controlled the resistance to the bottom bar pushing forward.

In essence that which I did way back in the 1960;s is how the Slide-A-Link is supposed to work.

The Cal-Trac does still allow the non binding leaf spring up and down movement, The Cal-Trac converts the forward spring push energy into a lever force becuase of the rocker design. Any forward force of the front part of spring results in a downward force on the front part of spring to prevent spring wrap. By them moving the front eye attaching point further downward they have in essence lowered and shortened the point of Instant Center, which most leaf spring cars already need. You do have some slight adjustability in the design, which allows you to fine tune the amount of tire hit it will allow. Bottom Line is they work and were proven on Calvert's owwn car before he tried to market them.

Ed

Thanks for all the info, think i'm gonna order the Cal-Tracs.

Chris

fast, don't forget the shocks get the best adjustables that you can afford. a double adjust is best. the maxi-trac's are the some as cal-trac with more adjustments. they have one more hole in the back and one more in the front plate. i run the cal-tracs and there very good but the others have more adjustments. i would take a look at them aleast before you buy. good with the car