Anti Tramp Bars

[mph]

I'm currently having a set of anti-tramp bars made up to fit to my Jaguar Special.

There's plenty of info on anti-tramp bars in general, but very little about setting them up from scratch.

The general consensus appears to be that the car should be loaded with a couple of bodies, to replicate the "normal" load condition, and then the bars fitted and the mountings welded in place.

Any experience or thoughts on this ?

[grumpy52]

Very popular in the 70's with the tuning , customised boys .
Most were made of snake oil !
Just be careful as it can lead to transmission or drive train breakages if all the give is removed from the axle as it will find any weakness in shafts , diffs, or joints .
They were usually fitted to cars with leaf spring rear suspension and virtually dissappeared when multi-link setups became the norm .

[texaxile]

Sorry, I thought you were on about these;

[Mercky]

texaxile said:

Sorry, I thought you were on about these;

They don't work either.

[mph]

Anti tramp bars do work but need to be installed correctly. It's surprising how much leaf springs distort under acceleration.

Here's a clip of a Morgan with and without. The movement of the differential is quite excessive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otP5xU8qvYY&t=...

Go to 1.55 to see the rear axle without anti-tramp.

[sunbeam alpine]

I fitted them to a mates MG (V8) last year. Made quite a difference.

These weren't welded, but with bolt holes drilled through the bodywork, so we knocked up some strengthening plates.

[Boosted LS1]

Could you modify things, ditch the leaf sprigs and fit coilovers?

[mph]

Boosted LS1 said:

Could you modify things, ditch the leaf springs and fit coilovers?

That would be a massive undertaking and I don't need to go that far, the leaf springs are fine.

I just want to stop them winding up too much under acceleration as the car produces a lot more power than it used to.

[Mark A S]

They need setting up correctly to work well. Having had a few Mk 2 escorts with good axle location, this link shows how it should be done, http://www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=76950

[mph]

That's a bit more complicated than the ones I'm having made. They're just a single bar that runs from the centre of the spring mounting to a point forward.

Similar design to the picture below which I think is on an MG..

Hopefully mine are almost finished now. Should get chance to test them out in a couple of weeks.

[Weslake-Monza]

If at least one end of the bar has the largest rubber (not polyurethane) bush you can use, it well help the function of the bar when there is a lot of suspension travel.

[Church of Noise]

sunbeam alpine said:

I fitted them to a mates MG (V8) last year. Made quite a difference.

These weren't welded, but with bolt holes drilled through the bodywork, so we knocked up some strengthening plates.

I'm said mate (thanks again D! will drop by once in Belgium again...).
The MGB GT V8 I bought had parabolic rear leaf springs, which do miracles for the roadholding, handling and comfort of the car yet can't handle the torque of the V8. As a result, the leafs would deform into an S-shape.
Since installing, the rear of the car feels tighter and more controlled. Ambitious starts feel a lot more controlled as well.