ladder bars

[JMD Engineering]

So i was talking to a couple guys at my shop the other day- and i expressed the fact of my traction problems. One of the guys there says he put Ladder bars on his 5.0 and his rearend hooked like no other. he breifly describe how they work and i was immediately intruiged. But then i thought to myself- if this works so good, how come not many people run this setup? Which is why im here to ask these couple questions-

- is this a common task (installing LB's)
- does anyone make them or do i have to fabricate them myself
- is the install worth the traction result

 

[90NotchBack]

A lot of people run this set up. On most Drag car are laddar bars cars. Everyone now a days are going 4 link set up. There is a lot you would have to do to install laddar bars. You need to get brackets welded around your axle tube. Then your going to have to get a crossmember welded in the car. So you have something to mount the laddar bar to. You are going to have to run coil over shocks.

 

[Maryland Stang]

I looked into this just last week and came to the conclusion that it just wasn't worth the effort on a street car like mine. If you're going to go to that much trouble you might as well ditch the 8.8 and go with a 9". Then you end up with a rear end that hooks so good that you're breaking driveshafts, trannies and mounts, bell housings, motor mounts and bending the body up. Once you spend quite a few thousand dollars to get all of that straightened out you find that you don't have enough engine to take advantage of the rest of the drive train and end up spending 30 grand on a worthy engine.

 

[bobcatv8]

Your car already has a 4-link rear suspension from the factory.
Unless you plan on making crazy horsepower and hitting the rear end REAL hard, you would be much better off working with the factory set-up. Get a set of high quality adjustable upper and lower rear arms with drag-race friendly bushings, reinforce the mounting points {floorboard} and go from there.
Ladder bars will require a complete revamping of your rear suspension. Not really needed for a street-strip Mustang. The 8.8 can be made to live in drag racing fairly well.

 

[90mustangGT]

To some effect, the stock suspension on the mustang is a ladder bar setup, a set of lower and upper controll arms. That is one reason mustangs are such good drag race platforms. I would do a ladderbar setup when I make enough power to snap the 8.8, and need to tub/backhalf the car. People get amazing traction with UCA and LCA setups located in the stock mounting locations.

 

[tmoss]

Next winter I plan on dropping the upper arm body mount ~1 1/2" for a better instant center and welding up my torque boxes. I put 3:73 gears in the car and I plan on running some drag radials or slicks at the strip.