ladder bars

[adrenalinejunkie76]

im looking into buying a ladder bar suspention for my car and im limited in cash. are there any advantages to having a ladder bar suspention vs a 4 link? or any in general? what is the best company to get a ladderbars from, the cheapest?

[rollin_on13s]

Well, the first and most important advantage is......affordability. A real four link will cost you a rear subframe, adjustable rod-ends, coil-over shocks, and some custom "engineering".
A ladder bar-type setup can be used as an add-on to existing rear suspension. I think that the Vega was sold originally with rear coil springs and (4) trailing arms & panhard bar.
If i'm not mistaken, ladder bars were sold as a traction solution for leaf-sprung cars.
Am I correct on this?

[adrenalinejunkie76]

your correct about the vega suspention, but im completly rebuilding the car and the old suspention is already in the junkyard. im building the frame for it as soon as i decide on this rear suspention. the cars axle (dana 60) is a leaf sprung right now, but as soon as i get the mounts made it will be coil over, and im almost shure that ladder bars arnt just for leaf springs, all they are are connections to the chassie from the axle that alow the rear end to swing. im almsot positive that you can use them with coil overs. but i might be mistaken on this.

[rollin_on13s]

Exactly. In this case then, the biggest difference between the two is that the 4-link system is a more sophisticated version of a ladder bar setup- because it's adjustable. IMHO, all other things being the same (rear frame and narrow rear axle with coil-overs), the extra cost of the adjustable rod ends to allow for the 4link setup is a no-brainer.

Both setups require a crossmember that is forward of the axle for mounting of the bars/rods to the frame. Both will need brackets welded to the axle housings to attach the bars/rods. And, I'm pretty sure that both will need a panhard bar of some sort. The difference, again, is that the4link setup will give you a more sophisticated suspension geometry- that is also adjustable.

The coilovers work equally well with either type of suspension geometry, and allow for yet another adjustable feature.

My comment concerning ladder bars w/leaf springs wasn't worded well. What I was refering to, was (backintheday) how ladder bars were used most often as an aftermarket addon- specifically with leaf-sprung rear axles. This is simply because of the room that exists between the wheel and the differential housing on a leaf- spring axle setup. Four trailing arms, two coil springs, and a panhard bar take up alot more room, in general.