You either have a "special" car or are content to have the tires hanging outside the fenders. I couldn't even get a 275 in there with the stock factory suspension. After removing the bump-stops, the 275 would fit but rub. After altering the rails and moving the springs in 3" per side, a 325 will fit with enough clearance for street driving...
the first sentence was a question haha. Did you keep the leafs on the outside of the frame rails still the And just move the frame will the tires would fit?
No. I fabbed a set of "Chrysler Super Stock" spring hangers (you can see what they look like on Crite's site) from 3 1/2" square tubing and centered them under the rails after cutting out a good portion of the factory rails. This moves the springs inboard 3" per side. Once you do this, the inner sidewall starts fouling the frame rail so that needs to be altered...
In going to have to open my wheel wells some bc it is rubbing on driverside passenger has some clearance for whatever reason
I do know that the passenger side rocker has been replaced but im not sure yet if thats why i have more clearance
I think ladder bars are easier to set up & I have seen some very fast ladder bar cars that work great.
We've got 2 Mavericks. One's a ladder bar, the other (mine) is a 4 link. The 4 link leaves "softer"-but is considerably more controllable. When I say softer, it doesn't "hit" quite as hard, even though the 60' is a little quicker than the ladders are. 4 links also have a LOT more adjustability. Don't like how it leaves? Adjust it. With a ladder bar, you have very little adjustment, and for this reason they aren't all that forgiving if you miss a little during installation. Easier to set up? That is, again, questionable...as said, if during the installation something is not quite right, you don't have as much adjustability to "tune it out". In that sense, the 4 link is a little more forgiving. 4 link rides MUCH better on the street. The traditional ladder bar setup is more like a swingarm when it comes to ride quality; in that the entire rear suspension moves up and down, but neither the left or right side can move independently of the other. A 4 link with a wishbone will, kind of like a stock type rear suspension. That said, some ladders have different setups that will "mimick" the 4 link, but they still don't have the adjustability. 4 links have 2 downsides. They are a little tougher to set up initially, if you're not familiar with triangulation and what moving the bars does (there are books that discuss these things in depth). And two, the adjustability is what sometimes scares people off....in other words, there may be 200 combinations but which one works best for your car? And how do you find out? Track time. Ladders are more forgiving in that sense, in that you can install them and go to the track and they'll work. A 4 link, if you have the bars set incorrectly initially, it may want to squat severely, or conversely may want to lift the rear end more. It's all about what your car wants...meaning you'll have to tune it. What are you doing to do with it? Drag car only? My vote for 4 link-all the way. It's not that hard to put it in and adjust it. My goodness, I did it in a 2 car garage with an el-cheapo welder and some backyard engineering, did the entire back half of the car. http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/more-backhalf-pics.5309/
Its probably 85% street but i do want it to hook & go at the track. My real issue is packaging. Previous owner started the mini tub w leaf spring w caltracs as his choice of suspension. Im just not so sure I can get the ride height where i want it w that setup. It does have a 2x3 crossmember welded into the floorpan where the rollbar is welded in as well as frame connectors welded into floorpan also. Im not really wanting to cut the rear frame out & redo it. I think a short (maybe 24") ladder bar setup would fit w little floor mods needed. Most 4 link kits ive looked at have 18" bars so they would be too short.
Here's a side pic of mine, it has the factory leafs (3) moved in 3" per side with Caltracs and 325DR's. There's prolly room to lower it a bit if one was to re-arch the springs. I wouldn't recommend lowering blocks for anything performance oriented...
that car above is awesome! My dirty penny is this. I've been in and driven laddered cars more than a few times through the years and the one that stands out the most may have almost cost me and a friends life. We lucked out and he was a good/smart enough driver not to back out of it all the way when we got into trouble but if you ever bounce a big tired car back and forth more than a few times on the big end just once in you life?.. you'll sure as hell wish it didn't have ladders underneath it. On an 85% street deal.. you'd be far better off choosing a 4 link over ladders any day. MUCH better adjustability and greater range of rear suspension twist equals a safer car with more margin in potentially dangerous situations. Or as others have mentioned already.. just dial in what you already have going on under there and accept the compromises that a non-race-car will see in average daily life. Plus, the power numbers being delivered to the rear tires play a huge role in what's needed to get the job done more efficiently as well.
Wasn't trying to imply that you can't go fast with ladders because they've obviously been around for a very long time working just fine on some very fast cars.. only that I wouldn't want to build one for 85% street duty. Now, I'm not pointing fingers at anyone here or condoning street racing and public endangerment.. but I do know that typically when cars like this are built for "85% street duty".. they are not driven on the track exclusively for the sake of getting that last remaining 15% of fun time towards the dollars spent. And that's not even including any back-roads tuning and shakedowns either. What happened?.. lol, foolish driver with too much ego, too much power, in too heavy a car('72 or '73 pro-street big-block Chevelle), too big a rear tire)IIRC 33" M/T dot slicks, driving too fast on the street with not enough air in the rear tires caused the car to start bouncing.. then getting out of the gas completely in even a lighter corner can exacerbate till things get out of control. You can literally feel the tires sidewalls roll over as they repeatedly bounce and dig in while you try not to overreact with the throttle(compression braking) and steering. Kinda like driving an overloaded pickup truck pulling a loaded and fishtailing trailer.. when it starts getting badly out of shape the last thing you want to do is completely back out of the throttle or hit the brakes. The threshold to send a laddered big tire car over on its cage while bouncing down public roadways is narrower than a decent 4 link set up plus 4 links can improve corner braking performance as well. Obviously shouldn't be driving big tire cars fast around ANY corners like that.. but hey, it happens on the street sometimes, other drivers appear to turn into kamikazes at times.. and that's all I was getting at. 4 links rule the streets these days for a reason and that's partly because the OEM's jumped on board and the design was refined to give good all around results no matter how you drive the car.. big tire or not.
