LUVTruck.com

Hi. any info on what people have done to make the rear leaf springs hook up at the drag strip. I have 600hp at the flywheel and im having heaps of trouble getting the power to the ground. I dont want to go to 4 link just yet. I do have caltracs on the springs but the springs are way to stiff. Is there any spring maker in the states that make a single spring set up for the luvs.

Calvert, a member on here had some for his truck, maybe they will chime in...

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FIAA!

SFPP!

what kind of trouble are you having ? I have had 4 different trucks and they were all pretty easy to get to hook. 1.30 60fts mid 5s in the 1/8 th i have more trouble keeping them from popping wheelies than i do hooking.

I run a 29.5x10 1/2 slick with a 10 bolt 4.44 ratio. The luv on the video camera shows the front suspension at full travel but the rear of the luv just wont bite in. After the initial launch the back seems to raise up. At half track it's all over the place. Even with a 1.60 60 ft its running a 105mph half track but then the ass wants to come round. The back suspension doesn't seem to want to squat and push the tyres to the track and might be why it's so skatey at half track.

Landrum makes the mono leafs and so do calvert. What shocks you running? Thats major chassis separation that causing it to unload.

And you are preloading the right rear around 80-100 lbs right?

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Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy horsepower...and that's kind of the same thing...

LUV,
When using a CALTRAC you must use a stiff spring. The fellows at CALTRAC are very
helpful just sent them your launch from your cam cord.
As we've gone up in HP our truck doesn't hook as well. Even so the 60' times have dropped.
With the CALTRACS we are in the low 1.40's with massive wheel spin. When in the low 11.00's
and high tens one could see our white stripe turn one revolution before it blurred into
acceleration. Now at 10.50's it is instant wheel spin and 12" wheelies to the lights.
The CALTRACS have made the truck stable at speed and launch arrow straight.
At 124mph the calculation reads 460HP. Why go for more HP when we can't hook
what we have?
We envy your 1.30 60' times and 600Hp!
Eagerly waiting any solutions posted.
Mr.T

I have played with my rear leafs and i took one of the leafs out and reversed it to get it to the right height i wanted. It caused the springs to become to stiff with no travel. today i took out the reversed spring and now have a total of 3 leaf and the rear end is how it should be i hope. Even if it does sit a little high, I got in contact with Calvert and thought the price was right for a mono-leaf spring set $379 untill they wanted to charge me $608 for freight to Australia.(Aussie dollars good but not that good.) I'll see how this goes. Thanks.

The factory leafs where to soft on my truck so i must be missing something here . When i put split monos on mine it was like almost not having any travel at all . What hole do you have the front mounted in and what kind of adjustment ? Even with a stiff spring in the rear the front needs to travel . Everytime i got the front tires off the ground mine hooked .

At the minute I'm really going backwards with the leaf spring thing. Do I put the std springs back in or keep the 3 leafs in. I guess its trial and error. With the power and set up i have it should lift the fronts about 3 foot in the air but its just no biteing. If your std springs were to soft I guess the 3 leafs won't work as they are real soft. Im fitting my new 9" in at the moment and just fabricated some new Caltracs. 31 spline full spooled 3.9 center. the weather is a bit dicey at the moment here so it could be a few weeks before i get out to test it . Thanks for the help.

Rod80
Last Sunday we tried various changes with our CalTracs.
What worked best was 11#of air in the slicks(29x10)top hole for
the bar with the cross pin just a tic off the leaf. If the pins were not
set exactly the same the truck would pull violently - almost going off the
track!
Our best times were coupled with the highest wheelies - about 12"
Still spinning big time reguardless of settings.
Mr.T

Thanks mr T. I just bought some comp engineering rear shocks so hopefully they will help with the weight transfer to the rear end. With the caltrac adjustments are you preloading with the driver in the seat or just setting up equal with no driver?

L400,
Good shocks and the correct settings are critical. There are about 10 to 15 settings and for us 9 seems the best with 11lbs of air and this discovery required about 20 races! We were unable to install the good quality front shocks we wanted to because of space restrictions. We noted that most of the high performance drag Luv's have switched to a coil over type suspension system. Presently we have 5" of front suspension travel and we would prefer more.
At this time I have not removed the shocks to see how far the stock system travels.
The Aero brake system was a huge improvement for traction! We saved over 60lbs and
this let the front end rise at launch and now we have 1.40 60' times. We never ran in the
ten-fifty's with 1.50 60' times.
Our rear shocks came from Calvert. The front shocks are 90/10 rated.
mr.T

i have nothing special just slapper bars and stock leaf springs makes 430 to the wheels on the first stage ive been 1.37 60s and 6.60 to the 1/8 on one stage efi and e85 3.70 gear 9inch 28x10.5 mt slick on a 10in wheel.. stock replacement autozone shocks..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QagSB4SRRXk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYTQUEjjV9s

and its not just at the track ive yank tire on the street also..

Nelson!

_________________
If you think no one cares, try missing a couple of payments...



FIAA!

SFPP!

Whats going on??? How u been?

Yep , I have been fast on slappers . The truck i have now has been 1.40 with nothing more than autozone rear shocks and a 9" bolted to the stock springs . Im hesitant to even put the caltracs on it . Im at 520 + 250 for now .

ChevytoyR1
Con grats- great times!
The last race of the season the slipper u-joint's caps blew out.
1310 was the cap we had. Going to 1350 caps and hope they hold.
The new aluminum drive shaft held up.
mr.T

that's sweet... Guess mine just doesn't make enough power to jerk the front wheels (303WHP). It has always left like a bread truck. I have seen a bus leave harder than mine.

1.51 60'

http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/lu ... U00047.mp4

_________________
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy horsepower...and that's kind of the same thing...

Hi i have been to the strip after the changes to the suspension and it seemed to run straight and hook up real good. First run 11.20 at 122mph just useing the foot brake to 3200rpm. It did a 1.51 60ft and just got the wheels off the ground. Then i tried the transbrake for the first time. Stalled to 4800 and bang. It hooked up so hard it flattened the diff pads and rolled the 9" upwards untill the uni's binded and broke the yoke and pinion straight off the diff centre. It was lucky that my tail shaft loop held as it bent the tail shaft and wrecked the loop. Back to the drawing board. I have since fixed the problem i hope and will be out in a week or 2.

That is what mine did rolled the backs of the spring perches . I boxed in the perches and added a strap over the axle .