LUVTruck.com

I have a 75 luv truck lowered 4 inches(blocks) in the rear and about 2 1/2 iches in the front
i have installed a chevy 4.3L v6 with a camero 5 speed.
i love this combo but my only problem is that it does not lauch very good.
couple of people around said that i need to add traction bars.
but all the people around doesnt have traction bars and drop blocks together.
from what i understand u need to mount them under the leaf springs
but i DONT have any ground clearance.
some one told me that i can mount them above the leaf spring
and then their called ladder bars? is this true? would i have lenght problems cause of the small truck?
I have never read anything about drop blocks and traction bars are they
safe to use together. Which brand/kind of traction bars work good?
any ideas. plz repond, i ve been wondering about this for a while.

traction bars under the leaf spring will be the same height from the ground wether you have blocks or not. the distance from ground to spring is determined by the tire/wheel height.
ladder bars will help, but if you go that route you might as well put coil overs on it also. most of the time people replace the leaf springs with ladder bar/ coil over setup.
ladder bars come off of a crossover and weld to the rear end from 2 different points.
if I remember correctly a few of the trucks in the pictures section of the luvtruck website have ladder bars. you might want to check them out to give you a clear picture of what im talking about.

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03Cobra

Sorry Luv4me but if you have 4" blocks in, your leaf springs are 4" lower to the ground, the whole truck drops down that far and the would pretty much not leave any room for traction bars.

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Click on C.M. logo to go to my webpage


RIP R.J.B.

do you have pics and info of the 4.3 +5speed confershon.

Im going to do the 4.3 in my 74.LUV
have V8csb. 4.3 showed be not 2 hard.?
pics of 5speed in luv

my gawd I musta been tired from working late the preivous night....please excuse my ignorance on that post....GEEZ.....

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03Cobra

thats ok luv4me , i appriate(is that spelled right?) your post anyways.
i found on mounting the 4.3 it was easy,but i had alot of problem with the clutch engagning and disengagueing with the 5speed more problemtiac,
does any know how to help my traction problem? any ideas PLZ?
can u mount the traction bar upside down via onthe top of the spring? and it still work?
and my other question can you use a traction bar and drop block together
safey?????????????
PLZ i want input. thx

drag radials!

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03Cobra

You can get better traction in many ways. All the above are good ideas. Traction bars will help some but I dont think they will make nite and day difference in what your having problems with. Tires will make the biggest improvement. Traction bars that bolt on the bottom are mainly to prevent wheel hop that is caused from the leaf springs loading up and unloading. I would say investing in some drag radials would be your best bet.
I dont see a problem for room if you want to put traction bars on the bottom. I put lowering blocks in my luv and it didnt lower the springs to the ground. Only the body/box was lowered. The only thing that is going to effect how low the spring is from the ground is tire or rim size. If you run low profile tires then it would be a problem but then you would be going in the wrong direction. Go with aleast a 29 inch tire and you shouldnt have a problem.

Hope this helps and good luck
Kevin







78 luv,350/350,mini tubed,29x13 rear, narrowed 9inch

Excuse my brain fart. After I think about it the blocks will affect the spring height from the ground. Its getting late and I should be sleeping. If you run a taller tire it will give you more room....I think I have read it on here that someone has lowering blocks with traction bars. Sorry for my mess up


Later Kevin

I am glad to see that you all changed what you said. Lowering blocks will drop the springs. I have a 78 luv with a 350/350turbo in it with a VERY WIDE 10bolt rear end (waiting for 12bolt to be narrowed). I have a set of lakewood traction bars on it (cut the front rack on the bars to bring it up to the frame while still having it mounted center on the springs. It did help somewhat, but not as much as you would like. I did though find out that my new 295/50r/15s on my 15x10 inch wheels helped extremely . The only problem I have is that I must narrow the frame to get the look I wish to have, but that only costs $200 plus a couple hours(days) work. I would personally recommend that you think more along the lines of full coil over conversion with ladder bars as I find traction bars are pretty much a "looks" type of thing.

HAHA! glad im not the only one that had some STINK coming from my head while thinking about the spring/wheel height!
man I feel better now.....hehe

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03Cobra

yep yep.....One should never hold farts in cause they only come out as shitty ideas lol

you could also try finding some stiffer leaf springs...though with blocks traction bars or a ladder bar would be a good idea

do you have a posi rear? that will benefit you more if you don`t than traction bars will. then if you still have traction problems look at the bars

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don`t have the luv no more but I still like em.72 el camino,
00 & 06 silverado one 4x4, turboed vw sandrail,99 banshee, 06 raptor 700, 02 polaris trailblazer.

ladder bars with some mickey thomson et streets.

wow that aviator is making me dizzy, its moving so fast, and i can't make myself look away.. feel like i'm going to...

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1980 chevy luv 4x4 1.8 liter
1979 luv long bed parts truck
1984 2wd isuzu pup parts truck

"A man who says it can't be done shouldn't interrupt a man doing it."

ingrmkev

you got any more pics of that luv? its lookin good in that "quickly" moving avatar.

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03Cobra

Traction bars have a bolt plate that fits the ubolt pattern. The bar coming off the plate is usually two to three inches below the traction bar plate. Centerline on the rear end is about two inches plus four and a half for the lowering blocks add another three inches to be safe. That's nine inches. My stock 02 Camaro tires are twenty six inches tall. So that leaves an extra four inches. Hmmm.

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I want to be different like everybody else.

Do you have a posi?What kinda tires do you Have? Is that a stock 4.3?
I would think that with a posi and a set of Micky Thompson pros you would have no problem with traction even if you did modify the 4.3 a little (cam,intake,headers)


PS: Luv4me I have pictures of my luv in the photo gallery. Some the pictures are before I lowered it and put the hood scoop on...I wish Ben would have put the picture of it with the hood scoop on the main page..hint hint....lol

Hey luv4me
I didnt realize your the one that did the coilover front springs. I looked at your website and it looks like you have been doing a lot of work on your truck recently. The work you have done so far looks great.
You will have to let us know how it handles after you get in on the road. I have been thinking about doing the same thing to make room for a big block.

later
Kevin

ps: Great Site Derek and Ben!!!