Tunes, towing, traction bars, and axle wrap

[Yooper75]

Ever since I put IDP's Extreme Street tune in my truck I have had axle wrap on my truck on anything but light acceleration and I'm going to upgrade the truck at some point for more HP as well. I have thought about putting ladder/traction bars on the truck but I have heard that it's recomended that you don't tow with them on the truck. I tow a 11,000lbs 5er in the summer and I am looking at buying a gooseneck next spring as well. Am I better off just doing a four link with air bags or can I run ladder/traction bars with the leaf springs that are on the truck and helper air bags?

 

[SKYNYRD]

there are plenty of guys that just use ladder bars to tow with. Travis (06diesel) put a set of traction bars on his truck and got rid of the axle wrap he was getting while towing and had no issues that I know of.

 

[zstroken]

The traction bar design is the key. I have seen several sets that allow the front link to articulate based on suspension compression. Some of the ladder bar setups, don't allow that.

 

[ahale2772]

I would think that if you tow with them you may want to put some preload on them.

only issue i could think of is continuous load on them keeping some stress in the suspention, but if you set them up so that under load they are loose you should be fine

hard to understand but with mine, I can rotate them easily with no load on the trailer hitch, with a trailer on I can just barely rotate them because of the compression of the leafs

 

[ACFarmer]

No problems here. I put them on my old 03 to help while I was towing and I was hauling more weight than you plan too.

 

[Yooper75]

Thank's for the help guy's, traction bars and helper bags it is then.

 

[06 DIESEL]

As stated earlier I put bars on because I was experiencing bad axle wrap when towing. I have completely eliminated the axle wrap now with my set of bars. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had to. My truck towes more often that it is not towing, anything from an empty 12k BP trailer to the GN completely loaded down, 14K+.

These are the joints and DOM that I used

 

[Yooper75]

Travis, thank's for posting the pics. Looks like it's time to order some tubing, heim joints, box tubing, and angle to make the brackets out of. Now I just need to remember what my friend that knows how to weld likes to drink and go to the liquor store and I may even had to splurge for a bottle of Crown, Jack Daniel's, or Knob Creek for this one.

 

[ahale2772]

if you havent allready, look at ruffstuffspecialties.com
they have awesome deals on Cryo treated heims, tabs links and all sorts of stuff, great faimily buisness as well, i recommend them to everyone, thats what i used on mine

 

[06 DIESEL]

My joints are rebuild-able Ballistics Fabrication, FYI.

 

[Fox_91]

i tow more weight than you plan on, i have trac bars on both trucks and have no issues, if anything it helped. trucks seems to ride rougher tho, but i dont mind it.

 

[L6powered]

I vote for the four link with air ride.

 

[oregonsandrat]

As stated earlier I put bars on because I was experiencing bad axle wrap when towing. I have completely eliminated the axle wrap now with my set of bars. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had to. My truck towes more often that it is not towing, anything from an empty 12k BP trailer to the GN completely loaded down, 14K+.

These are the joints and DOM that I used

Nice. I think I should do the same thing.