Trying to get some opinions on this setup from this company.
http://www.hotrodstohell.net/truckar...y_truckarm.htm
I know it's for a 1st gen but you can get individual parts and they tell me they will make the arms to your length. This will eliminate the torque arm and allow adjustability with the screw jacks but the exhaust routing might be tricky. I like the "hell" out of it but justwant some feedback on this.

 

Looks like the design is very similar to the 67-72 (other years may have it too) C/K trucks.

 

wouldn't be vey easy to do that to a 3rd gen without cutting out most of the floor. I believe its called a truck arm suspension? or something like that.

why exactly would you want to do this anyway?

 

Yeah it's called a truck arm, originally was used on mid 60's Chevy trucks. To do it right you will have to notch the rear floor where the arms would travel. Not near as hard a mod as a lot of stuff we all do. And why? Why does Nascar use them? Every single one of them. It works, it's simple. It also pushes the whole car from the trans. crossmember. It's literally kicking you right in the butt down the track. Read the FAQS, all good points except cost and labor.

 

its designed for the first gen crowd.
apparently most people cant take the constant rattling that the suspension makes.
something to do with the adjusters rattling around.
honestly, what we have is better for general use

 

The rear "truck arms" with coil springs were the reason Ford (using leaf springs in the rear) sold more pickup trucks in the late 60's-early 70's than Chevy did. Under really heavy loads the truck arm rears squirmed around quite a bit and Ford pickups were considered to be superior for heavy hauling. Chevy corrected that problem from 1973 on by changing to leaf spring rear suspensions on their pickup trucks.

The truck arm suspension works well in racing and hot rod usage. It gives a soft action and good traction and is strong, durable, and simple in design and execution. Typically, the aftermarket arms and mounting, like the Hot Rods to Hell units, are beefier and stronger than the old stock truck pieces.
Even though many different suspensions have been used in the past, I believe the truck arm suspension is the only one currently legal in NASCAR's top division. This is partially due to it being the type of suspension in use by most of the teams at a time when NASCAR wanted to bring stabilization, consistency and ease of rules enforcememnt to their racing. Most of the top racers were using this system anyway and found it to be a good setup for circle track racing. I'm sure simplicity, adjustability and durability were the top of the list of advantages for them.

For our cars, there is the matter of ease of installation and disruption and cutting/fab work and modifying of the stock floor pans to consider. But if you have no problem setting them up, the truck arms will work well when properly installed and tuned.

 

Now that's what I'm talking about. When you get your kit installed, let us know how everything turns out.
It's hard to believe that nobody has ever tried this before. I've seen a lot crazier and more expensive setups of every kind, except for this. This seems like a slam dunk except for it seems everybody dumps their exhaust in front of the back tires. don't know about that.

 

You have absolutely no room under the car to fit rear suspension arms of this type.

As for inexpensive? not a chance. Going to Coilovers? or are you going to build a tube chassis to support the coilsprings that are repositioned?

The factory setup is far superior asetup for the LCA angle and length to induce nuetral roll steer or even roll understeer if desired on setup.

NASCAR uses these on the high speed high banks steel body cars because it is about as heavy duty of a rear link you can use with all the banging that goes on. NASCAR does not want parts or even rearaxles to come flying out from underneath a car so they ulilize this HD application.

3rd link tailing arm ssetups are less unsprung weight and the geometry is far superior as I have already mentioned.

Dean

 

I agree with a lot of what you said. However, I've been following NASCAR for a long time, back far enough to remember when Chrysler products were using torsion bar front suspensions with rear leafs and Holman and Moody was using leaf springs in the back and coils in the front of David Pearson's Torinos. When Junior Johnson built the 427 Rat motored 1971 Monte Carlo that brought GM back into the Chrysler/Ford dominated then Grand National division, it had coils springs on all four corners with the triangulated 4 link in the rear. This was in line with NASCAR rules at the time that made the cars pretty close to "stock", unlike today.
The Chevy 427 wedge was once again competitive with the Chrysler 426 Hemi and the Ford 429 "Semi- Hemi" due to a NASCAR ruling that put restrictor plates on "specialized" engines like the Hemis, and allowed "wedges" to run without restriction. Many people think that the restrictor plate was first put into effect in 1989 after Bobby Allison's bad wreck at Talledega, almost going into the grandstands. But restrictor plates first appeared in 1971 and were used off and on in other years as well as NASCAR rules slowly outlawed big block engines.
I was at Charlotte for the 1971 World 600 when Johnson's white #3 Monte Carlo, driven by Charlie Glotzbach won the pole in it's first race and brought Chevy fans out of the woodwork. It was fast, but hit the wall right in front of us when a lapper pushed Charlie up into the wall as he tried to get by.
In 1972 Bobbly Allison brought the Coca Cola sponsorship to Johnson's team and the red and gold #12 Monte Carlo won a lot of races that year.

In and around the 1980's, NASCAR allowed teams to use different types of suspension, even if they weren't stock for that type of car. So NASCAR builders used several types of rear suspensions over the years including, leaf springs, three link, four link and truck arm coil spring types. But NASCAR has never allowed coil over springs in it's top division.

During the time that different rear suspensions were being used, the truck arm type gained wide popularity and was used on not just high banked tracks, but on road courses and flat short tracks such as Martinsville, VA (known as "The Paperclip"), Richmond, VA (the old track) and North Wilkesboro, NC. The truck arm setup is strong and good for rough use, but not at a tremendous advantage over the other suspension types adapted in NASCAR usage. And as stated before, NASCAR eventually simplified things by ruling that all cars use the truck arm rear suspension. Hell, NASCAR sometimes even tells the teams what springs and shocks they can run nowadays!

As far as expense goes, ANYTHING bought through circle track supply houses is much less expensive than what is offered by street hot rod suppliers. BUT, you have to figure out if it can be made to work for your car on the street or not. Often circle track stuff is offered in many different sizes, offsets or lenghts, so if you know what you are doing it can be a really good source of parts and supplies. Check out Speedway Engineering, Port City Racing, Howe Racing Enterprises or some other racing parts catalogs, they have interesting stuff in them.

And yes, you would have to make some pretty heavy mods to a third gen floor and chassis to run a truck arm rear. I don't know if I would do it or not. But I have seen people on here doing things as ambitious as this and, even more radical stuff too. It's not for people that want a stock or restored car, but stuff like this is what makes things interesting!

And, the torque arm rear suspension may be good, but I'd like it a lot more if it was easier to put a different rear axle in the car, and run real twice pipes as well. I'm old and stubborn about my pipes!

 

Class Dismissed!!! And I didn't even fall sleep once....nice little background piece there

 

A guy I know used to run in the early years of the Craftsman Truck series (at about $35,000 a race!).....he comes from a rich family and has owned and drove every type of stock car imaginable (he now owns his own 1/2 mile track) but it wasn't until he got to the CTS that he drove a truck arm car (truck)

he has drove at all the tracks, Darlington, Richmond, Martinsville, Watkins Glen etc....he said the thing that he immediately noticed about the truck arm chassis is how forgiving it is....he said that when you see these guys dicing at 170 in the turns you think they're unreal but he says a huge part of that is the truck arm chassis....you can hold a controlled slide at 160 mph for a half a mile!.... in his words "the longer the trailing arms the more forgiving the chassis"..... he feels that is a big reason Nascar made it a rule that you have to run them.....D

 

I think this would be a great suspension system if we could just get a guinea pig looking for a killer ride. I'd jump on it if my car was stock, I've got too much in it right now to start all over. I'd be willing to start off with a pledge though, if anyone is interested. Maybe we could get some others to match me and help fund someone on this project. I would go $50 or more if there is enough interest. Just something to think about.

 

Rarely is a truckarm suspension the go-to setup. Matter of fact I can't think of any instances of anyone using in a competitive nature other than where it mandated by the rules. Likely much better off going to a 3 link.

 

Yep, I personally would not touch it, Not even on my truck.

Why is it more forgiving? It's lengths helps eliminate any roll oversteer or roll understeer. It keeps all of the rear axle articulation steer, or thrust out of the equation. I happen to like to promote roll induced understeer in the rear of my car.

 

Alright, whatever..so we know 2 guys who thinks it sucks. Is there anybody who doesn't like driving against Hondas and BMW's? Maybe someone who likes left turns more than right? Maybe some who just want to go straight? Someone who doesn't care about lap times, tire temperature, sway bar pre-load, helsinki smashrod adjustment? Don't know how to articulate their thrust steering back into equation? This is for you guys!!!

 

I have spent some time looking at it but it doesn't really work for a third gen.

 

It would have some advantages of course, some disadvantages, and of course a major PITA to fit it in.

There are a million 1st gen suspension parts and packages out there - that is what you get when the consumer is willing to spend $100k for a low end car. I'm not saying this is a bad setup, just that others would be a better choice for a swap in a 1st gen. And as 3rd gens share nothing other than a bowtie and a SBC engine to these cars, steer clear unless it 100% fits...

 

i believe that if it really were a god send to all car's then it would have already been the go to setup for everyone

 

In a 1990's super chevy mag there was a late 80's camaro that ran the silver state classic topping 200 mph. His rear suspension was close to factory but lower control arms were extended. I have not seen anything similar since. Perhaps longer lower arms with a swivel link like dse uses would help. My 88 handled fairly well but you could tell when it would reach bind and cause it to hop slide at edge of traction. Before i would cut the floor out to do the truckam setup ,and because of body clearance I think the dana corvette setup used on another members iroc is a good solution. However, thirdgens pull some serious numbers just upgrading the stock parts and stiffening the chassis. Its all in what do you really want and what are you prepared to spend or do.