Dezertcampers DIY WH Trac Bar

[dezertcamper]

I have posted about building my own track bar and the reasons I chose to do so. Much was the fact that I did not want to spend the money they are selling them for and I have the equipment to build my own parts. Much of my inspiration came from Oemy's website and his DYI pages. I also liked the design of the Blue Ox trac bar which is also the same as Brazel's Ultra Trac. From what I could tell the benefit of using Brazel's over the Blue Ox kit is price. If I was not able to build my own kit one of these two would be my choice. What I did look at the installation instructions of the Blue Ox kit and see how they built and installed their kit.

I then went to my local metal supplier who I buy all my tubing from. I bought a 12X12 inch .25 thick piece of chromoly plate. Chromoly is much stronger then standard mild steel plate other kits use. Chromoly is close to twice the cost though. I then bought 2 5/8 chromoly heim joints and 2 chromoly threaded bungs. These bungs will be welded in the ends of the trac bar. The tubing I used for the actual track bar is 11/4 X .120 wall mild steel tubing. The piece of tubing I used to sleeve threw the plate mounted to the rear axle is chromoly and it is 3/4 OD and 5/8 ID. My gussets are made of 1/8 thick mild steel plate. Total cost of material and parts including the heims was about $60 I already had the F911 (grade 9 bolts and nuts) hardware in my stock. I did have to buy the 3 metric bolts for the rear axle.

I used poster board construction paper to make my templets and used a plasma pattern cutter to cut out my plate. I used a Hobart 120 mig welder to weld all the pieces together.

As you can see from my pictures I used heims on both ends of the track bar and I double sheared the plate mounted to the frame. The plate that mounts to the frame is bolted up using the 4 bolt location the bump stop uses, so there was no holes drilled in adding this track bar. I also added a 3 inch tube threw the plate mounted on the rear axle. This insures the bolt is supported and cant wobble back and forth with the side loads. I then gusseted the tube adding extra strength.

Side Note: The plate mounted to the frame could have been dropped 1/2 inch to make the track bar perfectly level. I have not seen any issues with it being 1/2 higher, but if I was to make another piece I would drop the tabs another 1/2 inch.

[gbs2320]

Wow beautiful work. Thanks for sharing. Greg

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dezertcamper I have posted about building my own track bar and the reasons I chose to do so.Side Note: The plate mounted to the frame could have been dropped 1/2 inch to make the track bar perfectly level. I have not seen any issues with it being 1/2 higher, but if I was to make another piece I would drop the tabs another 1/2 inch.

dezertcamper, Are there any large Neoprene bushings installed on the main bolts securing the bar to the side plate and riser? On the riser that I use, it was later found that 4 attachment points on the pumpkin were required. The bar looks good and the construction quality is indisputable.



The track bar that I have does not look too much more level than what you are showing however the camera angle might be reducing the actual angle somewhat but it looks good to me.

[oemtech]

dezertcamper,

Send me the photo's and I will post them on my web site.

[semcoll]

Nice work - I particularly appreciate the weight savings on the gussets.

[dezertcamper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gbs2320 Wow beautiful work. Thanks for sharing. Greg

Thank you for the compliment. It would have been more beautiful if I Tig welded all my welds. But my Tig skill is not good enough to trust. So Mig it was!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DriVer dezertcamper, Are there any large Neoprene bushings installed on the main bolts securing the bar to the side plate and riser? On the riser that I use, it was later found that 4 attachment points on the pumpkin were required. The bar looks good and the construction quality is indisputable. The track bar that I have does not look too much more level than what you are showing however the camera angle might be reducing the actual angle somewhat but it looks good to me.

Driver, No there are no Neoprene bushings. I used Heims on both sides. The Heims I used are Chromoly, but they are the cheaper ones. Probably made in China? The same chromoly hiem's I use on the off-road stuff is made by FK and my cost is $45 each vs. the $15 I paid for these. I figured these will never see the abuse the off-road stuff see's, so I thought I would try the cheaper of the two. The quality of the heim and looked pretty good considering how cheap they were.

Regarding the 4 bolt vs 3 bolt. I know the Blue Ox Tiger Track and Ultra Trac use a 3 bolt bracket on the housing. The difference is they bridged their bracket and used one of the top bolts on the housing to support side loads. Due to the fact the two upper bolts step out on the housing, I would have needed a press to bend the plate. I dont have a large enough brake/press available to me to bend .25 plate. So what I did is dropped my bracket down to the lower hole. By measuring off the top bolt hole, my lower hole is farther away then the heim is from the top hole. So I figured my leverage point would be in my favor and I should not see any twist issues due to side loads. And because the heim spherical balls are both in a vertical mounting position there will be no binding issues as the suspension articulates up and down.

This is also why the rear end housing bracket is so wide at the heim location. This should keep the plate from twisting or bending under extreme side load when one wheel is up and the other is down. (Like when entering a parking lot from the street)

As far as level, after I assembled the bar I used a magnetic lazer level and I was 9/16 higher on the frame bracket, measuring from bolt hole center to bolt hole center. When I called Dale (Oemy) and spoke to him he though as much as 1 inch would be OK. So when I measured and came up with 9/16 I figured I would be OK. I tried to make the pictures as strait as possible to show this, and if I was to make another frame bracket I would drop it 1/2 inch to get it closer to level.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oemtech dezertcamper, Send me the photo's and I will post them on my web site.

I will send them tonight when I get home. Pictures are on home computer. I have a few more I will add too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by semcoll Nice work - I particularly appreciate the weight savings on the gussets.

Ha! Ha! You like those? To be honest I mostly buy my gussets and typically my tabs, unless I need a size not available like the track bar tabs were. So the holes in the gussets were already there and I had these in my drawer of fab stuff. But yes the holes lighten it up and save me on sprung weight! LOL!

[oldbaldy454]

Hi, just joined the forum after following comments from rv.net ... I'm in the process of building a trac bar for a F53 32V Winne chassis, and really appreciate the photos of the work shown here.

So far I have fabricated the axle bracket with overlaping 3/16 x 2 " stock mild steel. Used cardboard to get approx hole position on non-metric spicer axle, then cut pieces to length, and drilled 1/2" holes. After removing bolts, which seemed to be the hardest part of the project so far, I mounted the pieces to the axle position holes used by the Blue Ox Trac Bar Instructions, and clamped into position with 3 more thicknesses of 3/16 material for spacers to fit hole offset on axle. Took the clamped assembly off to weld pieces together. Ground off rough edges and drilled 5/8" hole for a starter for mounting bar bushings.

Attached pic is unfinished / unpainted work, and shows top hole thru 6 layers of welded 3/16 stock.

Next is to find the right size bushings and fabricate the frame bracket.

Don't know if I should use 3/4" as Blue OX or if 5/8" ends from Polyperformance.com is heavy enough....lots of choices.

No poly inserts or not needed with solid bushing ends on bar?

Thanks for the help!!

[dezertcamper]

Welcome to IRV2 John. I checked out Polyperformance.com and they seem to have the right stuff. They have weld in threaded bungs for only $8 each and their price of heims seems fair too. I used 5/8X5/8 heims like I said in my reply PM to you. I have had no issues and think 5/8 is more then enough. I'm guessing Blue Ox used 3/4 because they are using rubber/poly bushings and they are not using any bolt boss in the rear axle bracket. So my guess is they are using a larger bolt to compensate for this and to keep the bolt from wobbling out the hole in the axle bracket. Because a heim will not cause bind during articulation like a bushing will you can use 5/8 and can torque it down better then the bushing.

If you chose to use a poly or rubber bushing, make sure you use a steel inserted sleeve in the center of the bushing. Because you will need to tighten the bolt tight against the sleeve and this will help support the bolt and let the bushing do the work and not the bolt.

[oldbaldy454]

Thanks for the reply and PM. Yesterday I found an adjustable 16 -22" bar at a local farm store with pivoting ball 3/4" ends and will try using that since the price was right and no need to order something from far away places. Looks pretty beefy, and will see if it works. Threads on the adjuster part are a bit course and will have to lock one end down good before adjusting the other with the lock nut. Biggest drill bit I have is 5/8", the reason I was looking at ends that size, will need to go to a friends shop to use his 3/4" bit.
Fabricating the frame bracket today, if the Hobart MIG wirefeed welder does not run out of gas, its Sat and Air Gas is closed today. I see your bracket has two supports on both sides of the articulating rod bushing. Like that idea better than only one arm support as do the commericial trak bars with poly bushings.

Like you say, the bolt can be tightened to let the sleeve do the work. Was trying the bar in a vise to see how much movement there was, and seems good with no end play. Shot some teflon lubricant in to the bushing sleeve that moves inside the bar ends. Don't know if a bar without poly bushings will transmit more road noise to the frame or not, or if steel bushings will wear out quickly. Will soon find out.

Thanks and will post some pics when it is done.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldbaldy454 Thanks and will post some pics when it is done.

oldbaldy454, I'm not sure if it's been noted but finish adjusting/tightening the track bar with the vehicle completely on the ground.

[BellaBo]

Oldbaldy454............
I have been using a "tractor toplink" as you describe as a trackbar for about 2 years now and it has worked great. No poly bushings or anything and can't detect any additional road noise. It certainly helped with the side movement.

[oldbaldy454]

A pic is attached of the final results using a "top link" tractor hydraulic lift bar. Used grade 5 3/4" bolts with SAE threads and locking nuts rather than grade 8 with course threads. Put locking jam nut end towards the chassis where there was more clearance to secure with a couple of taps to lock in place. Mounted bar on front of axle bracket as the ABS sensor wiring was in the way on the rear side of the pumpkin.

Used 1/4 mild steel plates for the frame u bracket, with channel spacing snug for no play when tightening bolt....tricky to mantain when welding, so used some spacers to set distance until metal cooled.

Seems to be fine on a short test drive, will know more after this next week when we head out for a longer trip.

Thanks for the inspiration.

JB