Dual Rear Tracbars ---- Overkill???

[BellaBo]

I have a very heavy coach and am wondering if a single rear tracbar is sufficient? Has anyone considered dual tracbars or is there anything to gain over one single?

[BellaBo]

I have a very heavy coach and am wondering if a single rear tracbar is sufficient? Has anyone considered dual tracbars or is there anything to gain over one single?

[DriVer]

I have never seen a dual track bar setup BUT a single track bar works as advertised.

[mountainkowboy]

A Watts linkage is better than a track bar, the rear end can only move in the horizontal plane. I have never seen a watts setup on anything that large though, its usually used on high horsepower hot rods.

[oemtech]

The R Chassis has a dual trac bar setup, kinda.

[BellaBo]

Interesting the R chassis has that. I wonder why?
I'll have to investigate that some more. Just my opinion, but it seems there would be more stability with the dual effect. I think there was a chassis engineer on this forum at one time and he might have some good input to this. The other question that comes to mind is that many people go for 1 rear tracbar and 1 front tracbar. I wonder if they are assisting each other or opposing each other as the chassis flexes?

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Streamerman:
Interesting the R chassis has that. I wonder why? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Steamerman,
The R-Series has a device called a "V-Rod". The V-R is massive single piece of steel connected via huge fasteners and isolated from the chassis using neoprene bushings. The base of the V is connected on the top of the differential and both of the bases are connected to the frame. One of the strongest geometric shapes is a triangle and the V-R uses this principal to the utmost. Free to travel in the vertical axis the V-R holds the differential in place in relation to the rail and it doesn't move in any significant amount in the horizontal plane.

The V-R is unique to the R-Series.

[BellaBo]

DriVer.... Thanks for the explanation. The idea of the tracbar is to eliminate the horizontal movement as well.

If you could have a left and right mounted rear tracbar it seems the strength of two would increase the stability. Just guessing!

If one will do this job though, then of course the second would just be wasted money and effort. I'm sure many people are happy with the one just wondered if anyone had tried two.

[r2dillon]

Since the tracbar is a rigid extension between the differential and the chassis, I don't see how two would be better than one in a typical configuration. If you needed to shift the chassis horizontal permanently, you could use it. For prevention of shifting while on the road, there would not seem to be a reason for two solid rods unless they are not directly aligned.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Streamerman:
If one will do this job though, then of course the second would just be wasted money and effort. </div></BLOCKQUOTE> There you go! The UltraTrack or the Super Steer are solid steel bars mounted in neoprene bushings again with large bolts holding the bar to its mounting hardware. Free to move in the vertical with the suspension and jacks the track bar offers a great amount of resistance in the horizontal plane, attenuating movement between the differential and the rail.

1 bar a day keeps the fishtail away.

[Jeepster47]

Steamerman, I have a Davis True-Trac bar in the front and Henderson SuperSteer track bar in the rear on our 36 ft.,'05. With the longer coach it sure did the trick with no side motion or "tail wagging the dog". Also added a ipg (Roadmaster) anti-sway bar in rear for more side to side stability. Drives more like a sports car now.

Ed

[BellaBo]

Thanks for the input.
Jeepster47... Your setup is probably the one I'll eventually go with. First I'll try the rear tracbar, Koni's and see how that performs and if need be, try the front trac bar and rear anti-sway bar last.
My coach is almost 38 feet, so there's a lot hanging out there.

[M&EM]

I saw a trackbar demo at the FMCA rally in Redman at one of the booths there. Don't remember the name of the compound track bar they were promoting.

Point they seemed to be making was that a conventional track bar such as Henderson and Davis is long enough to allow "lateral movement" at the axle as it swings thru its normal arc as a radius bar, along with the vertical movement of the axles to be significant regarding tracking. Theirs' was a compound type of track bar that was supposed to eliminate or reduce that small movement completely.

With that demo, I guess if stated movement does occur, Then dual track bars would also seem to cancel it out.

Marty

[Cruzer]

A track bar is basically a Panhard rod, which is like a large tie rod controlling lateral movement. The axle is free to go up and down, but not left or right, although a slight bit of lateral movement is necessary due to the geometry of the rod's arc.

If you had two trac bars that were the Panhard rod style, and one came from each side, the axle would bind as it tried to go up and down because the slight lateral movement of each bar would be working against the opposite bar.

The ultimate is the Watts link. This may be what you saw at the convention booth. This consists of two rods, one from each side that do not connect directly to the axle. Instead they connect to a turnbuckle that mounts to the axle. The turnbuckle swivels as the axle goes up and down as the rods deflect and gives you zero lateral shift. It's the ultimate way to control an axle if you are into race cars but on an RV the length of the bar is so long that it really isn't necessary. Chances are you won't pick up any more than a few hundredths of a second on the high banks at Daytona.