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Planning on building a kafer bar and I was wondering what size heims/tubing u guys use.

Never mind just ordered the one mendeola builds

I've been working on a string about building one (but I have lost it) and there have been a couple discussions recently about them too. If you have a 4-joint IRS then I agree that the Mendola stiffy it pretty good as it has several points to share any loading. There are two others that are not too bad either, one designed by one of the STF crew (Piledriver) which puts the loads onto the shock tower and not a ways out on the cross-bar. I think the other one is made by CSP which is a weld together unit. I like the designs of each of these three.

Lee

any links to Pile's one?

Try: http://www.tunacan.net/t4/howto/kaferbrace/ For some reason I cannot connect to verify but I am sure this is the right URL.

Lee

Ya its the right url. I found an old post and thats the link that was shown.

I suspect Tunas site is no more...

Might be worth trying thewaybackmachine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130922164 ... aferbrace/

Toms whole site is archived.

The setup I came up with costs ~$100 for mower/implement drag bars from Tractor Supply.

I just bought mine.... 1 inch chrome moly option...

http://www.kustom1warehouse.net/Bolt_on ... 518-11.htm

Plus...

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 1&t=137970

Dale

Piledriver wrote:I suspect Tunas site is no more...

Might be worth trying thewaybackmachine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130922164 ... aferbrace/

Toms whole site is archived.

The setup I came up with costs ~$100 for mower/implement drag bars from Tractor Supply.

sweet!! fancy copy and paste-ing that back into the STF? looks ace thanks for sharing bud

Dale M. wrote:I just bought mine.... 1 inch chrome moly option...

http://www.kustom1warehouse.net/Bolt_on ... 518-11.htm

Plus...

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 1&t=137970

Dale

I have the same one from kustom1, its done a good job so far. 6500rpm boosted launches on slicks with no wheel hop. None on official burnouts, and none on the unofficial(freeway onramp rolling into throttle on hard street tires) ones either. Seems to do its job alright, and for the cost its hard to beat.

I used standard 1" square tubing, but mine won't see the stress a lot of these guys will. I just wanted to keep the frame horns and uprights straight over time.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 4453_n.jpg

I have no plates on the torsion tube. It's fine so far, but it should have been done. I built 2" boxes on the frame horns to get axle clearance. Mine is fully fixed and welded.

Nice idea; your design has managed to add some missing support that could be needed and should work for both 2-joint and 4-joint IRS.

What wall 1" square tube did you use?

In the string I was working on I was trying to keep the bar removable and I didn't want to weld to the shock tower. I don't think I ever considered connecting to the torsion tube other than how the Mendola "Stiffy" is done. Could you take some more pictures at different angles please; I am interested if there is any potential of interference between half-shaft and the tube. A flat photo can be deceiving; I could do it w/masking tape but seeing the real thing at different angles would be better.

Good idea and so simple; I think I need to spend some time looking at it.

Lee

For what it is worth: I have a 3" body lift: I have played with the idea of connecting to it but at the same time it was recommended to me, many years ago, that they body lift should also be attached to the torsion tube to give the torsion tube some needed support as the torsion tube is attached to the pan via. the tunnel connection and the wimpy hook on the end of the torsion casting that is welded into the rear cross body mount tunnel... thin formed sheet metal.

Since I am playing with my buggy off-road; travel is probably going to be more than normal on the road or drag racing. I also think I might have added a localized doubler over the area of the torsion tube that the square tube would join at mainly as a "just-in-case" for off-roading to spread the load in case of a hard hit/landing as I am not too sure about tube thickness on the torsion housing... but they do weld roll cages to it don't they. In the back of my mind I seem to remember seeing a torsion tube with a section of the tube of it broken out; it was so long ago that I must have seen it but something about it must have made a big impression on me.

I don't have pics, but the car is currently on jack stands with the fenders off as it's receiving some new bits. I'll try to get some new pics while it's up.

Here are a couple more, but I don't know if they will answer your question ...

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 6773_o.jpg

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 2865_o.jpg

I had to make adjustments to clear the dampers and the half shaft boot. At full compression with stock bump stop, there is about 3/8" clearance as I remember. The pic linked that shows us welding actually shows the original design of the bar attaching to the frame horn. I had to remove that and build 2" risers on the frame horns to lift the bar to clear the half shaft boot at full compression. It was just barely touching.

The 1" square tube isn't very thick. It's just standard run-of-the-mill tubing from Tractor Supply. My thought was that the majority of the force would travel the length of the tubes, rather than across it. Add that to the triangulation, I've got all tubes helping one another using that same length-wise support. The weakets point is the center of the main support that crosses the trans. The idea is that if the uprights tried to flex inward, the fore and aft bars would provide enough extra support that the center bar would not flex.

I made the risers from 1/8" angle though. I know that.

When I was looking at this back in the early 90's I did something similar but using 1 X 2 rectangular tubing from a cross bar laying down by the body mount hole/ The picture (see below) was the final solution which was a compromise because of the CV and drive axle clearance problem if I extended it all the way to the end of the transaxle mount. The problem was due partly because the size of the tubing I was using and the lowness of the mounting cross-piece. I need to relook at it using smaller tubing I think.

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... r#p1189452

If you page down to the Nov 16th post I made I showed roughly what I ended up with back then. There are some other good options shown in this string also.

I also looked again for the string I started not that long ago,-; as I remember is was a discussion type string and I posted some pictures kin which I used tape for mock-up purposes. I have to figure out where the string went . I did find some dialogue on the same subject from back in 2006 that we/I had on the same subject which tell me that I am still a slow mover on some things.

Lee

I edited your pictures as much as I could. I am thinking that things might be a bit close to the inside CV and half shaft. I guess I will have to get a stick or two of square tubing and figure things out. I still like the idea though.