Well, as some of you know, I bought some of the Tuff Country traction bars to help rid my truck of the terrible wheel hop in the snow. I started installing them when I noticed that they would not work due to the overload springs being in the way. If I were to hit just one good bump it would have easily bent the traction bars. So, being the tightwad that I am, I decided to cut them down and mount them differently that the instructions show. The instructions have you mount a bracket on top of the leafsprings and than you drill a big hole in the rear leafspring mount and a shaft goes through it with rubber bushings and washers etc. I decided to cut these down and have the shaft attach to the spring mount instead. Well, after a week or so of running around with this setup I have to say that it is not a good idea. Maybe it's due to the shortness of the bars but the rear suspension feels like it has no shocks and is a solid setup! It bounces around after every bump I hit and it is really just awful. If I try to loosen the nuts that push up on the rubber bushings going into the spring mounts it might help some but then the bushings will just get destroyed.
To sum it all up, they are coming off and I wasted $170.00 and never even got a chance to see if they work in the snow or not....

Oh well......

 

Sorry to hear it didnt work out for ya, guess its time to give Rich a call...

 

I don't want to spend that kind of $$$!!!

 

Unfortunately, if you can't build them youself that's what it costs to completely eliminate axle wrap!

 

Ya. I know. I'm really tight though. I want it all but I want it all at a cheap price. I guess I'll wait for a used set or I'll just live with the wheel hop the two or three times a year that we see a little snow......

 

Same delima I have, before spending $800+ I want to ride in a truck with them. I have no doubt they work, its just am I gonna know they are their everyday, or only the 2-3 times a year we get snow.

 

hmm upoun reading your post, did you say you mounted the bars to the REAR spring hanger? as in the one with the shackle? cause that could be your problem the axle would be fixed on both ends. or did you mean the rear of the front hanger?

 

I was one of the first ones to post a pic of the tuff country bars and mine have worked fine. I get little wheel hop out of these. I run a smarty on 9 at the moment and floor it from a dead stop all the time, they seem to work good. Im not paying 800 for a set the whole world can see. Im sure the high dollar ones fit good and look nice. I dont believe there is that much invested in those. I think they are 400 to high.

 

The directions say to mount them to the rear spring hanger. That may work on a 2500 but not on a 3500. In fact, I initially was going to mount it to the rear spring hanger but it was not long enough. If I was going to mount it to the spring hanger then I would have had to mount it to the front. Mine are mounted to the rear bumper mount for the overloads.