Quite a few of the stock chassis cars at Columbus use the caltracs.  While you may have to fill out the dimension sheet if they haven't put together a specific part number, they may not have to make anything up because the rear suspension mounting points are fairly universal between different cars and makes.
How do they compare?  Don't know.  But they work for me (and seem to work for others), have the ability to preload the suspension, which is not a feature of all traction bars and don't have any negative effect on everyday road worthiness, which is great for a street vehicle.


Lawrenceville, GA

Thanks for the replies.  Is one style less obvious as seen from a distant whereas it wouldn't hurt the looks of the vehicle?  Dave V

SE Wis

There are traction bars that mount above the springs called over riders. They are a bit more complicated to install but are supposed to work the same. I was looking at them because my car is lowered and the normal traction bars were too close to the ground. They would have hit with a flat rear tire. Not good at speed. Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

I have heard a lot about the Caltracs on this forum but this is the first time I have seen them. They look a lot like the original Traction Masters with the advantage of being adjustable. Back in the day I made a set of home made traction masters and they worked great with street tires and the 6" recap slicks I used then. I went to bolt on slapper bars later on when I got into nostalga racing  in the1980's and they worked well with the same tires. I am going to install an old original set of traction masters this time. A big point with them is to have the car siting on the ground when you attach the front mount. I will have to see how this works with more horsepower and better tires that I will be using now. Another thing that I did back when I put the home made traction masters on was to switch to /57 Ford station wagon springs that are still on the car. The stiffer springs would have helped also. Has serious wheel hop problems before this. Managed to break a rear spring while racing a '65 Mustang on the street.

I checked out some of the options @ Jegs, Summit and Speedway and think I like the Caltracs best. I'll see how involved it is with their order spec sheet.  Thanks for the input.  Dave V

SE Wis

Regarding visibility,  Most traction bars cannot be seen unless you are on the ground, looking at the suspension.  There are exceptions, but they are few.  On higher vehicles, such as my truck, they are easier to see.  I can see them through the rear wheel well and the axle brackets can be seen from the rear from a short distance away.  They're black, so they don't stand out.



Lawrenceville, GA

If I think of it tonight I will take a pic of my home made ones. I took a lerge thick truck leaf spring, installed it under my original set and put a roller skate rubber on the tip, very inconspicuous but works great, havent had wheel hop since. Traction is a different story, need slicks.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Build your own. Check out how to build modern traction bars.



Caltrac's working hard to screw a Y-Block into mother earth.

Gary- Havelock, New Zealand.

This is what I was talking about, very inconspicuous!

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Leave it to you Bill. Clever use of a truck spring as a slapper bar. That would be a simple fix on my Vicky. It sits so low that a bolt on bar on the spring mount is too low. Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire