So I've seen a few 65-72 cutlasses that have had ladder bars on them and I was wondering if those are possible with the stock 4 link? Yes I know they do the same thing essentially, but Im wondering if there are people doubling up or just have custom rear ends

 

I used to run ladder bars on my stock '69 4-4-2 (blue one in my signature pic, below). Kept the tires on the ground. Made turning rubber into smoke real easy

 

Were they just regular ladder bars? Do you happen to have a picture of your car with them?

 

Yes, generic Lakewood ladder bars, nothing special or custom. Sorry no pics. That was about 38 or 39 years ago - long before cellphone cameras, LOL!

 

If your just looking for a set of boltons, Lakewood is the way to go to help with your gasser look.

 

Ladder bars on a GM A body do nothing more than bind up the rear suspension. They basically give the suspension another set of control arms with different arc to cycle thru.

Generic ladder bars on a leaf spring rear end do nothing unless they are long enough to hit the spring eye. If they hit the spring instead of the spring mounting “eye” (where the bolt goes thru the bushing) it will cause excessive spring wrap. When the spring snaps back, that’s what causes wheel hop.

There are lots of YouTube videos explaining this far better than I could. Dick Miller wrote a good book on suspension theory. Definitely worth reading.

 

^^^THIS. The bolt-on Lakewood-style latter bars cause the suspension to bind if you ever go around a corner. If the car only goes in straight lines a quarter mile at a time, they might have some value. Otherwise, they only provide the APPEARANCE of performance. Another item that only impresses the uninformed.

 

I had Lakewood bolt on bars on ‘65 442 back in the early 80’s, they were exactly as described above. Helped in a straight line, hinderance around curves and corners. Had weld in bars with Heim joints on 70 SS, they were effective and easy to live with, also nearly invisible, much unlike the Lakewood bolt ons.

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I have a set of NOS traction bars if anyone is interested? PM for any questions.

 

Ladder bars and GM 4 links are an either/or decision, but not both for all the reasons listed.
Those Lakewoods look like heavy travel limiters.

 

The Lakewood bars shown above are slapper bars, not ladder bars. They really just limit suspension travel if the axle starts to wrap up. Bars of this style are somewhat effective on leaf spring cars. I've never really understood what they were supposed to do on a GM four bar rear suspension.

 

properly set up, slapper bars work great on a leaf spring car. As I mentioned earlier, they need to be long enough for the snubber to apply force to the leaf spring mounting eye, that applies the axle rotational force to the body of the car, forcing the fire into the ground. If not, the force of the axle rotation tends to force the leaf spring into a S shape, until the tire breaks traction then all the force from the springs straightening out causes the wheel the hop, and the cycle repeats.

Cal trac bars take the advantages of slapper bars one step further.

Slapper bars need to be made for the application in question. They also require some adjustment and trial and error testing to get them to work. Just bolting them on and hoping for the best won’t cut it.

 

As stated above, bolt on ladder bars like the ones offered by Lakewood are an absolute waste of time/money. Not to mention the damage that they WILL cause to your rear suspension.............I don't know how some of this stuff makes it into production, and for sale to the public, it would be bad enough if they were to be used for off highway use only (on a relatively smooth track surface), but to put them on a street driven car......boggles my mind!

 

I believe the OP is looking for a look, not function.

 

What I said in Post #7.

 

Actually I was just asking why people would have them on our cars with 4 link suspension is all. I do like the look, but my car is already a pain to drive... Especially gonna be with the tunnel ram I just ordered lol

 

Side pipes!

 

The 442 already has a "4 link"....

I had ladder Bars on a old lifted truck with leaf springs. The bars made a huge difference...bur not the same thinh

 

^^^^ I had a set on 70 Chevelle. Broke the frame where front eyelets of ladder bar mount. So not worth it. Now Lakewood did make slapper bars for 4 link coil over cars. They worked well, but car was running bottom 12's it started bending the passenger slapper bar.

 

The bolt on lakewood ladder bars create more issues than they fix
​​ If you want looks then they will fit the bill but I ran low 12's and stone stock rear suspension with just a 50/50 shock.
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