Pics of my Cal Trac's broken mount brackets.

[venomous]

Today while cleaning the inch or so of rubber from inside the wheel wells and the rear suspension, I noticed something odd on my traction bar mounts. Upon closer inspection I noticed a small crack...looking at all the brackets, every one except the passenger inside bracket was cracked in the same spot.

I feel the cracks are from the poor design of the 1/8" flat steel brackets. If they would have had a smooth transition/curve instead of the notch, this may have prevented the cracks. Either way they are bent too.

Pics show the damage. I already made a template to make a boxed style bracket and curved transition to prevent bending and breaking in the future. If anyone else has these, they may want to check their brackets out.

 

[lvgolfer962]

good catch. it pays to check over everything from time to time

 

[L8APEX]

Jebus!, Time to keep an eye on that spot. Last time I looked would have been the 2nd at the track, and they looked fine. I'm not a high hp truck but have raced and towed a bit with them.

 

[Fade 2 Black]

Too much preload may be the culprit, I can see that the bolt holes have some displaced material around them in addition to the cracks. You're spot on about a radius instead of a notch. Stepping up to 3/16" material might not hurt while you're at it.

 

[venomous]

Well, I talked to Travis at Cal Tracs in Lancaster today and I feel like an idiot for posting these pics up. Apparantly the brackets I broke are not part of the kit they sell. I thought they were a bit rough compared to the rest of the kit, but thought nothing of it. Apparantly the previous owner made the brackets to get more tension on the bars instead of going to a long bar setup.

I wanted to note this so Cal Tracs dosen't get a bad name for their product. I will readjust the bars per their specs without these a$$fabbed brackets and get her back on the track.

Man.... the more I dig into this truck the more ghetto crap I keep finding.