truck pullers. need help asap

[Steve GMC]

ok well heres my deal. i built my truck to be good all around. huge engine so i would do good at our local pulls. problem is i cant get it to settle down. she hops like a bucking bronco. its and 83 k30. front suspension is a 6" skyjacker softride, 0 rate and shackle with skyjacker shocks. rear suspension is a shackle flip, and 4" spring. tires are 42" tsls. engine is 496 stocker/ nv4500/ np205. heres what ive done so far... added about 500 lbs of concrete. and played with tire pressure. what seems to happen is the front slips then once it gets traction all hell breaks loose. i was playing with the pressure lowering the rear to keep the front slipping it seemed to help but still hops. its not axle wrap its hop. i was wondering if it was just the sidewalls of the 42s once it grabs they bounce like balloons but ive seen guys on 44s and even 49s not have a problem... im confused maybe somebody has some suggestions. another option i have is a set of 35" goodyear MTRs i have on a different truck i can try...

anything is greatly appreciated
thanks

ohh ps i have a bulldozer i have been doing all my testing on so throw it at me and ill try to mod the truck and test it

 

[YZEATER]

traction bars. when the axle wraps up, it then springs or hops back to the normal position. ran a normal set of tires. it'll spin like the rest of the trucks do.

the fist pull i did with my 85, i ran 35" wide boggers. it never spun a tire, just pulled till the engine died, it never hopped either. the next time i went to a pull, i put on normal 31" street tires. it started breaking loose and was doing good till it started hopping and i thought the axles were gonna come out of it.

 

[Steve GMC]

ohh and i have a wraptor in the rear. nothing in the front

 

[YZEATER]

ever look at the regular pulling trucks. tons of springs that make it stiff. they don't need flex. they usually have small tires also, less sidewall. maybe that's where your problem is. maybe try more air pressure? maybe try locking out the rear suspension all together. they are stock height too.

 

[Teck]

The rear of a pull truck is usually soild and the front has to be loaded down to keep it from hopping. With that much lift it will probably be hard to do. I have seen alot of stock trucks where they chain the suspension down to help form hopping. Hopping will just break alots of parts fast. I know I have seen it happen alot at the pulls, good friend has a pro stock 4x4 pulling truck that I help with.

 

[LOGANSTANFORTH]

first off get rid of the 6 inch lift......you need 2-3 factory springs in the front, the leaves should just about be negative arched, you want that front to float going down the track, what gears are running cause this will effect the height of tire you should run, also what gears are you pulling in? low t-case w/ 2nd gear, low t-case w/ 3rd gear.......you want absolutely no weight in the rear of the truck, all of it needs to be over the nose.....you need to build a set of bump stops and good ladder/traction bars for the rear.....most rules that let you run bump stops make you have 1-1.5 inches of compression in the suspension......some places allow it to be locked solid......does your truck have a 496 stroker or stocker (8.1 liter)??? cause if your laying down around 600 horsepower I would say go with 4:56's and 35 inch BF Goodrich A/T's or maybe even some 35 inch Super Swamper STS's.....if you are at 500 horsepower and below i suggest 4:10's and 33's.....though you may get away with 35's and 4:56's......you should be around 20-30 in the fronts and 50-80 in the rears depending on the tires.....


post better specs of your truck and your rules up so i can see what we are working with here......

 

[folkenheath]

the fist pull i did with my 85, i ran 35" wide boggers

Those are some wide tires!

On a more serious note, just a start would be to take out the zero rate, and use smaller tires for pulling. The zero rate just gives more leverage for spring wrap, and wrap is what happens before the hop.

It may not fix your problem but it can only help.

 

[80' 427]

At the drunk or ah, I mean stock pulls they have after the real tractor pulls here they do a few things to help there stock trucks. I put a piece of c channel across the top of my leaf spring plates so my it hit on my bump stops. This made my rear suspension soild. Others take load binders and go around the pumpkin and bind it to the rear bumper. I had the k10 in my sig and it went 299' before it broke the rear ring gear going though a dip the tractors had left. I ran in low and drive and let it shift itself (which it never did). When you pull you need to load the chain and get the sled moving before you stand on it. I also see some guys pick too low a gear and they don't get any momentum and power out too soon.

 

[Steve GMC]

it is a 496 stroker (sorry for the error) its got about 575 trq at 4000rpm... the gears are 4.88s. i was trying pulling in low 2nd. low 3rd just stalled out and i dont wanna burn my clutch out. the rear already has a traction bar setup which works great and has no wrap. i will make some bump stops now that you say that. would a front traction bar work instead of getting rid of the springs. i mean this is my wheeler i just play for fun when the pulling season comes so it'd be a pain to swap everything out for a few pulls. im gonna try the smaller tires and try to get some of the weight to the front...

thanks

 

[fmstruck]

I block my rear susp exactly like 80'427 does and run a chain and binder around the axle through my D rings on my rear bumper. I only do this cause I have 4" blocks and I wanted to control spring wrap. I run as much air as possible in the rear tires so they don't squat. I pulled last year with a 400hp 427 33s and 3.73s in 2nd Low range in an SM 465/205 on a super heavy track and did okay.

 

[MTBLAZER89]

it is a 496 stroker (sorry for the error) its got about 575 trq at 4000rpm... the gears are 4.88s. i was trying pulling in low 2nd. low 3rd just stalled out and i dont wanna burn my clutch out. the rear already has a traction bar setup which works great and has no wrap. i will make some bump stops now that you say that. would a front traction bar work instead of getting rid of the springs. i mean this is my wheeler i just play for fun when the pulling season comes so it'd be a pain to swap everything out for a few pulls. im gonna try the smaller tires and try to get some of the weight to the front...

thanks

I don't see why not. I don't know anything about truck pulling, but I know there are some guys running a standard style anti wrap bar up front. There are pictures here somewhere.

 

[LOGANSTANFORTH]

it is a 496 stroker (sorry for the error) its got about 575 trq at 4000rpm... the gears are 4.88s. i was trying pulling in low 2nd. low 3rd just stalled out and i dont wanna burn my clutch out. the rear already has a traction bar setup which works great and has no wrap. i will make some bump stops now that you say that. would a front traction bar work instead of getting rid of the springs. i mean this is my wheeler i just play for fun when the pulling season comes so it'd be a pain to swap everything out for a few pulls. im gonna try the smaller tires and try to get some of the weight to the front...

thanks

we had a 496 making around 850 horse in my buddy's 81 K30, yes you can run front traction bars, go to TSC or any farm supply place and buy some Category 0 tractor top links......cut in half and sleeve to fit......built many a front and rear traction bar out of those......

here are a few of my friends trucks and other guys we pull with....

ill post some more if you want......