Experience with truckarm (or centerdrive) style rear suspensions???
 

Does anyone out there have any experience with a truckarm (or centerdrive) type of rear suspension. . .especially as compared to a 4-link or 3-link setup using a panhard bar or Watt's linkage and also compared to IRS.

I have a '67 Pontiac Firebird 400 that I'm getting ready to start a Pro-Touring build with and I'm trying to decide what I want to do with my suspension. The truckarm seems to have some pretty good pros to it from what I have been able to dig up and the price is much less than an IRS or 3-link and Watt's linkage and almost exactly the same as a 4-link suspension.

I haven't had a whole lot luck finding many opinions on the truckarm suspension thought besides from Hot Rods to Hell who make the system.

Thanks guys.

Give Kip Valdez a call at metalworks performance in denver co. he is the only person I know with actual time and testing on this system and the truck arm set up I have seen them build are quite nice.

Call Steve at Hotrods to Hell! This guy has been putting truck arms in cars forever!

http://www.hotrodstohell.net/

JOhn

The kit Steve has looks good. Wonder what a A body kit costs....

I have been in contact with Hot Rods to Hell and I have written to Metalworks Performance (I'm waiting to hear back from them on the availability and price of their kit. . .on the website it is still listed as coming soon). I was hoping that perhaps some individuals who were not associated with either place might have driven (or actually have) a truckarm equipped vehicle and I could get their opinion of how the car handled. I have heard that HRTH has a test car that they are more than willing to let individuals drive to test out the truckarm suspension and they are located in Burbank which is only about 2-2.5 hrs North of me. . .guess I'll have to start saving my money now and go up there to drive the test car when I get enough saved to buy one!

Thanks for sharing the info though.

http://hotrodhomepage.com/?p=45

http://hotrodhomepage.com/?p=70

Videos off the Hot Rods to Hell website... looks like it handles ok....

Ok I have driven a truck armed camaro recently and I disliked it greatly, although I will say I didn't put it though it's performance paces. I hate to come in here bashing something as that is not my intention, but you asked so I thought I should at least give you my perspective. Here is what I thought about it. I thought it tracked poorly, maybe from poor fab work perhaps or the inherent problems with such a design. I hit a few corners at less then half way though in the throttle and could not tell what the rear end wanted to do. It felt as if there was a lot of play, even more then stock leaf springs, again maybe something to do with poor fab work, but it looked hideous, and didn't seem to do anything I wanted in the short drive that I did. It also wheel hopped like a bunny rabbit. I don't know who did the fab work or who designed it, but it looked similar to hot rods to hell setup. Honestly, I would stick to leafs if I was in your shoes and beef up the performance of those.

maz, probaly should find out whos kit it is and who installed it before you make assumptions, there are alot of maybes in your opinion.
i would like to hear about truck arm also

He asked a question, I gave an answer. I have heard of others not liking it as well, but he asked a general question and I gave an honest answer.

i HAVE heard a few negatives reviews on truck arm setups in a few street cars.... mostly stuff suggesting that there was little to no feedback, and even one person claiming that his 60 foot time had slowd down after switching to a truckarms setup...
but ive also heard from someone i spoke to at hot august nights, that his truck arm setup on his camaro race car was in his opinion perfect, and that he wouldent have it any other way. so i dunno.

Another thing to consider, althought it is hailed as the suspension used on nextel cup cars etc. They don't use it because they want to they use it because they don't have a choice its in the rules. It is a good suspension design and most definitely beyond what leaf springs are capable of. Keep in mind however, if nascar gave the cup drivers a choice they would almost undoubtedly be running a 3-link. Just something to think about.

I think a better way of deciding what type of suspension you are going to put under your car is to, first, decide what type of driving that you will be doing, primarily, with the car. If it is primarily street than you may want to look at enhancing the OEM suspension first. There's still a lot of suspension in there! If your going to be tracking the car or going to the drag strip more than 20% of the time then I would say 3 or 4 link. This is not to say that you can't run 3 or 4 link on the street but why spend the extra bucks if your not going to use it? If you are going to track it more than once in a while you may want to drive it as it is set up now and see what you don't like about the car and work on that.
My friend has a Truckarm from HTH in his 32 coupe and he loves it! He likes the fact that it has a lot of adjustability and he can tailor it to his specific needs. A couple of my other friends also have them and they also love them so it seems that for mostly street driving it seems to work pretty well but then again they aren't torqueing it as hard as they do in Nascar! As far as Nascar, keep in mind that there are many more variables that make those cars handle other than the truckarm itself!