V1R Long-bar review
Installation: They are a really straightforward install. The only info I needed confirmation on was where to place the front brackets that need specific placement for frame drilling. The rest is just u-bolt plates, the bars with heim joints, and nuts/bolts/washers.
This took me my whole weekend (about 16 hours). Now I know Scott has advertised this as “a few hours†but, keep in mind I had the following obstacles: a 6.5 year old set of caltracs, an extremely rusty set of x-metal u-bolts, two cordless drills that couldn’t seem to last more than 15 minutes per charge, and a few harbor freight unibits. If anyone does this install themselves, I highly encourage you to get a new corded drill (if you don’t have one) and a very high quality unibit. If I had these items I probably could have cut 8 hours off the install time.
Adjustment: These along with caltracs are designed to set preload. I started with 3/4’s a turn on each side. This was a waste as I was 50 feet down the road and went to about half throttle in first gear and the truck effortlessly went sideways. I went home and readjusted to 1 turn each. This was better and may work for some, but I needed a little more. Next I set them at 1.5 turns. This is probably where I will stop. The truck stays pointed straight on launch and on hard acceleration.
Use: I will still need to work on the launching to gather data for 0-60/ 60 ft. times/techniques. Even without thought, I can say 0-60 and 60 ft. times are faster. I did a 5 mph rolling burnout just to clean off/lightly heat up of the BFG’s and man, did it grab hard in second! With caltracs, I could/would spin all the way through 1st and 2nd at about ½- ¾ throttle, but still keep it pointed straight. Now, still pointed straight you can really feel the front end lifting even while spinning in 1st. Grabbing 2nd gear, still spinning initially then… what’s this? Massive grip towards the beginning of 2nd??? I’m still in disbelief that I’m getting this much traction on a set of 5-year-old 22’s! 3rd gear, no spin just big lift of the front end!
Conclusion: Do they work? Yes! I had a set of DR’s at one point; they never even came close to this amount of grip for me (even with caltracs). For those of you that have been struggling to get into the 11’s or 12’s using DR’s or slicks, I believe that you could easily get there on your first track outing with these (especially those of you with FI setups). On the cost, why the f@#k would you spend 2-3k on exhaust, 3-7k on head/cam combos, 5-10k on a forged engine, 4-15k on FI setups, and then act like 1k on your suspension is too much?! The suspension on ANY vehicle is just as important as the engine/drivetrain. Period!
Buy them and you will see that this will prove to be the biggest bang for the buck mod!
[/IMG]
[/IMG]
Installation: They are a really straightforward install. The only info I needed confirmation on was where to place the front brackets that need specific placement for frame drilling. The rest is just u-bolt plates, the bars with heim joints, and nuts/bolts/washers.
This took me my whole weekend (about 16 hours). Now I know Scott has advertised this as “a few hours†but, keep in mind I had the following obstacles: a 6.5 year old set of caltracs, an extremely rusty set of x-metal u-bolts, two cordless drills that couldn’t seem to last more than 15 minutes per charge, and a few harbor freight unibits. If anyone does this install themselves, I highly encourage you to get a new corded drill (if you don’t have one) and a very high quality unibit. If I had these items I probably could have cut 8 hours off the install time.
Adjustment: These along with caltracs are designed to set preload. I started with 3/4’s a turn on each side. This was a waste as I was 50 feet down the road and went to about half throttle in first gear and the truck effortlessly went sideways. I went home and readjusted to 1 turn each. This was better and may work for some, but I needed a little more. Next I set them at 1.5 turns. This is probably where I will stop. The truck stays pointed straight on launch and on hard acceleration.
Use: I will still need to work on the launching to gather data for 0-60/ 60 ft. times/techniques. Even without thought, I can say 0-60 and 60 ft. times are faster. I did a 5 mph rolling burnout just to clean off/lightly heat up of the BFG’s and man, did it grab hard in second! With caltracs, I could/would spin all the way through 1st and 2nd at about ½- ¾ throttle, but still keep it pointed straight. Now, still pointed straight you can really feel the front end lifting even while spinning in 1st. Grabbing 2nd gear, still spinning initially then… what’s this? Massive grip towards the beginning of 2nd??? I’m still in disbelief that I’m getting this much traction on a set of 5-year-old 22’s! 3rd gear, no spin just big lift of the front end!
Conclusion: Do they work? Yes! I had a set of DR’s at one point; they never even came close to this amount of grip for me (even with caltracs). For those of you that have been struggling to get into the 11’s or 12’s using DR’s or slicks, I believe that you could easily get there on your first track outing with these (especially those of you with FI setups). On the cost, why the f@#k would you spend 2-3k on exhaust, 3-7k on head/cam combos, 5-10k on a forged engine, 4-15k on FI setups, and then act like 1k on your suspension is too much?! The suspension on ANY vehicle is just as important as the engine/drivetrain. Period!
Buy them and you will see that this will prove to be the biggest bang for the buck mod!
Last edited: