I have these on my truck and they make a good deal of difference. Thank you for the video as I recently had to reinstall the rear brackets myself. 4 nuts came off. I don't know if it was bad installation or just something I should have been paying attention to. Stifflers sent me more bolts and nuts. I appreciate the way you aligned the brackets by nut depth on the bolts. I did the same thing. Also thanks for the detail on the jam nuts and how much thread was showing. It made me feel better about what mine looked like. I'm still sore from making 75 ft-pound torque while laying under the truck! My hole shots are nice and straight now. Wonderful video.
Right on Fred! Thats crazy those nuts came loose. You must have been doing some serious dig racing. Makes me curious maybe I should check mine just to make sure. Glad you found the video useful. My pleaseure to help!!!
Im glad you welded yourself. Only going to get better as you do it... All I would just say, looks a bit like your first one was rougher, maybe get a practice bead going first and then go live... Thanks for posting... Did you notice more traction? I'm considering getting these for my 02 lightning...
Ya I tried a few "warmup" pieces but the axle housing is apparently quite thick and I didn't have any real thick metal laying around. I guess if it breaks off, I can always weld it back on lol. As for traction, I can't say for sure if they helped a bunch because I added drag radials at basically the same time. That gives me an idea though, might have to go out and run a test with them disconnected vs them connected and see if I can notice a difference. With tires and these bars, my 60' improved from 2.1 to 1.7 something. So that is a huge jump but I can't say if it was the tires or bars or both that made the difference.
Just found this vid and gotta say it’s very helpful! I don’t have a Lightning but a 2WD F150 10th Gen and I need to do this as well. I get axle wrap on take off after I added 3” lift blocks in the rear.
I think I read somewhere on Lightning Rodder or the Facebook groups that someone had an issue with utilizing a lift because the Longbars were in the way. It looks like you’re not having any issues though? I also bought mine on sale a few months ago luckily before the prices were recently increased. They’ve been sitting, but I plan to install them soon!
Ya it's a little tricky. You need to grab in the right places but I don't have any problem with it. Still goes up just fine. The lift I use has adjustable little flippers on the end so that's no problem. Maybe a spacer block would work too.👍
What all do you have done to this thing now man? You’ve been doing stuff what kinda number does it put down? You seem to know how to do quite a bit lol between cars and just anything
Haha thanks man. It has a lot of parts on it for sure haha. When something breaks (happens often) I try and upgrade it. It dynoed at 410 whp and 492 wtq in 2nd gear. So not insane. Sad but also excited for what is coming. It broke again. Haha. But upgrades now. So that's cool too. Lots of projects around here haha. Boat, bronco, focus, lightning, dailies. Haha. Appreciate you commenting and watching. Means a lot. 👍
I do have a mods video. Shows what mods have been done to it. It is current except for the nittos, long bars, and transmission mods. Basically all the stuff I did prior to starting this channel.
Your rod ends and the spacer are a lot better than they used to be. I have a set I bought 4 years ago. The rod ends are junk and the spacer is just a tube that slips over the bolt. No flared ends. I have to tighten my jam nuts constantly, they come loose and the bars clunk. They do work though, which is the main point. Good vid.
Oh dang. I didn't realize there was an older version or whatever. I have to get under mine and do a nut and bolt check for this season. Will be checking things over closely because something under there is making a little bit of a rattle at just the right flex angle when I go into a driveway or something.
@@605BOLT Yeah they've been around for a while. I have the 'second gen' set up. The original sets only had 1 rod position hole in the frame brackets. They added the second hole a year or two later. I'm not complaining, they work. Best on the market in my opinion. I didn't weld a block on mine and they haven't slipped...so far. That may be a future mod for me. When mine come loose, they will clunk when putting it in gear, or just pulling away from a stop. Just a matter of re-tightening the jam nut every so often.
I bet thats the issue with mine then. Very similar symptoms. I wasn't sure about the need to weld that little stop in but I figured while I'm in there it can't hurt. Plus now I'll be built for even more aggressive launches going forward.
Anyone else’s PASSENGER side, have two of the four holes (A & B) already drilled? The instructions for passenger side say to mark and drill B C D. I lucked out. One less hole to rain hot clips on me 😂.
I didn’t see any other signs of bars that would have been previously install, but you never know. Thanks again btw, yet another one of your videos that helped with my install! 👍🏼👍🏼
Interesting detail. Probably some mid year change or something. Who knows about all that I guess. Glad to hear you found it helpful. I'll be curious to hear how you like them!
@foehmr0024 I see. Ya that lever arm is what controls the twist so the lower they hang the better I think. But jlp makes some good stuff. Depends one what exhaust you use too I think.
Thank you for the video. I ended up buying a set of Nitto 555G2's for the front and 555R's for the rear. I am now considering the Stifflers traction bar set up. In your opinion, is it worth the money? Does it drastically improve your traction/launch? Thanks man! Also, have you considered installing a stabilizer bar (Sway bar) kit on your truck? Thank you!
Hey S Guzman. I did the tires and the traction bars at the same time. So I don't really know which was more effective. I don't know what sway bar kit you're talking about. The truck has away bars from factory on the back and front. Do you have a link for this kit? Sorry I wasn't more help. I did the traction bars and tires and driveshaft safety loop all at the same time because I was worried that tires only would be too abusive on the driveshaft. The traction bars prevent axle wind which is safer for the driveshaft and in case it would break, I installed the loop.
@@605BOLT Here is the link for the sway bar kit I am considering: www.summitracing.com/parts/hss-2242/make/ford/model/f-150/submodel/lightning. I am also considering the Stifflers traction bar kit. Not sure which one to do first.
Interesting. Not knowing for sure, this seems like a higher performance than stock away bar kit. If you're looking for drag racing performance it probably won't do a lot for you. Probably will make it handle a little better though. I don't do much of the curvy stuff but if you do get it I'd be curious to know what your think of it.
@@605BOLT No problem. I had actually ordered them but then realized they were in back order until June so I decided to cancel my order. Just installed American Racing Headers full exhaust and it goes it for a tune in a couple of weeks. Once I get it back, Stifflers may be next.
Dang. I don't know what the work around is there. I have stock exhaust so for me it was no issue. Probably will have to modify the exhaust some. No real way to modify the bars that I know of.
