That's correct, my personal opinion (same as Jadrice) is that the Ankeny bar gives a "different" feel and/or feedback in the steering wheel. I like the feel the Gendron gives, especially when matched with the ball bearing mounts. Others may like this bar and the feel, I simply did not. I progressed as a driver with the Gendron bar as part of my setup, so I'm sure there is some bias towards this bar. If you have the ability like Stephen, try it for yourself.

For reference, I have only tried the Gendron bar on the 3rd and 4th settings on both the original bushing mounts and the ball bearing mounts. The Ankeny bar is quality, and the optional (at least at the time) mounts were impressive. A few years back, Ankeny offered some of his own custom mounts for the Gendron bar.

-Marc

 

Obviously subjective, but could you describe the feel of each one and the difference between them, from your experience?

 

problems with rubbing.
gendron bar with oem mount. arms rub steering boot and i am now replacing steering boots on both sides.
Was looking to order new bearing mounts from Bill, but now i am hearing the mounts rub too?
any solutions, anyone running bar and not having any problems?

 

Bill said just that bearing mount was rubbing. Mine doesn't rub at all. My first Gendron bar without the bearing mounts on my old BS car rubbed through the boots in a weekend. Buy the bearing mounts, they're nice!

 

I have had no issues with my bearing mounts as well.

 

I love my bearing mounts.

 

I'm pretty sure the issue is not when the blades are full stiff as they will move vertically as depicted.

When the blade is full soft, will still move vertically, but, you may have a two stage effect as the blade has to deflect a certain amount before the bar will start to twist.

The biggest issue is anytime you are at a partial setting the blade will deflect at an angle both laterally and vertically which probably explains the complaints about the feel.

 

I would imagine that the endlinks are not able to be positioned vertically, thus the stiffest position is when the arms are oriented in plane with the force from the endlink.

 

I made 1/2" aluminum spacers to drop my OEM mounts down (they sit between the frame rails and T-brackets). Just pick up some 1/2" x 2" aluminum bar stock from a local metal shop, drill some holes, buy longer bolts, and for about $10 your boots will be safe. Someone is selling them on here now, but they're easy enough to make for a lot cheaper.

BB mounts are nice, but they add almost 5lbs. to the nose (just a guess - has anyone weighed them?). I probably wouldn't do it unless I needed the extra stiffness, but I guess it could be worthwhile if you want to eliminate bushing compliance from your roll stiffness equation.

 

+1.

Bill is local to my region and we are good friends. He's a stand up guy.