Old School Mono Leaf

Like the title says. Have a mono leaf / coilover chassis. Any old school chassis guru's remember how to set these things up? It has the lift bar also. Was wondering if using it as a way of tuning it was common.

I still have my notes from a chassis class I went to back in 1996 (?) put on by Bloomquist and Barry Wright. They covered some Mono-Leaf stuff. No guarantee as to its accuracy (but it must've worked for him) or how it would relate to today. 1) Run softer leafs (244?) on a slick track and stiffer (260/290?) on a hooked up track. 2) The RR coil straight up reduces roll (not sure how?) and tightens up the car, turns better through the corner. 3) You can run 80-90 lbs of RR bite with the LR out (wheel spacer). 4) A progressive 5th coil works somewhat well. 5) Scott won at Eldora with a 125# LR coil spring and a 200# RR coil spring (tight going in but better corner speed). 6) Keep the mono-leafs at the same angle (toe in) and run the rear sliders parallel to the ground. 7) You'll only get about 1" of 5th coil travel with mono-leafs. 8) Lift bar length (5th coil) should be 34". ***If any of it works, great. If not, blame Scott! He also talked about running a locker in the rearend and not a spool. Logic says a mono-leaf car won't want to turn very well, but lockers can be inconsistent as well.

Thanks for the information. Did he by chance say anything about front springs?

Nothing specific to mono-leafs. At the time (which was before the LR spring behind era on a 4-bar), he made it clear that you have to "work" the RF spring. The car he had at the class was a 4-bar. I had a couple mono-leaf cars way back when, but ran limited LM stuff on hard tires. The only thing I remember distinctly is that new leafs always made the car feel better. I liked Landrum leafs best. I wish the best for you, but with the stuff that's available today, unless your track stays hooked up and you have a ton of horsepower, you might get discouraged quickly.

Man you're talkin old school here. On our Warriors, we usually ran 500/500 and up to 550 on rf. Usually in the rear, the monos were rated at 55-65 lbs, we ran 200/200 for springs. We also ran a locker in the rear and ran the adjustable lowering block on the rr. Hope this helps!

Thanks guys. When they first created this class they wanted it to be a cheap throwback class. Since then they have allowed the bar cars back. There is one who is running a half leaf deal and is having very good success with it. He's won a few features this year already.

I've been thinking about floating the right rear like the fastboys setup. Just not sure what it will do with a coil over on the left rear instead of the stacked leaf. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Lol

You will bend the mono on the left floating it.

Scrap the mono and the coil and go to a stacked leaf on the LR, no lift bar.

Or

Mono and float both sides and run the lift bar.

Sounds like a great class to race in I like old school. Now as long as they keep the bar cars to 1 shock and spring per corner and no shock behind. Also keep the shocks standard 50/50 valving and get away from the high dollar stuff the mono leaf cars will compete just fine. I kind of miss this style racing you couldn't buy your wins you actually had to drive and know how to handle a car.

I'm going to try the floated rr. I think with the lift bar and coil on lr in front it will be strong enough to keep the lr mono from bending. Time will tell.