Historical: Anyone have experience with a truck arm (dirt) late model?

[Highwayman]

Just curious about this, I've never seen one up close but was told CJ Rayburn at one time built some truck arm equipped dirt late models, probably late 80's early 90's. Anybody have any experience with these cars or any truck arm cars on dirt? I remember a guy had one that ran at the track we frequented back then, 1998-99(7 Flags Speedway aka, West Atlanta Speedway), but I never got around to looking under it. All i remember was I think Mike Head bought it for his son to race, but he got killed before he ever got to race it. Then this guy bought it and only raced it a few times that i remember. Was suppose to be a very tight car and I was curious what anybody remembers about them, their tendencies. Were they edgy or forgiving? Whatever you know or can remember...

Thanks

[old17ford]

I built a limited lm in the early 80s with truck arms .Won a ton of races with it on 5/8 mile red clay track .Was good in tacky but bad fast in the dry slick . Won a 40lap super lm race from the rear one sunday the dryer it got the better it handled .302 FORD motor .

[Highwayman]

I built a limited lm in the early 80s with truck arms .Won a ton of races with it on 5/8 mile red clay track .Was good in tacky but bad fast in the dry slick . Won a 40lap super lm race from the rear one sunday the dryer it got the better it handled .302 FORD motor .

That's awesome! So you built it from scratch or'd you buy a chassis and put it together? 5th arm or pullbar? Any idea how long the truck arms were? Cool, very cool, thanks for sharing that.

[RCJ]

Had a IMCA mod with long trailing arms like truck arms.If you had a real limited motor or raced on a big track it might work.I wouldn't waste my time today.

[old17ford]

Yes i built it from scratch on the floor of the shop out of our salvage yard all i bought was roll bar tubing and 4 carrera coil over shocks. Cant remember how long but about 4 ft arms from old chevy pu cut down .Didnt need 5th arm or pullbar the arms took there place . Racing was fun back then be 67 next mouth but still LOVE it . By the way it was built in 1977 or 78 not the 80s getting old .

[Highwayman]

Yes i built it from scratch on the floor of the shop out of our salvage yard all i bought was roll bar tubing and 4 carrera coil over shocks. Cant remember how long but about 4 ft arms from old chevy pu cut down .Didnt need 5th arm or pullbar the arms took there place . Racing was fun back then be 67 next mouth but still LOVE it . By the way it was built in 1977 or 78 not the 80s getting old .

Did you run Golden Isles?

[old17ford]

Just 1 time drove my buddy car new 421ci nova when it was oil base track was to fast back then blew up going in 3 bad day . MY stepson races now got a RAYBURN and a grt i like the rayburn the best .

[Highwayman]

Just 1 time drove my buddy car new 421ci nova when it was oil base track was to fast back then blew up going in 3 bad day . MY stepson races now got a RAYBURN and a grt i like the rayburn the best .

I like the Rayburn's too.

[B1 crew]

I drove a Rayburn truck arm car from that time period. Car was excellent on bigger track like Granite city 1/2 mile,Whitecity 1/2 mile ,Spoonriver and Paducah but wasn't very good on stop and go small slick tracks. Not much roll steer and hard to get right combo for small tracks. After I stopped driving this car owners cut back up and put different suspension on rear..

[Highwayman]

I drove a Rayburn truck arm car from that time period. Car was excellent on bigger track like Granite city 1/2 mile,Whitecity 1/2 mile ,Spoonriver and Paducah but wasn't very good on stop and go small slick tracks. Not much roll steer and hard to get right combo for small tracks. After I stopped driving this car owners cut back up and put different suspension on rear..

I remember Mike Head bought a Rayburn truck arm for his son, just before he was killed. Only ran it maybe twice, but said it was VERY tight. They were running on 3/8 West Atlanta. Seemed like we had more suspension diversity back then. Now its all monkey see, monkey doo anymore. JMO