Stiffening trailing arms, Anyone done anything like this? Options

[John]

I'm considering strengthening the trailing arms.

I have looked at the steel plates people add to wrap around the stock trailing arms and I can understand that this may increase the strength of the trailing arm some, but the weight it adds seems counter-productive and a band-aid solution at best.

I know that this is how dad did it and it's been working pretty good up until now, but I keep thinking there might be a better way.

My idea after looking at my trailing arms for the better part of the last 2 days is to add some stiffeners through the arm box similar to the tube running through the arms to access the inner brake pad adjuster.


The tube is welded to both sides of the box and would serve to keep the two sides from deflecting. This is a brace, and would stiffen the tube member significantly without adding much weight.

I'm thinking the addition of 2 additional tubes would decrease deflection more than the plate stiffeners and will be no where near the weight.

Anyone else think this?

I'm sure in the last 40 or so years, someone else has had this same idea.

I would love to see some pictures or see some results (I hate to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to)


Thanks for reading.