Someone has to answer this...

[Goin Off Bronco]

OK, I just have to know what you all believe to be the reason. The reason that it seems most all vehicles with a solid axle are secured to the leaf packs with "U" bolts ? Round or square.

Why not use bolts? Bolts and nuts? of course with plates engineered to be assembled in this manner.

Have any of you(most here do lots of axle swapping) ever diversed from "U" bolts and used another method? What did you do? Did it work? Did they come loose? Good stories,Bad stories.Pics?

 

[bigjhoov]

Seems like the u-bolts would just be the easiest way to go due to pure simplicity and less parts involved. I can't see an advantage to complicating the process. I may me over looking something though.

 

[67u13]

I have seen axles like that before, I think they are mostly on heavy duty trucks and I think it was a cheby that I saw them on. One drawback is the bottom plate and boltheads would be more prone to hang up on things while you are off roading.

 

[1owner66]

Have you really looked at some of the production welds on the spring perches? In the interest of production speed they are not the best quaility and by using regular bolts and nuts the only thing keeping you from ripping out your axles would be the welds. Plus using U bolts allows the bolted section to be as small as possible to get the most flex out of the springs. Regular nuts and bolts would require more space on the length of the springs and take away flex.

 

[Apogee]

Many have done this and documented it on Pirate4x4. Mostly I've seen it done on Toyotas running 63" Chevy springs, but there've been several. You can design a bolt plate such that it doesn't limit flex any more than U-bolts do. You can also design it such that you have no underhang...whereas that's a little tough to do with a u-bolt. That was the original driving force behind the bolt-plate design because it eliminates everything under the axle.

I don't personally like it because it puts more stress on your fasteners and is inherently more prone to loosening up. U-bolts with tall nuts are the universally accepted solution for more reasons than just cost. I'm always interested in options though...

 

[broncnaz]

Probably because there is more work involved assembling and making that type of system. Remember car manufacurers want to do things quick and cheap. much quicker and just as strong using the u bolt setup plus the ground clearance issues are solved as long as the ubolts are installed from the bottom up.

 

[Broncobowsher]

For mass production, a U-bolt is simple, cheap, strong and fast to assamble.

Functionally, it leaves the least vulnurable parts down below the axle. The threaded ends and nuts are up on top, away from rocks and such. Ever try and remove a nut from a bolt where the end of the threads have been smashed? It is lighter then running 2 plates and all the hardware needed to keep them together as well.

 

[Mikey]

Mass production costs. I used to do manufacturing engineering in a production plant. Any welding is costly and very difficult to hold weld quality constant. Your labor needs to be more skilled than a the guy/gal doing simple assembly of nuts and bolts.