Technical ANYONE STILL USING TUBE FRONT AXLES?

With quarter ellipticals on my 26 roadster

 

Two cars immediately come to mind for me, no less than the Grabowski and Ivo Model T’s.

 

Yep those are the ones I was thinking about. Two of the better builders of the era

 

Both these historic cars have 37 FordV8 60 tube axles, any of the other ones are not so safe.

 

If Jim Ewing of Super Bell were still around, I think he would have something to say about the safety of his tube axles. Judging from the comments I've read, there is general misunderstanding about the difference in the structural characteristics between I-beam axles and and tube axles. A more detailed explanation can be read elsewhere, but to put it simply I-beam axles will bend a little and come back to their original shape; if tube axles bend they usually break; therefore, it's not the axle that causes failure but how it is set up. This is why most tube front axles that give long, trouble free performance use the four-bar method. The forces that act on it don't twist because the parallelogram formed by the two bars move up down, keeping the ends vertical and in alignment; also, most tube axles use a Panhard bar that further limits side to side motion, limiting further the side to side travel of the axle. When they are used with hair-pins there is still unnecessary twisting. There is a great deal of information on this subject available for those interested in understanding the why and wherefores. As has been stated elsewhere, many tube axles have done duty in various race set ups. I have one stashed in a closet I'm going to use with a four-bar set up on a Forty Pick Up, if I ever get it paid for. And, yeah, I think it'll be safe and traditional, though maybe not as fashionable as some might want but, like I've said before, I grew up around bootleggers and whiskey haulers whose tradition was built on staying ahead of the competition.