Technical Hairpin vs split wishbone

What do you guys think is stronger? Im looking at the front of my hairpin where it attaches at the axle and I’m unsure how much trust I have in it. Thoughts??

Also what era would hairpins would have been ran at?

 

It would be nice to see a side view of what you have.

 

The bones are probably stronger if you are going to beat the **** out of it. Well made hairpins That are made with the right size tubing shouldn't be a problem. Unless you plan to run up and down my driveway at 30 mph that is. That's 400 ft of severe suspension test.

 

You're asking about the Batwings? If so it depends on who welded them up. Personally I like the look of split stock bones. Bob

 

Hard to tell from your photo but it looks like you have the brackets shown in the top photo. Seriously, I’d be more concerned with the scrub radius on that front end.

 

You didn't ask, but hairpins are adjustable. Wishbones aren't (except with a cutoff wheel and welder ).

Curtis-style hairpins were first used on oval track roadsters & Indy cars in the late 1940's. I think they slowly filtered into street use in the mid '50's, but wishbones were cheap and readily available in junk yards so were still used for a long time.

 

An un-split wishbone is always best if it fits your application. Turns out the Ford engineers knew what they were doing.

 

Unsplit wishbone ,may not be as cool ,but you cant beat the ride !!!

 

Depending on the specifics of the hairpins, I'd expect them to be lighter than split bones but not quite as strong. How strong is strong enough in this application? That seems like a fairly fundamental question to me. Can you make the decision without answering that?

I'd expect that the limiting factor in a hairpin is going to be the slenderness of especially the bottom chord. That's why hairpins often have bracing somewhere along their length.

Stock early Ford suspension is geometrically correct. It doesn't bend anything which doesn't function by bending. It's actually a really excellent solution to a slightly different problem as a hot rod!

 

Unsplit wishbones are the best...“triangulation”. When they are split, a bind is introduced...not ideal. The hairpins are designed with a slight amount of give (flex), to help with the non-triangulated bind. Luckily most hot rod front suspensions don’t have very much travel...so they work ok. Beam axles also have some helpful “give”, (twist), but there are some problems with tubular axles as they don’t have the needed give in a slight bind situation. Tubular axles work great with 4 bar suspensions.

 

I've done 100's of ch***is using P&J steel hairpins and a some with So-Cal stainless hairpins and the only problem I've had was a ch***is with a 5 inch tube axle and after time there was a steel batwing failure which was cured with the installation of new batwings and a forged I beam axle. I'm seeing more split wishbone installs lately and if I were still doing customer ch***is I would be doing the same. I follow Henry at Steadfast Mfg and he has been using 46 to 48 bones on almost all his ch***is. I'm currently doing a ch***is for my new deuce roadster and have So-Cal stainless hairpins and also a nice pair of 46-48 bones and am torn as which to use?

 

I like the look of a four bar I think its more of a race car look

 

I love split and unsplit bones but a beautiful set of hairpins just screams racecar. Like this Kurtis Midget from 1947

 

I think some racers of the late 20's/ early 30's used hairpins, at least in the rear, I recall seeing a photo of them in a ?Frontenac? racing parts catalog.

 

Wonder why? Looks?
I know the 37-41 and 42-48 share the same size perch boss.

 

The ‘42-‘48 ‘bones are the longest, maybe they just prefer the look.

 

The "kick" at the front of the 48 wishbones allows more clearance for the tie rod under them. Steadfast likes to use 5" dropped axles which would be even harder to get the tie rod under the wishbones. They have flat crossmembers and springs so there is no room above the wishbone.

 

Maybe so. Makes sense.

 

I'm also using a 5 inch axle and will either use the 5 inch dropped arms from Roadster Supply for hairpins or their deep drop arms which they sell to Steadfast for the 46 to 48 bones. Yes the late bones do extend back a long ways on the side of the rails.

 

Split Bones with as little seperati0n at the back as possible.

 

Split bone have the best look 4 bars over hair pins

 

One advantage of hairpins over split bones that hasn't been mentioned is the fact that they allow the tie rod to go "through" the hairpin in the space between the upper and lower bars (as illustrated in the OP's pic), whereas that same space on a split bone would have the tie rod in direct line with the wishbone.

As Alchemy and Krylon32 mention, deep drop axles require deep drop steering arms, which place that tie rod hanging down quite low. My 34 has a dropped crossmember and 'low' Posies spring and dropped I beam, so there's no space above the split bones so I have to go under (which makes me nervous), so I'm considering hairpins to keep my steering linkage up, behind the axle instead of down near the scrub line.

 

My roadster hairpins.

 

New to vintage suspension systems. Questions regarding these different types, I have a vintage Pete and Jakes 4 bar set up, I was thinking about running on Dads 29 RPU. What are the pros and cons to running it?

 

Thanks for all the replies, I know it’s hard to run split bones with a 5” drop axle but these bat wings do not look strong to me, am I being too worried? What’s your guys experience ? I’ve only had split bones on previous cars and I know they hold up.. I do drive my cars hard, I plan for the 33 to see dirt and gravel roads along with the street, so when I look at those little bat wings I get nervous.

 

Yes, you are worrying too much.

 

split bones don't flex when you steer off the wheel tracks to let another rod p*** by... entering a parking lot or driveway...
35 years ago they were known to break perch pins when using a new tube axle...
unsplit is the best..

 

Here is a shot from the 1932 film "Hot Saturday". This T has hairpins made from pinched wishbones.



The whole movie is on youtube;

 

If you know how to set up a ch***is etc you only have to set it up once and right. 7 degree caster and let her eat. I don't want 4 extra points of possible nuts loosening or failure points. Split Bones are the best looking and best performing hands down.

Hairpins are meant to be in your ladies hair; not holding your front axle on.

Different strokes for different folks I guess...

If someone gave me a hairpin front end, I would throw it in the trash or sell it cheap at the next swap meet.

 

Wasn't too many years ago that four bars were THE thing, not so much with the "traditional" movement.
On the right car they still can look good, my pal owned this many years back.


On the rear of a model A hiboy (A ch***is), I think they look just plain wrong, I won't post an example as my opinion could hurt someones' feelings.