I bought my frame (rolling ) about 4 years ago, it has served me well, but I'm curious is this whole rear end out of a VW bus ??. Most spring plates I see stick out mine do not , I know that is common with old swing axles. Then the rear torsion bars are what confuse me they are a round tubing about 1 1/2" in diameter, are these factory ? should I try to beef them up? I have beat them in the woods pretty hard & not had any problems (knock on wood ). I know most everyone is running a reinforced trailing arm 2x3 ,3x5,ect, but I don't really see anything like mine maybe I'm just not seeing it .
Does anyone know what set up I have ?
Thanks for your help.
Bruce

Looks like bus to me , about 68 up. I know several with that setup. I think 68 had the big 5 bolt pattern and then they went to a small 5 pattern.

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

Mine has the small 5 bolt pateren, then I'm running adapters for a wide 5 VW, thanks for the input.
Bruce

You can eliminate the adapter by changing the drums. I think, I have also seen folks take the disc brake off of the front of the same bus and fab a bracket on the rear. I also once saw a set of those rear arms lengthened and longer axles.

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

I THINK ????? my rear disc brakes are from the front of a VW bus. I don't mind running the adapters because I like the wide 5 wheels, I would probally like to lengthen mine at some point and time, but should I box them in like I see done with the regular vw torsion bars?
Thanks, Bruce

One thing to be aware of, if you swap to wide 5 bus drums you will need to get long stub axles that match the drums or machine off the right amount. I trashed a set of wheel bearings learning that one. Also the splines in the spring plates/torsion bars have two different sizes early/late. I think 71 is the split. I had a bus torsion setup in my rail. I didn't ever have any problems with it. If you for some reason have a problem with the bearings beating out the rear bearing carriers precision alloy makes replacement chromoly ones. They were around $50 each when I check on them. I was thinking about building longer/wider arms to take advantage of the stiffer spring rate.

John

IIRC stockton wheel makes wheels in the 5x112 small bus pattern. You can also get 15" wheels for a 98 passat although the backspacing wont be what you want probably.

John

Some Mercedes are close enough to fit good too, I hear N the 68 bus wheel is wide 5

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

we ran bus stuff but we took out the tortion bars and turned them to swing axel size O D then built trailing arms boxed like IRS car that fit vanagan axels witch are longer than bus I think some where around 21 in gives you lots of travel and a soft ride

I run bus torsion set up in my rail and love it! I have put bus in every one of the four that i have had.By taking the wide five drum off, and machining the drum down to a smaller hub, to where the stock small five disc rotor will slide over the hub. You can then drill the small pattern to match. You may have to machine the surface flat for the rotor to sit flat against the hub, and some i have had to put washers between the two so they will seat firmly. By reindexing the spring plates I get more lift . I then cut a releaf cut on spring plate to relax the tension on the torsion bar and give a lot better and softer ride! the only thing that has ever happened to mine other than an occational cv is a broken trailing arm. it broke right where the tube slides into the cast housing. I have seen other problems from others tho