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Floater Rearends - Choosing The Right Rearend

In the planning of Lob Bomber, Frank Kimmel and I both knew we had to have a floater rearend. After all, this car is being built to run in Na's Street Stock Nationals and the rules require floater rearends generally because the series races on tracks like Kentucky Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Rockingham Raceway Greens, and other high-banked, high-speed asphalt tracks.

However, we would have opted for one anyway regardless of the rules. You see, floaters have both axles splined on both ends and a hub association with two outer bearings on it which is retained with a hub nut. The design of the floater keeps everything together in the consequence that you break an axle. That's a huge safety benefit. In a non-floater rearend if you fracture an an axle, you could lose the wheel, which can be dangerous. Imagine a at bouncing down the track with the hub assembly and axle still attached. That state of affairs has the potential to end very poorly.

Source: Circle Track Magazine