I am looking at adding a rear anti sway bar to my truck. I have a couple of questions about this.

1. Will this really help with stability while towing. Have heard it make a difference while towing my camper (I have a 35' TT)

2. I have found they make different size bars, a 1 1/8" and a 1 1/2". I am guessing the bigger will be better, but is it worth the extra $100.

3. Are they hard to install.

My signature tells you what truck I have. I do not have the camper package either.

Thanks for the help.

 

They make a big difference when towing, they are easy to install, but I'd probably go with the smaller one if there's a $100 difference in price.

 

1. They help with some loads. Tongue heavy, or campers in particular. With travel trailers, they are usually pretty tongue heavy, so it would probably help you.

2. The larger will help, but probably not worth the money.

3. Easy to install. Four bolts.

Extra Credit: Keep in mind that sway bars by design reduce the truck's willingness to articulate. If you plan on off roading where articulation may be needed keep this in mind. If you only rarely go off road you could consider taking it off before the trip, or just leave it. Also, there are quick release versions for this. For mild to moderate off roading the sway bar probably wont impact your experience too much.

 

I tow my travel trailer almost every weekend and I can say its night and day! With just my sway bar installed I don't feel the wind much at all. I also have another set up for longer trips which is a weight distro hitch... with that the truck and trailer are one unit and it hauls like a 5er!

 

Thanks for the info guys. I am going with the Hellwit 7271. It's a 1 1/2" and seems to be the best they make. The smaller one I mentioned I think was a older model and only 1 place online has them. The Hellwit site only shows the 1 1/2" bar. Reps to all 3.

 

Post pics when you are done. I'm thinking about doing the same thing.

 

I will. Just ordered it this morning.

 

If you don't have a rear sway bar, it does wonders for the side to side sway when the right side of the road dips and when you corner....

another caveat before doing this:
in my old Ex's when I put Hellwigs on, I carried much more speed thru the turns and so had to stow away a lot of the stuff I left out before since they slid from side to side now

on edit: WOW, it's gone way up since I bought my $135 bar

 

I got my kit yesterday. Gonna try to get it installed tonight so I have it to bring the trailer home next Monday. I'll let you know how the install goes, looks pretty simple.

 

When you get it finished and are doing pics, can you also get a shot and measure the distance between the bar and the rear diff cover? I'm going to install a Mag Hytec cover in the next few months and I'm curious if the bar will clear the larger cover.

 

Sure will, going to go put in on today. No time the other day.

 

Kevin, if I drop my truck off at your place, can you get my leveling kit and air bags in too?

Interested to see some pics of this as well. I took the anti sway bars off my old truck since the springs were so stiff, there wasn't a need for 'em. The '11's seem to have a good amount of body roll, the Rancho 9000's stiffened it up some but I suspect the rear sway bar will make a good bit of difference when towing.

 

not looking for controversy, just a question for my continuing education. On my collector car ('65 Buick Skylark) I added an aftermarket sway bar to it. I was informed by the shop that in order to work properly to control sway and keep the suspension under a balanced load (so it wouldn't swap ends in a tight corner), the sway bars needed to be matched front to rear. I don't remember the exact sizes but I do remember the front was slightly smaller than the rear (but about twice the size of stock) upon their reccomendation. I do remember that with those oversize sway bars (as well as new suspension parts, bushings and gas shocks), my car handled like it was on rails around corners which is quite a feat for a 47 year old GM A-Body.

So here is my question. If you install a larger rear antisway bar in these trucks, shouldn't you also install a larger one in the front? Edumacate me.

 

My guess would be no. The theory is to keep the front and the back rolling (or not rolling) together by using the same size bar. But that would also mean you would need the same suspension front and rear.

 

Got the sway bar installed. I have a friend that has a lift in his garage and that made it a lot easier. The instructions say you can do it on the ground, but that would be hard to do. We put it up and installed the bar with no weight on the suspension which made it very easy to move the bar into place over the rear axle. We put the the supports on the frame and then put the truck on the ground to adjust the bars to make sure they are level to the ground. After that we put the truck back up and tighten everything up while it was in the air.

Lots of room around the housing and the bar.






With the truck on the ground the supports are below the springs, but while in the air they sit right next the them. That is the reason for putting the truck on the ground to adjust everything.








The brackets around the axle face up on a angle


You also have to make sure this brake line does not get pinched while installing the bar by the axle. Thus making it much easier with the truck in the air too.




I have not had a chance to see how it handles since I had to bring back a load of firewood to the camp site. I will let you know on Monday when I get home and tow the trailer if it makes a difference.