After all of the time I have spent working on/under my truck, I finally went out to look at the rear sway bar. To my surprise, it is not the 27mm that I thought I had when I was contemplating upgrading to the 30mm F-350 bar or the Hellwig. I had a 30mm open ended wrench that I was going to test the diameter of the bar with, and the bar barely filled half of the space in the wrench. It is much smaller diameter than I had thought and the end links alone can be moved/moved with very little effort. I can only imagine how underwhelming they perform when needed and towing my camper.

I have done some research and it looks like I may have missed the boat on getting a steal of a deal on the 30mm OEM F-350 bar. I cannot find the bar anywhere online for under $250, when only a couple of years ago they were less than half of that. I guess the cost of bent steel and semi-gloss paint has gone up considerably.

I believe I could still use the existing saddles and u-bolts, but the end links, hardware, bar brackets and the bar itself would all need to be replaced. Since I don't have many pick-n-pulls around here, finding a used one in a yard is a slim to none chance.

I stopped counting the cost of the OEM parts from this listand then this list when I reached $325. I figured at that point, I may as well get the Hellwig kit for my truck which comes in at I also looked at Roadmaster sway bars, but the kits were not as complete as the Hellwig and still came in at $300 from e-trailer.

You win some and you lose some I guess. I will post up pictures and my thoughts on the results once I get the Hellwig installed as it seems like the clear choice/winner at this point.

 

I installed the Hellwig about 1.5yrs ago and it made a significant improvement in handling unloaded and particularly towing with weight distribution. The next significant upgrade was the airlift air bags with internal snubbers. Those improved towing and the weight distribution even further. I had the opportunity to scale last year with them including the family of 4 and trailer at the end of a camping trip with the following weights:

Front axle: 4500
Rear axle 6700
Trailer axles: 5500

This was with an empty holding tank, not much firewood, no kayaks and corresponding contractor racks either.

I will be going the final mile soon with a set of PMF weld on traction bars.

You'll like the hellwig with the easy install, quality construction, and you'll notice the improvement the first clover leaf you take.

 

I have to be honest here, this was the first time I have been disappointed in my truck since owning over the past 2 years. Although, it is no fault of the truck, it is Ford that let me down. I guess if I was going to be disappointed or let down though, this is the time/part to do it on.

I will have to look into PMF for traction bars. OUO bolt on bars are on my list, but since they ring in at $1000, they are at the very bottom.

Which hole did you install the end links on? According the instructions the ones toward the end are for the lightest correction so I thought I would install the end links on the middle hole.

I was going to install the Hellwig end links to about the same height at the OEM ones are now. Since they are adjustable for height, did you do the same or adjust them lower or higher?

Did you install the front Hellwig sway bar as well or leave the OEM one?

Thanks for the information on the Hellwig, I am sure I will be happy with it, but I think the POS bar under there now just caught me by surprise this morning.

 

After talking with Trevor at PMF and thinking on it for a few months, I think the Weld on PMF single bar traction bars will be the best path. They're still 600 shipped but I'm ok with that as they have a stellar reputation. The other part that pushed me to PMF aside from crazy overbuilt design, is that the frame bracket is centered on the frame meaning, the axle mounts are inboard of the U bolts thus, the U bolts don't need to be removed to install. The OUO require removal of the Ubolts as they mount inside of the Ubolts. While not a huge deal, recall I installed Airbags which complicate the Ubolt work. I just don't want to do it and spend several hundred more.

Back to the Hellwig, there weren't any Holes to choose from that I recall. It was a matter of adjusting the bar to be level at ride height. I can't see leaving the OEM one in place with this.

 

Bought the Hellwig 7268 for $315 shipped. Install and comparison pictures to follow.

 

Front Hellwig I installed on the front was a larger unit than stock,and was a big improvement but still on the fence to replace the factory rear axle swaybar due to the Hellwig Big Wig is just slightly larger,on truck in signature.

 

Like to see pictures.

 

Agreed on your thoughts. As I mentioned earlier I thought I had the 27mm installed and was not planning to upgrade to the 30mm or the Hellwig. Although, when I crawled under the truck the sway bar mounted may as well not even be there. I really is about 3/4 of an inch thick, if that and needs to go ASAP.

 

Boanza35,dont have skills to post pictures,but front factory swaybar was 1-1/4 & Hellwig p/n 7640 was 1-1/2 dia.& easy clean install.plenty of pics with Hellwig.

 

My rear sway bar arrived to the house yesterday, but not in time for me to install it before taking the camper out for the next few days. It was boxed very nicely and secured by molded foam and the parts were in a box glued very well to the center of the larger box. The larger box was double rigid layers of cardboard with heavy duty staples. The shipping process was my biggest concern as I know how UPS/FedEx can sometimes be a bit rough with larger and heavier boxes.

The bar is very sturdy and should make a vast improvement. I will probably get it mounted sometime during the week next week and then drive it on the weekend if I have time.

It was $315 shipped to the door during a sale and with a discount code from SD Truck Springs. Considering it would have cost me nearly this much to get the slightly thinner F-350 bar, I am happy I could get everything from Hellwig for the same price.

I may swap out the front sway bar as well if I am impressed enough with the rear upgrade, time will tell. Bilstein 4600 HD shocks are going on this summer too, so the old girl should handle and ride like a dream compared to now.

 

The front Hellwig swaybar is a beast,waiting for opinions before ordering for rear axle.

 

Rear sway bar? There is no rear sway bar on my truck Was it removed by a PO or is it an add on thing?

 

My 99.5 didn't come with a rear sway bar either. I added one when we upgraded to a larger travel trailer. The addition of the rear sway bar and airbags made a huge difference. It wasn't a Helwig though. I went to a junk yard and got the factory rear sway bar and all the brackets and hardware.

 

Hahaha, some trucks don't have it. I think it may be a part of the towing package offered then. I have a spare one if you want it. If not. I'm making knives out of it. Lol.

 

I may take you up on that. My short bus project has one on it. I'll take some pics and post so we can see if it's the same thing. I expect it is heavier than OEM for my truck.