I have a 2021 F-350 Super Duty with a factory installed rear sway bar that came as part of the Camper Package option from Ford when the vehicle was built.
Does anyone have first-hand experience on a 4th generation F-350 with this OEM rear sway bar compared to the Hellwig Big Wig?

I see a lot of truck camper testimonials that the Hellwig bar is the single best modification they've made, but I suspect that most had no rear sway bar before installing the Hellwig so I am wondering if the upgrade is worth it.

 

Preceeding generation 2012, but my F350 did have the factory bar which I removed and installed a Hellwig. I could not tell the factory rear bar did anything to help handling with my camper. Rancho 9000s also really helped.

 

Replaced my 2022 Camper Package sway bar with a Helwig Big Wig. Seems to have made a huge difference. Especially side to side. I'll be putting one on the 2023 dually on order.

 

'18 F30 with factory sway bar changed to Big Wig. Made a very beneficial noticeable difference.

 

The Big-Wig is adjustable so that is a positive. Had one on a 2018 F350 and it helped a lot.

 

It made a difference for me. Going slow over very rough areas (forest and dirt roads) it would rock back and forth. When it kept rocking after I passed the rough spot getting set for the next one I would have to stop to keep it from continuing to rock.
I liked the tighter feeling on the road when the wind was blowing from the sides.

Having the factory one made it easier to install the Hellwig because the upper mounts are already installed

 

The purpose of a sway bar is to evenly distribute road shocks from one wheel to the opposite one which can improve handling. With my pickup the addition of overload springs and Ranch adjustable shocks and higher load capacity tires provided 100% of the gains in handling with a heavy slide-in camper in the bed.

I later added a Hellwig Bigwig rear sway bar and found it provided no gain in handling with the camper in the bed. lt did however, greatly smooth out the ride when the bed was empty. Before adding the rear sway bar (non on the stock 2500 truck) if I hit a bump the rear end would bounce up and greatly reduce control in turns. With the addition of the rear sway bar this wheel hop was greatly reduced.

If your truck already has a rear sway bar there is nothing to be gained by changing it with a Hellwig sway bar. Focus on the load support, shock dampening, and tire support with the truck. Tires that barely support the load are going to experience more sidewall flex which impacts handling and the tires will run hotter and be more lilely to suddenly fail.

What we call shock absorbers the Brits more accurately call dampeners, and they are meant to minimize spring oscillation and not to provide load support. Before I added SuperSprings to my truck the shocks had to work a lot harder as the range of axle movement was greater. I needed to fix the springs first. The adjustable shocks helped in that my rear wheels with the camper in the bed needed twice as much dampening as the front wheels and I could dial in the adjustments to minimize porpoising. Adjustable shocks like the Rancho XL should be included in any "camper" package.

 

I am perhaps not understanding what you are saying, however it sounds like, in your opinion, those of us who had factory sway bars and changed to a Hellwig and report improvement are all mistaken?

 

Thanks for sharing your experiences, it looks like I should keep the Hellwig Big Rig rear sway bar on my list of potential upgrades. I know there are a bunch of other factors that effect overall handling, but it sounds like those that swapped OEM to Hellwig felt it was noticeably better. Our experience with the factory camper package suspension has been pretty good for the first 6,000 miles, but trying to get an idea if a few simple mods could improve it further.

 

It is what is referred to as the placebo effect. My GM 2500 pickup truck had no rear sway bar and adding the Bigwig provided a great reduction in wheel hop when the bed was empty. With a thousand or more pounds in the bed of the truck there was no gain in how the truck rode or handled with the addition of the sway bar. Anyone who thinks that a sway bar is going to increase load capacity does not understand how they actually work.

Bottom line - with a 3700 lb camper in the bed of my truck the improvements in handling were the result of adding SuperSprings at the rear wheels and adding Rancho XL adjustable shocks at all four wheels.

With my Class C motorhome its 2020 Mercedes chassis had a very good rear sway bar and nothing to gain replacing it with a Hellwig. Older models had lighter duty sway bars and at least the cab chassis that the motorhome companies were specifying came with better ones with current models. The Sprinter chassis was overloaded with the motohome and it would have been better to buy something that used the Ford E-450 cab chassis.

 

Did you install the Hellwig before or after you modified your springs?

What I discovered over the years is impressions about handling and what helps are highly individualistic as combinations of campers and trucks along with loadings and driving skills vary greatly. I could say your impressions of the impact your spring change makes is a placebo effect. In the end this is all just opinion yours or mine and neither is any more valid.

 

My .02 is that going with a BR swaybar will make a good truck better.
Replaced my factory bar with a BR and I could actually tell the difference right away.

I even added a front swaybar, BR of course, and swapped out my single steering damper for a dual BDS unit with some fox 2.0's to match what I have on the four corners of my truck.
Haven't tried the ranchos but I had bilstien 5100's on my previous truck and the 2.0's on my present truck work a bit better for my load.

Wider tires make a noticeable difference also. Im running Toyo tires with a load range of "F" so the side walls are pretty stiff as well as being able to air up to 80psi when loaded.

Progressive spring pack on the rear is for me the biggest game changer. When fully loaded my overloads aren't even close to touching so most of the time the load is on the 8 springs and not just concentrated on one as other systems provide.

Having your "load" tight on the back makes a big difference when driving.
However you get it handled is up to you.

Bottom line : Replacing the factory swaybar with a BR swaybar will make a noticeable and positive difference.
The hype is real.

 

In the end, in my opinion, discussions like this are fun, but the only way we could really compare the impact of changing or adding aftermarket parts would be to take a single truck camper and put the parts on that single sample to control of variations in truck and camper and run them in controlled environment. I had the chance to do that in the past on actual factory test tracks where everything was controlled and the differences could be telling. I never had the chance to do that with truck campers, but I wish we all had the opportunity to do that.

 

100% agree.
All that we are doing is hopefully truthfully relating our OWN experience's and our OWN opinions of our OWN experiences for others to consider in making their OWN choices.

Lots of different factors for each situation. There is not one right answer for all in my opinion.

 

As I understand it, Hellwig makes the Camper package rear sway bar. I got from a reliable source a few years ago when I got my 2020 F 450 and was considering the Hellwing even tho I had ordered the Camper package...its one helluva big sway bar!

Note the Finned Alum Banjo on my F 450, not sure if it means anything but I do have the Truck Camper Cert package