Everyone debating this, the ones talking about center of gravity, etc. Every single semi truck going down the road doesnt have any sort of sway bar and they're just fine.

Sway bars may have their place on higher performance vehicles, but in reality I believe they were installed on trucks/suvs when people started buying them as status symbols and started complaining about the ride. None of my trucks or blazers from the 70's and 80s ever had a factory sway bar that I can remember. Add in the fact that our front ends, atleast the 4x4s have a track bar that adds to the rigidity of our suspension and again a sway bar is just another redundancy.

 

Yeap, trucks didn't use to have sway bars, very true. I also owned an old chevy truck that had drum brakes all the way around with a single pot master cylinder and no booster of any kind ( no power steering and no seat belts either, you died like a real man in that truck). Is the Excursion a whole bunch safer/ better off with its four wheel power assisted anti-locking disc brakes, you bet your sweet azz it is, same goes for the sway bars.

There have been advancements in automotive technology in the past 50 years (weird I know). Any (and I mean any) new ecobox throw away car now drives and handles better than all the old muscle cars and old school trucks we dream about now. I had a 62 thunderbird at one point, a personal luxury car with a 390 four barrel, power everything, the top of line in 1962. Dang thing was fun, but I could take corners much more safety and faster in my modern lifted 4x4 diesel 3/4 truck than that car. And the four wheel drum brakes on the 62 T-bird worked great for one stop, try to stop again before they cooled off and the effectiveness went down/ stopping distance went up.

As for class eight trucks, sure lets look at those, they didn't adopt disc brakes until around the year 2000 or so, lets just say that HD commercial vehicles are not exactly on the cutting edge of modern technology, and they're typically driven by people with special licences/ special training and bought by people that don't care about anything other that operating cost.

So, can you drive around without sway bars, sure you can, absolutely,,, you can also drive around a model T everywhere too if you were so inclined. But that doesn't mean the model T is safer ,or better ,or more reliable, or anything else, it just means people have done it in the past and you can do it too if you want.
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2001 Ex 1 owner 4x4 over 400k

Installed the Helwig "big bar" about 20 years ago. At the time they called the finish "shot peened".

I love the ride and handling with the rear sway bar. After all these years it still looks brand new! A pavement queen. The bar is not visible since it resides in front of the rear differential.

The few Ex's I have seen that came from the factory with a rear sway bar, used a different type of system. The bar was very small diameter and is visible from the rear of the truck.

This is one modification I would do again!

Bilstein shocks all around as well. I use 5100 on the front and 4600 on the back.

Even the sway bar links are still original. Excellent product. I don't drive off road so the sway bar is not an issue for me.

 

I live in the mountains. That means more twisty than straight. I run a front sway, no rear. No steering damper. 4 inch superlift. Bilstien shocks. Pmf monster track bar.The front of the truck has absolutly no roll. It is flat under all but the bleeding edge of the envelope. I can feel the road perfectly. No overboosted steering. I can drive this rig(downhill) faster than some ricky racers. If I didn't have the front bar, I'd be in a ditch.