That was funny and true too!
hellwig anti sway
Freshman User
Joined: Dec 2009
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yeah their lame instructions and half a$$ pictures tell you to put the parking brake cable retaining clip between the passenger side frame rail and new bolt.. makes no sense to me all that extra length and flex on the bolt... cut the little frame mounting tab off the parking brake bracket and it will mount through the hole in front of where the sway bar attaches to the frame with just a plain old 5/16 or 1/4 inch bolt and washer... also the bolts on the truck are metric and the ones they provide for the install are standard so ya need both metric and standard tools
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It was a bit of a PITA to install but it was worth the effort. I HATED needing both SAE and metric wrenches for the install. I was surprised how much it stiffened the rear end (speed bumps are tough if you don't hit them straight on).
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From: Lancaster, Ohio
Finally got some time to get my sway bar on, after throwing away the directions it went fairly well, took about an hour and half. Also put new Pro-Comp ES9000 shocks all the way around. Could not believe how much it improved the ride. Well worth the $$$$. Thanks to all of you on this forum for your imput, good luck on your install.
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Found a good price at SDTruckSprings.com. Noticed that Helwig also provides front sway bars. I have a 2WD Ex and am wondering if other have upgraded their front sway bars and what the ride difference was? What do you guys think? Upgrade the fronts and add the rears?
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 6,243
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From: Chicago and Mt Carroll IL
Hey Noa, I think your stock front bar is 1 1/8", the hellwig measures 1 1/4" which would seem on the surface to be of little effect; however...
How much difference will it make if I install a slightly thicker sway bar?
A number of factors determine the stiffness of a sway bar, including the bar's thickness and length, the length of the swing arm or lever, the bar material, and the bar's attachment method. But if two sway bars differ only in their diameters, all you need to know is that their relative stiffness (torsional rigidity) is proportional to the 4th power of their diameters. A small increase in diameter results in a large increase in sway bar stiffness. You can caclulate the actual percent difference in the stiffness using the following formula:
larger bar diameter4/smaller bar diameter4 * 100 = percent change in stiffness.
So swapping the stock front bar for the hellwig is quite an improvement.
How much difference will it make if I install a slightly thicker sway bar?
A number of factors determine the stiffness of a sway bar, including the bar's thickness and length, the length of the swing arm or lever, the bar material, and the bar's attachment method. But if two sway bars differ only in their diameters, all you need to know is that their relative stiffness (torsional rigidity) is proportional to the 4th power of their diameters. A small increase in diameter results in a large increase in sway bar stiffness. You can caclulate the actual percent difference in the stiffness using the following formula:
larger bar diameter4/smaller bar diameter4 * 100 = percent change in stiffness.
So swapping the stock front bar for the hellwig is quite an improvement.
Last edited by LMS Residential; Feb 21, 2010 at 06:07 AM. Reason: spelling
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