Anti-Sway Bars

76BBSub · April 24, 2001

My Suburban used almost roll over going around the easiest turns, even at low speed. It also rocked and rolled, and panic stops were even more of a panic because the rear end would get unstable.

Well, I bought a set of Hellwig anti-sway bars, 1-1/8" diameter for the front and rear. Installed them over the weekend, what a difference!! The body is nice and stable, the handling is much more predictable. Panic braking seems to be better, but it was really bad in the rain before and I haven't driven it in the rain yet to see if that is improved.

The best part? I was driving on some backroads up near Lake Somerville (Texas) yesterday. There were two guys on Buell sportbikes who passed me as I was doing about 75 mph. We were coming into a nice S-curve, so I got up with them and we hauled some butt through the S. I looked down mid-way, we were at 100 and I was right there with them! Of course, they were probably wondering who the crazy guy in the old truck was.

Anyway, if you have a pre-'99 truck and would like to improve handling, road holding, and predictability of your truck look into some new bars. The '99+ GMs are pretty awesome already (sold my '99 GMC SLE last month) but I bet a rear swaybar would help there, too.

BTW, this was a bolt-on job, which took about an hour per bar to install.

Jeff

Frank S · April 24, 2001

I know exactly what you are saying.

I had a '79 Malibu that I took the sway bar off of while I was trying to decide what I was going to do with the car and I gave it to a friend with a Monte Carlo.

I decided to just drive the Malibu the way it was and my friend decided to sell his Monte Carlo about 6 months later so he gave the sway bar back to meI couldn't believe the difference it made on that car so I can only imagine what it did for your Suburban.

jeff · April 26, 2001

How low do they hang on the rear axle on a 4x4? I have see alot of street trucks use them but a 4x4 that will see off road. I am kinda leery on that. I would hate to spend bucks on a improvement just to have it get foobared when I go out and have fun

Kansas Kid · April 26, 2001

On the 4x4 Dodges I have seen with them, the anti-sway bar does not hang down below the rear differential, so they would effect ground clearance in no way.

76BBSub · April 27, 2001

On my Suburban it hangs above the axle, BUT, if you have any kind of lift I am not sure it would install properly. You should contact Hellwig Suspension and see what they have to say. I do know that they have different part numbers for 2WD and 4WD so they may have a bar that will work for your application. Of course, off-road driving typically doesn't respond well to a sway bar, since each wheel needs to react independently to outside conditions. Sway bars are for street driven vehicles which desire better handling. You may need to look at what you REALLY intend to do with your vehicle before you decide on swaybars.

Jeff