|Also I think
| trucks in general need a much bigger front sway bar than rear because
that's
| where all the weight is.
Yes. All factory set ups are designed to give understeer in a panic
situation on the highway. Since Pickups have more weight in the front they
tend to be spin happy. Add to the mix a high cg and braking and you really
have a problem.
|If the rear sway bar was larger and the front was
| left the same wouldn't pickups understeer even worse than they already
do.
But NO here. You stiffen the rear to neutralize understeer and stiffen the
front to neutralize oversteer. They put the big bar in front to create
understeer. You can neutralize it by adding a thicker rear bar. The
Hotchkis kit is balanced they bring the bars sizes up together, but I think
you'll notice there is a greater difference over factory in the rear than
the front. That helps give the Hotchkis setting a more neutral handling
characteristic as opposed to the factory understeer.
For guys like me that tow and haul and don't really want to SLAM their
truck (okay I want to but I resist the urge), I think it may help to go
with a little bigger rear bar. I think Hellwig makes a 7/8 or a 1" bar for
us.
I stiffer rear bar is also a plus for towing stability.
-Steve Ekstrand
Stunt Driver of the WonderSLT
Homepage: http://sites.netscape.net/professormopar/homepage
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:59:15 EDT