Hi Kyle
Last winter I ordered a pair of bars from Addco for my Miata off their
website. I received no confirmation in several days so I sent them direct an
email with the same info. Again no reply in several days, so I called their
800 number and got a very polite and business-like reply and my order was
processed. About a week later UPS delivered 2 cartons, one for each bar,
(supposedly), the front was fine but the carton containing the rear bar had only the
bushings---no bar dispite the carton being full bar size. There were no holes
or mishandling marks on the empty carton to suggest carrier abuse or theft so I
assumed their shipping dept sealed the carton with no bar inside
. I called their 800# to report this and they sent me the missing rear bar
this time via premium overnite cross country, no questions asked. So they are
in biz but seem to have a rather inefficient order processing system. The
Miata bars are fine, good quality, everything fits, etc. Price was less than
Hotchkiss. I didn't check JCWhitney which seems to offer several brands of bars.
I upgraded the F&R bars on my 2k Dakota to Hotchkiss back when the truck
was quite new. The front bar is a few mm shy of 1.5" and the rear is about
7/8ths. inch. The front is really excellent which together with the poly
bushings made a substantial improvement in handling. The rear at that thickness
and again poly bushings is on the stiff and unforgiving side. If you have
either a trailer being pulled or some cargo load, maybe 1,000#, then the rear
behaves fine and really helps control "tail-wag." With no cargo load or trailer
however, it tends to insist upon ironing out all irregular road surfaces in a
jolting sort of way. I would think a 3/4" rear bar out to be ideal.
Paul Sahlin
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