Forum Discussion

okiejoe's avatar
okiejoe
Explorer
Jul 19, 2020

Trac bar

Anyone intall a trac bar on thier class c ? I’m think about installing one to help control tail wag while towing our tow car. In windy conditions especially side winds my tow car gets pushed some and it tend to cause some tail wag.i am towing a PT Cruiser all four down
  • Well I’m not sure of what the old wizard was thinking, the track bar system is made for the rear leaf spring system, but he might be thinking of the pan hard system used in NASCAR. Henderson’s in Grants Pass Oregon install them and sell them constantly. Anyway I have installed the Hellwig sway bars and bilstien shocks. But I get pushed around while towing all four down on very windy days. I think I’ll try it
    Thanks for your input BobnDot
  • Well, it worked on leaf springs. I had changed the shock system prior to installing the track bar.
  • First, the correct name for a trac bar (track bar) is Panhard rod.

    A Panhard bar is used to prevent side to side movement of the body in relationship to the suspension. This is NOT NECESSARY IN A LEAF SPRING SUSPENSION which is why you will not see them installed on solid axle leaf rear suspensions !

    If you are getting excessive body lean/roll on corners you need a stiffer anti-sway/roll bar. If you are getting sway, especially from large vehicles passing in the opposite direction, you need better shock absorbers.
  • 2018 24ft Sunseeker E450 w/158" WB. I had one installed and it made a significant difference while being pushed in tight turns towing my toad 4-down. It also helped with crosswinds, being overtaken by semis traveling in the same direction as well as trucks traveling in the opposite direction on 2 lane highways.
    For the install, the mechanic used my hydraulic levelers to lift the rv then jack stand it for extra safety.

    I used a SuperSteer ss450 track bar.
    It might be a tight fit if you have certain air bags, like a side mounted bag.
    I first installed the track bar then installed a set of Wireless One by AirLift bags with a compressor which did fit because the bag installs on top of the spring pack not on one of those side mounted brackets.

    I also added at a later time, HD Hellwig sway bars front and rear plus a steering stabilizer. Its hard to say which offered the most bang. If you were going to install one item, I think the rear track bar made the biggest difference in my case. The sway bars were the icing on the cake which made the package a total joy to drive but maybe I would feel differently if I had installed the sway bars first, who knows.

    As a side note for info: After 4 road tests I ended up removing the air bags. They didn't work out, the wireless system malfunctioned constantly .
    My reason for adding them, I was looking to raise my rv 2-3" in order to clear driveway aprons because the rear overhang was dragging in my home driveway.
    Air bags will raise a sagging rv back up to normal but are very limited to raise a normal riding rv to a higher than normal level, 90-100# only lifted my rig an inch. It was not enough to justify that expense. That system installed was about $1500.

    Hope this info helps, good luck and stay safe.