Forum Discussion

2001400ex's avatar
2001400ex
Explorer
Jul 19, 2017

Sway bars

Who has added sway bars to their pickup? I'm thinking of adding some to mine. Not sure if I should do front and back, or one or the other. Also, did it help keep the pickup more planted when towing in side winds? My setup does well but I came across heavy side winds last week and it was fine, but thought sway bars could help. A few gusts it felt like it could start to sway. I like to have extra capacity and right now I don't.
  • Thanks for the responses!!! It sounds like it might not really effect my current setup. Which is fine, my setup is fairly good as it is. I think I'll work on leveling the fifth wheel first and see if that helps.
  • I try to avoid yaw problems unless I'm floating the back end out on a sports car or off-road machine - Jack can keep his knife.
  • Sway bars or roll bars as we call them control just that; Roll.

    They don't really control pitch, they don't really control yaw, they control roll.

    Here is the difference.

    This is why sway or roll bars are so popular with the truck camper people. You put a big TC on the back of a pickup; it wants to roll like mad. A big bar will help this by a bunch!

    Travel trailer on the other hand make a truck have pitch and yaw problems. This is why you don't see them recommended for that application.
  • Ron3rd's avatar
    Ron3rd
    Explorer III
    If you don't have one on the front, do that one first as you'll notice the biggest difference there initially. I used to sell sway bars BTW
  • I added one to the back of my truck. It does handle better with the trailer when we're on a twisty road. Before, the truck had a slightly unsettled feeling as it would quickly transition form one turn direction to another. The SB fixed that completley. Without the TT, I feel some minor improvement in handling.
    For my truck there were two differnt sized bars for the back. I got the smaller one but wish I had gotten the biggest.
    It wont do anything for sway.
    I feel it was worth it.
  • I added a Roadmaster rear sway bar to my truck, in signature, because of a trip we took out west with our TC, mainly in the mountains. I have to say we incountered dust devils in Nevada, gps put us on a road that was very narrow, windy and twisty and the other mountain roads, we are glad we had the sway bar.
    I liked how the Roadmaster bar mounted, but I needed to have a machine shop rework their sway bar bushing clamp holes and the links to frame that attached to the sway bar needed to be shimmed to prevent binding at the sway bar.
  • Hellwig and Roadmaster are two largest aftermarket compianies. If you do not have a front stabilizer bar, start there. The truck camper section of this forum may have most experience.
  • Added a heavy sway bar to the back of the old Dodge for the truck camper. Can't say I notice a difference before or after when I tow my 32' enclosed trailer though.
  • Mine came with a sway bar on the front , I added one to the rear, it corners with less body lean , not sure if it helps to control sway, recently I had 45 mph wind gusts from a thunderstorm hit me broadside , the truck rocked a little and the TT moved around some but I stayed in my lane