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Run 2 factory sway bars? 95' XLT single cab/ibeam




cbxer55

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My 98 has a factory front bar with Energy Suspension polyurethane frame mounts and end links. My rear is a Hellwig I installed in 2002, with all new Energy Suspension mounts and end links. Handles corners awesome, nice and flat.

All the bushings on my front were totally shot, plus four of them were totally gone. The other four crumbled in my hand when I took them off. The rear bar end links were shot, and the frame mounts had too much slop in them where the bar goes through them.
 

teknogeek1300

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My 98 has a factory front bar with Energy Suspension polyurethane frame mounts and end links. My rear is a Hellwig I installed in 2002, with all new Energy Suspension mounts and end links. Handles corners awesome, nice and flat.

All the bushings on my front were totally shot, plus four of them were totally gone. The other four crumbled in my hand when I took them off. The rear bar end links were shot, and the frame mounts had too much slop in them where the bar goes through them.
Yes! I noticed a HUGE difference by just adding a rear sway from a 91 ranger :icon_thumby:

Installed(love how sleeper it is):
http://ssmapper.com/images/ranger/rear sway/IMG_20170221_100432.jpg
http://ssmapper.com/images/ranger/rear sway/IMG_20170221_103921.jpg

I was able to find some "TPU" or "Thermoplastic polyurethane" for my 3d printer, so I think I'm gonna print some bushiing for both front and rear sway bars ASAP, and see how they hold up in the 110+ summers here. It's rated at 95A shore hardness, so it'll be rough, assuming it can hang!
 

cbxer55

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The Hellwig I have on the rear of mine is larger in diameter than Ford's stock one. But still, any rear anti-sway bar is better than none.
 

JoshT

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That looks like the factory front sway bar setup for that model year of Ranger. Those two pictures show a single factory sway bar, so I'm entirely sure what it is that you are asking about.


I do recall a person running two sway bars on the front of a Ranger, but he had to mix and match parts from several year models to do it. He used the sway bar and radius arms from a 83-88, with the beams and front sway bar from a 89-97. The earlier bar mounted to the radius arm crossmember and attached to the radius arms, while the latter bar was mounted like yours.

IMO if you want more sway bar in the front, you would be better off getting a larger aftermarket bar to replace your existing front bar. That said if you are really looking for better handling, you are starting in the wrong direction. Before any more sway bar will make an improvement, you really need to address other areas of suspension and handling.

IE:
Worn out suspension bushings, tie rod ends, ball joints
wheels and tires (larger wheel with shorter sidewall)
Body mounts
fresh springs


I started out the same as you did on my first vehicle, the 84 Ranger in my sig.

Dad and I replaced ball joints and tie rods before putting the truck on the road, we never touched any of the other bushings. After that first came the largest sway bar I could fit on the front, nice improvement. Next was the largest sway bar I could fit on the rear, little better, but nothing spectacular. A couple years before it was totaled I was kinda forced into a 16" wheel, 14s were hard to come by and I had the 16s from the other truck. Stayed with the same diameter and width tire, but swapping that 2" of sidewall for 2" of wheel probably made the biggest difference of anything.


If you do all of those and still aren't happy with how it's handling, it's time for either a sports car, or a lowering kit and major suspension mods. :icon_welder:
 

JoshT

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I was able to find some "TPU" or "Thermoplastic polyurethane" for my 3d printer, so I think I'm gonna print some bushiing for both front and rear sway bars ASAP, and see how they hold up in the 110+ summers here. It's rated at 95A shore hardness, so it'll be rough, assuming it can hang!
Not sure if I'd trust that for a suspension component. With the stuff that I've seen 3D printed at home, I simply wouldn't trust their integrity regardless of the material used to make it or the temperatures it's used in. If you are determined to try it then sway bar bushings would probably be the best place to do so. At least with a sway bar bushings you probably won't end up in a ditch if they should fail on the road.
 

cbxer55

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The Energy Suspension polyurethane end links and frame mounts with polyurethane bushings are both $21.99 at Vato Zone. Why bother with something chinsey like he's wanting to do? Polyurethane is the best as far as how it affects handling.

And my 98 is at stock ride height with 15 inch rims. With 255/60's in the back and 205/70's up front, after I did all the sway bar bushings front and rear, it handles so well, first time I took it around my favorite swoopy road, I was like "OH YEAH BABY!" :D

Now I'm in the process of replacing all the sway bar components on my Lightning. It already has a 1.25 up front and a 1.125 in the back. Unless I wanted to put Hellwig bars on it, there's no reason to change them.

Hellwig bars are the biggest solid bars that can be bought. Hotchkiss are larger than stock, but they're hollow, which negates some of the extra diameter. Only benefit is they're considerably lighter than both the stock and the Hellwig bars. If weight matters to anyone. Doesn't bother me at all.
 

AllanD

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I cannot imagine why you'd want that much roll stiffness in any vehicle...

Sway bars are all about limiting body roll, and that is mostly about driver confidence, because I was told long ago, and firmly believe that the stiffer end of the suspension will slide first... but that sway-bars (actually anti-roll bars to be technically correct) REDUCE lateral traction...

the thing that bugged me about the original setup on my truck was that the factory designed in too much under-steer (PUSH in NASCAR parlance), with the obvious intention of reducing over-steer (LOOSE, in NASCAR parlance)

So, I want out of my way to eliminate the under-steer, and dial back in some consistant PREDICTABLE over-steer... I tend to be an "aggressive" driver, but the important thing here is "PREDICTABLE", the original factory setup led to "sudden UNEXPECTED oversteer after some rather nasty under-steer that was similar to the Axle jacking effect seen on the rear axle of the Chevrolet Corvair.

The outboard beam would try to "tuck under" to a point and the tire would unload causing the truck to transition from massive under-steer to equally massive over-steer.

In short you correct for under-steer by applying more steering input, then the truck transitions to over-steer and you find yourself spinning into a cornfield, where there is a severe risk of overturning.


When your vehicle over-steers you have the option of using the throttle for attitude control as well as front-to-rear weight shift... Which I should also note is a control method that does not work effectively with an Automatic transmission.

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cbxer55

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Maybe it's because yours had beams. With the control arm suspension, I would not go without a anti sway bar. And the stiffer rear one I installed from Hellwig really makes it handle well. Yeah, without the rear it was pretty unbalanced.

Anyway, a guy who races Lightning's on road courses has an excellent article on sway bars. And on his trucks, he uses larger bars and softer springs to make up for the larger bars. He's road racing a Lightning, so I am pretty confident he knows what he's talking about.

And also, companies like Hellwig and Hotchkiss would not still be in the market if bigger diameter sway bars didn't work.

My Ranger has all new polyurethane bushings on all four corners on both the frame/axle mounts and the end links. Man does it get around corners nicely. Hardly rolls at all, which is what an anti sway bar is supposed to do.

Before I replaced all the bushings, the truck felt sick, in corners and wallowed on the highway. Feels like an all new truck now. I enjoy driving it in the curves more than I do my Lightning.
 

JoshT

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Maybe it's because yours had beams. With the control arm suspension, I would not go without a anti sway bar. And the stiffer rear one I installed from Hellwig really makes it handle well. Yeah, without the rear it was pretty unbalanced.

Anyway, a guy who races Lightning's on road courses has an excellent article on sway bars. And on his trucks, he uses larger bars and softer springs to make up for the larger bars. He's road racing a Lightning, so I am pretty confident he knows what he's talking about.
Yeah, his has beams, as so does the 95 that the teknogeek1300 owns. Different suspension requiring different approach than your 98.

83 - 97 = beam suspension
98 - 11 = control arm suspension

Just guessing, but those Lightnings that are featured in those articles are probably 97+ models that have a control arm suspension as well.
 

cbxer55

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Yeah, his has beams, as so does the 95 that the teknogeek1300 owns. Different suspension requiring different approach than your 98.

83 - 97 = beam suspension
98 - 11 = control arm suspension

Just guessing, but those Lightnings that are featured in those articles are probably 97+ models that have a control arm suspension as well.
I only commented because he made it sound like anti sway bars are a bad thing. And figured that may be true for a beam suspension. Even then, if the rear is still leaf springs, a sway bar would be good in the back. On my truck, adding a rather large bar to the rear really woke it up in the corners.

There were two "generations" of Lightning's. 93-96 and 99 - 04. I don't know what the earlier ones used for front suspension, but the 99 - 04 use upper and lower control arms.

And like my Lightning, which already has a pan hard (Track) bar, I am going to figure out a way to make one for my Ranger. Leaf spring vehicles can have upwards of an inch of side-to-side movement in hard corners. Putting one on my Lightning helped it a lot, I noticed it the first time I took it around some curves after I installed it.
 

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