Ford E450 sway bar?,s

[suprz]

My 2006 E450 has the original sway bars and sway bar links. I cannot afford new hellwig sway bars at this point. I am wondering if anyone has changed the original sway bar links, bushings, etc and how much of a difference it makes.

[OFDPOS]

I know I posted this on another thread , but so far the best bang for the buck was replacing the front WAY undersized anti sway bar with the Hellwig bar !

Why Ford installs such a puny undersized bar,,, oh wait we know ,,, cost!

On both my older Chevy MH's on 3500 chassis the front bars were big , maybe not as big as the Hellwig bars? But definitely adequate enough , all I did was replace the worn mushy rubber bushings with new polyurethane bushings.

[j-d]

countrykids wrote:
...the change is remarkable. I did not expect that the whole feel of the vehicle would change so much... Thanks to all.

It's in fact THAT dramatic! Really glad you did it. I've been adding sway bars (and replacing sway bar bushings) for years on various vehicles. I was amazed the improvement replacing worn out end link bushings on our first Class C.

The biggest improvement by far was adding Hellwig bars to this one. We were headed home from a trip just yesterday, and my wife was looking over at me with a smile. "Nice to see you relaxed over there at the wheel."

Thanks for your encouraging report!

[countrykids]

Taking the advice of Ron, j-d and others I upgraded to the Hellwig sway bars, front and rear. I have only driven a little, 20 miles coming home from my mechanic and giving my wife a short demo ride but the change is remarkable. I did not expect that the whole feel of the vehicle would change so much. Not cheap since I do not have the tools to install myself but I expect payback every second behind the wheel.

Thanks to all.

[OFDPOS]

They even beat Amazon Prime for the End links , they still haven't showed up 😉

You busy tomorrow morning ? lol

Let you know the progress ... Suppose to be low 70's and tipping 100 for the next week uhm month... lol
I'll do one each morning.

[j-d]

That's Faster than Goody's Headache Powder, and that's FAST!!!

I feel just fine with Hellwig's finish. That said, we live on a salt water canal, and things get rusted/corroded/rotted/faded, whatever the material has to get broken down.

When I was shopping I looked at two specs: Steel Type, and Bar Diameter. When I saw those matched I followed the money. Roadmaster says they use a steel that's superior to what's common in OEM sway bars. Hellwig calls out their steel with same spec code that Roadmaster does. They just don't mention the other steel. The one that Roadmaster says it ...doesn't use...

[OFDPOS]

WOW !!!

Ordered the front and rear bars from Hellwig Monday July 3rd.
UPS just dropped them off 20 minutes ago the 5th !!
Now that is fast !

[RambleOnNW]

Well then, let 'em rust.

Enjoy!!

[OFDPOS]

That's a big difference in $$ between the two.

A Hellwig will never rust bad enough in our life time to worry about 😉
Heck look at the rest of the under body ! Brand new setting on the dealer lot there is rust..

[RambleOnNW]

Looked up what I paid for Roadmaster bars several years ago: $396 for front and $288 for rear.

There is a difference between Hellwig and Roadmaster bars:

Hellwigs are powder coated and Roadmaster cadmium electro-plated.

If you scratch a Hellwig it will rust. If you scratch a Roadmaster the cadmium plating will provide cathodic protection and the scratch will rust less.

[j-d]

I've got good friends north of SAC, too...

I just looked Roadmaster Sway Bars up on a popular RV supply site. For E450, Front "on sale price" $499 and Rear $391. This pretty much backs up my claim that you can get both Hellwig bars for close to the price of one Roadmaster.

[OFDPOS]

Yep the guy who answered, as soon as I told him the info on my MH ,
he was saying the part #'s and said how they were on sale 15%.
Since I was ordering both they took another $30.00 off so both bars for $460.00.

Then he went into up-sale mode and was asking about shocks front and rear, spring helpers, air bags. I laughed and said slow your roll there.
We both got a laugh out of that.


Now that would be one for the books ... You coming out here and helping me with the install 😉
Your a great person I'm honored to call a friend JD !

Yes it is nice out here uhm north of Sacramento anyways 😉

[j-d]

Nice thing about SD, at least some of them know at least something about springs, sway bars, suspension etc. They're better than the average Order Takers.

If you get in a jam, let me know. We don't have anybody out there now, except you and my daughter's former neighbor but GOODNESS I love it out there in NorCal. Wouldn't rule a trip out.

[OFDPOS]

Yeah SD made the comment , you know its camping season and Hellwig is busy.
I know they most likely say that to everyone that orders one.
He said 7-10 business days to process the order, then 3-5 business days to receive it.

We'll see when I get them...Placed the order this morning.

[j-d]

I'm always looking for something to do...

The Hellwig bars I ordered from SD were drop shipped from Hellwig down the road from you in Visalia so might not take too long.