does the "Z71"need better sway bars?

[razor]

i see where ""hellwig&"hotchkis" sells sway bars for the "Z71"trucks but with the bigger bar that comes with the truck.does it need anything out there thats better :bored: i know the rear doesnt have anything but isnt that all the "Z71"needs or front and back? this is a 2001 im talking about

[MountaineerTom]

Your right, the Z71's only come with a sway bar on the front.  From what I've heard, it's a hollow bar, and the Hellwig bars are solid.  I'm sure that "stiffens" it up some, which would make it work better.  

 

There is a member here that has installed some aftermarket sway bars.  I can't remember who it is off the top of my head, but if you do a search on sway bars, you may find a thread concerning them.  I do remember he had a link to his website, with some pictures of them.  

[RyanbabZ71]

Carguru did it to his truck

[carguru]

Yep, I've got the Hellwig kits front and rear.  The front Hellwig bar is not bigger in diameter than stock.  It is just solid.  I've been happy with them.  I would highly recommend them, but it depends on how you use your truck.  I drive mine mainly on road with some towing.  By changing the stock sway, you are sacrificing a little bit of off road ability for much better on road capability.  With the stock bar, you are flexing the bar during cornering, thus the nose dive into corners.  The aftermarket kits deflect less, so you have much less body lean.  This translates to flatter cornering on road.  Off road, the bars would tend to flex the chassis more.  Going over obstacles (rocks, logs, etc) you would tend to limit wheel travel.  If I do offroading, I put disconnectors on the front and rear bars to increase the amount of wheel travel.  I haven't tested this very much yet.

[MarkD]

When I had my Jeep Cherokee, I remember there being a disconnectable end-link.  Anyone heard of these?

 

It had a pin in the middle that you could pull out to defeat the swaybar.

[carguru]

I've seen that type of disconnector before.  I haven't seen them lately.  What I have rigged basically disconnects the front bar and hangs it to the frame and a bungee cord piece that hangs the rear bar to disconnect it.  I'm still working the bugs out.  I saw an article recently about an electronic disconnecting sway bar.  Basically the sway bar is a 2 piece unit with an electronic locking device in the center.  Normally the 2 pieces are locked together.  When offroading, the driver can hit a switch to unlock one or both bars to allow for the max wheel travel.  I don't think it is in production yet.  From what I saw, this was in development for the the Tahoe/Suburban/H2 platforms.  I'll see if i can find that article at work tomorrow.