styleandspeed Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 I had been looking and looking at the different rear sway bar kits for our trucks, and couldn't come to a good decision. Hellwig was solid, would hit the exhaust, and not quite the quality that I wanted. Hotchkis seemed too expensive for me, and I didn't want to have to take down my gas tank to put it in, and if I ever wanted to take it out. So I thought about how my moms tahoe has a rear sway bar, and figured that I could make it work. The brackets on the tahoe's rear axle are different than the truck, so you have to make some brackets to hold the sway bar to the axle which is exactly what I did. I took some 3" exhaust clamps and had a friend weld some 1/4"steel to the sides of it so it wouldn't spread apart when tightened. Also cut some grooves in it so it would hold onto the axle tube better, and not slip. That was the only bracket that I had to fab up. Other than that I just had to drill 2 holes in the frame and bolt it all up. Mine is lowered 2 inches, so if yours isn't, you might have to make some brackets to weld to the frame, which I already made, and didn't end up needing. I don't have any pics of the completed install yet, but so far it is working perfect. The truck has very little body roll, and I can take corners without squealing that my friend in his lowered wrx can't. By the way, the whole thing cost me $6 for the exhaust clamps, because my friend was trading in his tahoe, and asked if I wanted anything off of it before he did. Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc_w Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 Can't argue with that! (nearly free, great mod) FWIW: I didn't have to move my gas tank with my Hotckis install. I drilled the holes precisely, and dropped in the approximate 1.5" x 3/4" x 7" bracket in through a hole in "outside" side of the frame. I was able to get it in place within 30 seconds. If I need to remove it, I'm confident I could fish it out with one of those extendable magnets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSport Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 i need to find someone who is trading a tahoe in, Good work BTW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
styleandspeed Posted October 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 Either that or someone who is renting one ;) I will hopefully have some good pics up in the next day or 2 for you guys Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenKey Posted October 11, 2004 Report Share Posted October 11, 2004 Imagine the person that buys that Tahoe without a sway bar in it. He'll end up on his side for sure. I don't remember the Tahoe bars having much beef to them, but if it works for you - I don't think it'd take much to feel an improvement. FWIW, on my last truck, the Hotchkis install only required the gas tank to be lowered a few inches, which took about 30 or so minutes to get finished with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorgog Posted October 19, 2004 Report Share Posted October 19, 2004 I have a set of Tahoe Sway bars if anyone is interested. I have the front and rear I took off an 04 Tahoe Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
styleandspeed Posted October 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 Sorry it took so long for pics, but I finally got some for you guys. Funny, after all this it is banging a bit on my exhaust anyway. I have a little room to adjust so it shouldn't be a problem. Just have to get under it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
styleandspeed Posted October 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 actually the angles on those endlinks don't look that good. I thought that I had to install them that way so that they wouldn't hit the leaf springs, but I looked at them a bit more, and turned the endlinks around so now the angles aren't nearly as bad, and it doesn't hit my exhaust anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.