Aftermarket front sway bar and steering stablizer

[noel]

Hi- County RV, Santee Ca has been trying to upgrade front sway bars and steering stablizer on a 2001 chassis, 2002 24' Destiny. Ordered front sway bars twice, did not fit even when sent pictures. Also the steering stablizer did not fit. Does anyone know of a company that makes aftermarket parts for a Chevy Express Van that will fit this chassis. Thanks in advance.

[Blue~Go]

I can't directly answer your question, but I can say that I have often been able to find things by researching myself rather than waiting for shops (not always, but sometimes).

I can suggest a couple of companies to try contacting directly. When I call I usually ask to speak with engineering or the technical department.

Once I have the info, then if I'm not doing the work myself, I'll have part numbers for a shop to use (or if the shop has their own suggestions, we can compare notes).

For anti-sway bars:

1) Roadmaster (formerly IPD)
2) Hellwig

For the steering stabilizer:

1) Safe-T-Steer

I have a Roadmaster front anti-sway bar and a Safe-T-Steer on my Ford Chassis. Both seem like good products. I also used to have IPD bars on a former car (Roadmaster used to be IPD).

When I had the sway bar(s) put on my Chinook I asked the shop (who, coincidentally was the shop who converted the Chinook Bajas to four-wheel-drive back in the day) which bars they recommended. They said that both Roadmaster and Hellwig would do the job, but they slightly preferred the Roadmasters for various reasons of fit and finish (they explained them to me but I haven't retained the details). I chose the Roadmaster.

[noel]

Thanks for your response. I will try that route. County RV has had the Chinook for almost three months.

[dougm]

I have the Hellwig bars on mine. I replaced the factory front sway bar with the Hellwig, and since my Chinook didnt come with a rear sway bar i added one on the rear. They made a night and day differrence in cornering and stability on windy days.
I had zero issues installing them, i also have a bilstein steering stabalizer. I installed the sway bars prior to converting the rear over to a complete air ride suspension system, i was able to leave the sway bar on the truck even with the Reyco/Granning air suspension. If i recall Hellwig offers two different diameter sway bars, i used the larger of the two.
I did however manage to melt one of the sway bar bushings when i did the air conversion because i had to have a new tailpipe made for it to clear the air bags and it was to close to the bracket.
I just called Hellwig and they shipped me out a new pair at no cost which was a nice surprise. I ordered the bars from SD truck springs online, they had the best price at the time.

Just a side note... If your mechanic shop is having trouble installing a product even having been provided with photos and install instructions, you may wanna check into a new mechanic. There is no excuse for having the vehicle tied up for 3 solid months to do a 2 hour job. Changing the front bar on the chinook is a 30 minute job tops. The back one may take an hour because it is heavier than the front bar and the chinook didnt come with a rear sway bar from the factory.
P.S..... Those times are based on what it took me laying on my back underneath the truck in my driveway, meaning a shop should have no excuse for not meeting or beating those install times.
Granted you may have to leave it a day or two until they can get it in the shop, but there is no excuse for having it three months if thats all they were supposed to do to the vehicle.


Link to rear sway bar..... http://www.sdtrucksprings.com/index.php ... ts_id=3760
Link to front sway bar....http://www.sdtrucksprings.com/index.php ... ts_id=3758

[Blue~Go]

I agree on the time frame. I had my front and rear bars put on the same day as I had the new (2014) front end put on, and that entire job didn't take a day. Then, when some adjustment was needed (see below), I went back and they took off the front bar, put another one on, then put the first one back on, then did the same with the rear (me test driving between each step) and all of that only took a couple of hours even with the test drives included.

My note is that a rear aftermarket bar may be "too much bar" on a 21-footer with stock rear suspension. Or it may not, but just something to keep in mind. I've mentioned this elsewhere (sorry to those reading it yet again), but after I went to a full set of the beefy aftermarket Roadmaster bars, I loved the improvements in cornering and just general handling; but --- I suddenly had a harshness in the rear that wasn't there before.

Note that at this point I already had a set of new (6 months old) Koni FSD shocks on all four corners. Also, the new front end requires a new stock anti-sway bar (same size as our originals but different attachment but that did mean I had new bushings on the stock bar as well).

I went back in for adjustments and tried it in three stages to isolate variables:

1) Back to stock front bar but keep beefy rear bar = still harsh
2) Keep stock front bar and remove rear bar (i.e. back to stock which is no rear bar) = not harsh but no more fun handling improvement, boo.
3) Re-install beefy Roadmaster front bar and no rear bar = keep much of the handling improvement and harshness gone.

So I kept it that way for a week or so because I was on my way to an alignment specialty shop for some more work. The first shop (where I got the new front end) was fantastic, but just that the additional work was not their specific bag.

While I was at the second shop I ordered a take off (junkyard) anti-sway bar from an E-450 (dually) and had it shipped to me at the shop. Reason is that the size (diameter of bar) is about halfway between no bar and the beefy Roadmaster bar that gave a harsh feel to the rear suspension. Thus another round of variable isolation experiments ensued.

What I ended up with as the best compromise was the beefy Roadmaster bar in front, and the take-off E-450 bar in the rear (with new bushings). This kind of makes sense as often front bars are a bit larger diameter than rear ones. This got me just about all of the "goodness" (and it is good!) of the set of both Roadmaster bars, but without the added harshness of the larger Roadmaster rear bar. I also exchanged the rear set of Koni FSD shocks for a set of Koni adjustables which I adjusted to the lower setting. (And that's when I added the steering stabilizer to the front - but after the experiments - however that was kinda just because I was there and I "could" - I didn't have any huge steering complaints before adding it.)

Or, you could just go air suspension like dougm

Funny, but that second shop I was at (specializes in RV suspension) mentioned that they had installed an air suspension in a Chinook Concourse for one of their Class A motorhome customers who used it as a toad (!) (i.e. a towed car). At that point, you'd need a toad for your toad (maybe a Mini?)

[dougm]

Interesting on the E450 bar, never gave that any thought. I installed the sway bars initially when i still had leaf springs on the back. I did notice it being slightly harsher on large bumps, but overall to me the moryde leaf system is a poorly thought out setup, IMO, others may not agree. Its just a poor design IMO, they added a ton of weight to an already heavy vehicle with all the heavy steel brackets and then place all of that tonnage on two rubber blocks, even if the rubber blocks dont crack and bust in two, longevity just isnt there because the rubber is still going to weather and fatigue in short order. The rubber blocks on mine were still intact but the ride was absolutely terrible on any bump larger than an expansion joint on the freeway. Im guessing i probably could have ordered new blocks from moryde and improved the ride quality slightly, but IMO the ride is so bad with moryde that even a large improvement with new blocks wasnt going to cut it for me considering my chinook only has 40,000 miles on it. I love the Reyco setup, i havent even tried driving it without the sway bar connected, i bet if i unhook the bar and try it out it would probably be like floating on a cloud. LOL...
I got my chinook in houston, texas. I drove my FJ cruiser down there and took my travel buddy with me (Dog). I had to rent a full size Uhaul trailer becuz my FJ is lifted and has large tires on it so it wouldnt fit on a front end dolly. I bought an extended draw bar for the hitch to poke threw the step and towed the trailer and 4000 pound FJ cruiser back home behind the chinook. It pulled it with ease but i had to put air in the lift bags the previous owner had installed and even though it towed it with ease, the ride was an absolute nightmare. This Reyco system maintains the same ride height regardless of how much tonnage you put in it or behind it

Correct me if im wrong but the BAJA model did not use the Moryde system on the rear but rather just springs and shackle type mounts?

[Blue~Go]

I don't know about the Baja, but not all of the Concourse/Premier models used Mor-Ryde. Mine, for example (1999 Concourse) came with a regular leaf spring rear suspension system and no More-Ryde. Although not without faults, I wouldn't have described it as a nightmare prior to my mods. But I wanted it to be sporty and fun to drive, hence I changed some things.

[vacuumbed]

After replacing the front sway bar bushings on my 2005 Concourse only to have one of them walk on to the sway bar a few months later, I ended up getting and installing a Hellwig sway bar.