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Stiff Shocks to compensate for no sway bar

Hmmmm, I am trying to think of the best way to describe it. You know those childrens toys in parks that are animals connected to a spring? The kid sits on the animal and rocks it back and forth?

Its kinda like that. If you rock the thing to the left the it goes left to right to left to right ... a couple of times before it naturally dampens itself out. That is the same thing I am experiencing. If I hit a bump in the road at speed, the truck rocks left to right a couple of time before it dampens itself out. Never happened until I took the sway bar off so I gotta imagine that is the cause.

When doing this, the truck still tracks straight as an arrow so it seems to be body rocking only.

I am not sure what the spings on there are because they were on when I got the truck so maybe they are soft and that is causing the problem? I am not sure but its pretty sketchy to drive it around like that, hahahahaha.
 
question, what shocks do you have on there now.

I turned mine down just to see how it would handle, and I turned them right back up. It was way too loose/sloppy/driving a park toy feel for me.

These shocks I put on are only temp, but im going to look into some RS9000s or the ProComp MX6's for new shocks. For the money the pro comp seems OK,

Any other pro comp I dont like, well havent been real impressed with
 
Mine does the rocking thing too, did it alot worse when the stock springs were on it, funny when I watch my brother try to drive it, he tries to compensate the side to side rock/sway with the steering wheel, I had to tell him it won't help. I just got used to it basically and wrote it off as a factor with having front spring suspension.

Honestly though, I personally think after really paying attention to it, most of seemed to be coming from the rear, and after I added a couple more springs/leaves to the main pack, it did seem to minimize it some, also firmed up the rear soft bounce they tend to have with the stock springs too.
 
muddysub said:
what about a rear sway bar? a lot, if not all, newer trucks and suvs have them. i wonder what having just a rear would do to the handling.
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My friend has an upgraded rear on a Grand Cherokee.

More often than not, stiffer than stock rear anti roll bars (or rear w/o front) makes the high center of gravity body want to lift the rear axle, rather than keep the body planted.

In a car, with a lower center of mass....it works a lot better.

I had a 98 3/4 ton burb with an aftermarket rear swaybar, and it did the same thing.
 
Sway-a-way used to make a shock that had a clamp on coilover spring that was set for no tension at rest but worked in extension and compression. They would probably kill off road articulation but help on the street.
The way you describe the swaying/oscillation it does sound like a better shock might help.
 
Right now I have Bilstein 5100s on the truck and while I really like them I think they are a tad too soft. I have some amazon gift cards coming so I am gonna get a set if rancho rs9000xls and see if those help. I am pretty sure that stiffer shocks or springs would cure it.
 
goathearder said:
Right now I have Bilstein 5100s on the truck and while I really like them I think they are a tad too soft. I have some amazon gift cards coming so I am gonna get a set if rancho rs9000xls and see if those help. I am pretty sure that stiffer shocks or springs would cure it.
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If you do this, i'm sure someone will want your bilsteins. Other than the adjustability, i think you would be downgrading. Ive never run the ranchos, but haven't heard much good about them. Nothing but great reviews on the 5100's.
 
dhcomp said:
If you do this, i'm sure someone will want your bilsteins. Other than the adjustability, i think you would be downgrading. Ive never run the ranchos, but haven't heard much good about them. Nothing but great reviews on the 5100's.
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although im not a huge rancho or pro comp fan, its prob the best way to control sway for the budget, without sway bar.

At least they can be tuned down for off road.
 
goathearder said:
Right now I have Bilstein 5100s on the truck and while I really like them I think they are a tad too soft. I have some amazon gift cards coming so I am gonna get a set if rancho rs9000xls and see if those help. I am pretty sure that stiffer shocks or springs would cure it.
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make sure the Bilsteins you have on there now aren't the 175/60 valving, those are valved to be used as in pairs and if used alone would do what you are describing. There's a sticker on the side of them that will say 255/70 or 175/60.

Also, if all you're going for is a stiff ride, put another leaf up front in each pack. I always keep old spring packs for fine tuning. :D
 
Hmmmm, I never thought about the valving but I will check that tonight. I thought about putting an extra leaf in too but it clears my garage right now with less than 1/2 inch so I can't get any more height on the damn thing, hahahahahahahaha.

Hopefully someone will want to buy the bilsteins. I have only had them for a year and wouldn't give them up otherwise.
 
Now those are sweet. My Ranchos are on the way though and set to be delivered Monday so I should know soon if they solve my problem or not. I've got my fingers crossed though.
 
Well, put the ranchos on tonight, set the fronts to 8 and the rears to 6 which is equivalent to their sport setting and took a test drive over some known trouble areas (bumps on the freeway) and all indications are that the shocks have fixed my problems. The trucks rides much tighter in terms of body roll over those bumps that would have made it go nuts before.

I'll do some more driving in the next couple of days and really test it out but it looks like I have a solution and it looks like I have a set of year old bilstein 5100's for a 6 inch lift for sale, hahahahaha.
 
So where is the classified ad and what is the valving?
 
BTW, to compare with Bilsteins, does anybody have the valving of any other common shocks like Rancho, Gabriel or ProComp?
 
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