2002 Purchased April 02'.

Replaced front axle seal passenger side under warrenty 13k.
Replaced Lift pump at 27k
Currently have 57k miles on the truck.

Everything else has worked great. I am glad I bought an 02' vs. a pre-disc truck. My brother has an 01 and his truck doesn't stop like these 02's. Buy the 02 they are easy to bomb and easily troubleshooted.

-CM

 

Fellas, you generally do NOT want to disconnect the sway bar, rear or front.

IF anyone had a chance to read the excellent suspension dissertations of Kent Kroeker (of T-Rex Engineering) over on TDR, you would see that the ONLY time you benefit from removing the sway bar is if you are building a rock crawler.

For use at any kind of speed, off road OR on, you want to keep the swaybars in place. This is especially the case with a vehicle like ours which has a relatively high center of gravity.

Just do a simple cost/benefit analysis and you will see that what you give up by removing them FAR outweighs any small benefit you get.

Justin

 

I'll agree with you on not removing the front swaybar, but I don't see any problem with removing the rear. This is based on the fact that the rear sway bar is an option, meaning that many trucks are on the road without this option. If DC feels that these trucks are safe, then removing the optional swaybar wouldn't make the vehicle any less safe than a truck without the swaybar option.

 

Agreed. Clearly the rear swaybar is less important than the front. I will stand by my statement that the benefits of removal rarely outweigh the costs, but since both are in the eye of the beholder, it must vary from person to person.

The camper package adds a swaybar to a spring pack that's already hopelessly too stiff. So if you run around empty, you already have a rear end that's so stiff it's not moving anyway.

That's why you're not going to get much sway with or without the bar when you're running around empty.

Not the case up front, where the OEM springs are way too soft! Here, the sway bar is much more critical. Also you must consider the FAW is much higher than the RAW when empty-- on my truck the FAW is 4100# while the RAW is only 2710#-- and that's with a full tank!

I can't possibly tell you how much I want a T-Rex suspension setup!

Justin

 

Move to the land of the never-ending potholes; it'll take you about three days to realize the benefits of disabling the rear sway bar. My 1500 had no rear sway bar, so the first time I hit a pothole in mid-curve with this truck and the rear end jumped into the neighboring lane my heart skipped a beat or two. Good thing there was no one next to me or my insurance agent would have been very angry with me. Scary and dangerous. And really, the center of gravity isn't all that bad unless you're hauling a tall camper in the bed, which I don't. On the front, with coil springs, yeah, you probably don't want to remove it.

 

There are some cases where taking off the sway bars can be helpful. But it's not for everyone.

My truck will throw you violently from side to side if you approach something like a road drainage ditch at an angle. In this case, the swaybars are a real liability.

But after that, they are mostly a help.

The other thing is this: the springs on our trucks are soo stiff that you won't really see the benefit of the swaybars until heavily loaded.

Justin

 

I still have both my swaybars, just in case I ever need to load the truck down, or tow something.

Just in case.


phox

 

Only problem with my 02 was the backup lights switch on the tranny, and a leaking oil pan.


Jared

 

The only problems my 02 has had are the ones i have caused--cracked towing mirror

We have heavy-duty trucks; they arent supposed to ride like a caddy! If you want a smooth ride, get a cheby.