i'm thinking about replacing the stk track bar on my trk. i'm interested in the "thuren" brand with the "stainless uniball bearing" on 1 end.

how are these bearings holding up? is there a zerk fitting to lube it?

any info will be greatly appreciated. thx!

 

I bought a Thuren bar. But after I got it I almost sent it back. Decided to go ahead and use it but reluctantly.

Everything about it is nice except the welding. That seems like its weak link to me. At least with the stock bar, if you hit something hard enough, it will simply bend. This one looks like it could just snap off at the heim joint.

I don't slam my tuck around, but wanted as little play in the steering as possible.

 

thurens track bar is the way to go. the heim on the axle end is teflon lined so it doesn't need any lube and they hold up great. only thing about the heims is when they are worn they will clunk instead of just getting mushy like rubber buushings. The new bars also have the housing drilled on the other end so you can grease the bushing at the frame mount but mines been on for 1.5yrs and never had any grease and its fine.

 

I know these track bars are now being produced on a larger scale because lorenz and carli plus others are now stocking them, and i got mine a few years ago so maybe it is different, but the welds on mine were done by hand by don and are beautiful. A lot of trucks with suspension mods that get used hard run these track bars and i haven't hears of one problem with those welds...

 

The Thuren track bar is a very nice piece. But there is nothing wrong with the "stock" bar. It is a heavy piece of steel. It just needs better bushings and larger bolts to eliminate play with the track bar mount. If you have the ability to remove the stock bushings and replace with these.......it can save you some money. http://www.lazarsmith.com/SSSSS.html

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The welds on my Thuren bar were top notch as well. I ordered one a year ago, and it worked great.

I ordered a Carli last month, and it had the grease zirk on the frame end.

I don't think the Thuren bars are available through Lorenz anymore. The Carli/Thuren bars are the same...the Carli come beautifully powdercoated.

--Eric

 

I would like to see a pic of the so called crummy welds? Are you sure it was Thurens?

 

mrblond,

I'm not going to pull it off to take a pic for you. The weld I didn't like was the one made on the heim joint to the bar. Definately done by Thuren about 1 year or more ago. It looks like a tig weld and just barely enough of it, more like a seal weld instead of a structural weld.

As I said, it hasn't broken, and I did choose to use it, but it could have been a lot better with a stronger weld that would have taken very litttle more time. I'm sure he was in a hurry. When we use these bars we take full responsibility ourselves. Thuren makes it very clear that these are designed for off road use only. That doesn't mean they are stronger, but more that they are not Dodge or DOT approved, in my opinion. If you buy one look it over and satisfy yourself that it meets your standards, the same you should do for any mods you make. It is however, a very good design. On the road, the stock bar might be better if it only had new and tighter bushings. If it really gets stressed, it has been shown that it will bend and not break. If a Dodge bar cracked and let go Dodge would be on the hook for a defective part or other damages, but with aftermarket "off road only" stuff that comes fro a very small company, well, we are more likely our own warrantee station. Because of that I look carefully at the mods I make.

 

my heim joint last around 33,000 miles.

 

I just installed those bushings, I also think that, that is the way to go. I should have gotten the bolts to. I thing they must be a different size cuz my track bar still moves a little with the new bushings in it. I never thought of checking the bolt Dia, to see if it was close in size in relation to the bushing hole. Mabe this weekend when ambition levels are up I will take the track bar back out and compair bolt size to bushing hole size..

 

I had a horrible "clunking" in my front end which came from the track bar mount during slow moving/turning situations. Mike's (Lazarsmith) "ultimate track bar hardware" cured it for good. My truck is a pleasure to drive now (even with 35'' tires).

You might be able to source the product/bolts/star washers etc. yourself, but to minimize the hassle factor........Mike has a nice kit that works well.


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