The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun Sway Bar

Has anyone had experience adding a sway bar to the front of a 49 1 ton or similar? If so, where did you get the parts? I've seen sway bars for sale in Jim Carter and Classic Parts mags, etc. However, they generally all say "for 1/2 tons."

On the other hand, does anyone recommend not bothering with them?

Thanks for your help!

Sway bars are fabulous, especially if you're hauling a load! The other plus is that you can just about fabricate everything but the bar. FOrd has rear bars on their trucks that just use a u-bolt clamp to the axle, and then of course the dog bones to the frame. We bolted on directly on to a 56 GMC rear axle without any mods whatsoever because the axle housing was close enough to the same diameter and there were 3/8 holes in the frame directly above where the dog bones fell!

Just measure your frame width and head for the toy land. Er, I mean, wrecking yard!

Great, thanks for the info!

Worst case scenario, is there any reason one of the "1/2 ton" sway bars from the online retailers won't work on a 1 ton? I'm not savvy to the little differences in their construction yet. I don't plan on hauling heavy loads with it, if that makes any difference in terms of strength requirements.

The difference is going to be in how much body roll you get. A sway bar lifts the wheel on the opposite side of the lean. A one ton will just be a bigger bar and subsequent mounting hardware.

Just did a little research, most of the sway bar kits for the 3100 use a plate that is sandwiched between the shock mount and the axle. Since the 3800 trucks use bigger u bolts and have wider leaf springs, I'm guessing a custom playe would need to be fabricated, unless the holes can be opened up an wallowed out.

Since you're going custom, it doesn't matter whether you bolt the bar to the axle and ends to the frame or bar to the frame and ends to the axle. It also doesn't matter if you use the spring mount u-bolts either. You can custom fab every bracket to tuck it in wherever you want, though I don't think you have much choice but to get new u-bolts and make a clamp that fits the spread.

Good to know. It's always something with these 1 tons! I'm sure I can whip something up around the shop to make it work. Thanks for the help.

If you review this previous thread on "sway" bars, you might get some ideas on how to make something to fit...

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...way-bar-install-trouble.html#Post1331294