I have seen a few members mention that they had strut tower bars (strut bars) on there 04-05 F-150s. Can someone hook me up with some info on them, maybe a link or some pics. PLEASE

Thanks
Later
M V

 

Why would you want strut tower bars?

I dont actually know their purpose. Ive heard that on front wheel drive cars, they help the car track straighter when the tires lose traction.

 

Our truck is already rigid.

Anti-sway bars would help the most on the rear.

And if you gave any thought into this you would look at how low (pretty much even with the heads) the top strut bolts are and think how the hell a strut bar would connect.

 

I have a front stb on my 1991 ford probe gt. They are good for rigidity since most imports are unibody in construction and tend to flex while cornering at higher speeds. I don't think they will serve a purpose with our trucks except for looks. But if it makes someone feel better about themselves, yes they are great. By all means spend your hard earned money on one.

 

Have you actually looked at the upper spring pocket cups? Did you know they are frame mounted? The strut tower brace is to stiffen the structure, normally sheet metal. By the way, have you actually looked at the upper spring pocket cup?

 

Well, I guess I should've made it clear that I DONT WANT STRUT TOWER BARS. Sorry, my bad.

I did give it plenty of thought. My reaction was more like "what the f*#k".

Later
M V

 

I've got the strut bar on my Tracker, with full frame. The strut is supposed to help when offroading. Thing is, it's a pita when working on the engine. It's always in the way, so unless you are doing severe off roading it's not a really useful mod.
YMMV though.
Post a pic if you find one.
Chris

 

Not true. Stiffen up the rear and you get a tail happy (oversteer) situation. With no weight in the rear, that's the last thing you want.

 

>Not true. Stiffen up the rear and you get a tail happy (oversteer) situation.
>With no weight in the rear, that's the last thing you want.

A properly designed Sway Bar (anti-sway Bar) doesn't "stiffen" up the suspension. Instead it controls the "roll" of the truck and will make it flatter in the turns. Most (all) auto manufacturers make sure they have lots of understeer designed into their suspensions to overcome mistakes and improper driving of inexperianced drivers. A properly designed sway bar for the rear of the F-150 that is made to complement the stock front sway bar would dramatically improve the cornering of such a large vehicle and would make it even safer in emergancy situations (think fast lane changes to avoid idiots). The only negative for a sway bar on a truck, epsecially an off-road truck is that it will inhibit suspension articulation over rought terrain at low speeds. This is why most off-roaders disconnect their sway bars (front and/or rear) when off-roading and also why sway bar disconnect systems are so popular. There are even products coming down the pipeline that will allow a truck(or car) to adjust their sway bars on the fly. I saw the prototype for such a system a few weeks ago, this is from the same company that developed (but never marketed) a remote "in-cab" sway bar disconnect systems (think strong electro-magnets).

To make a long story short, I have been invited by one of the largest and oldest manufacturers of sway bars in the world so they can use my truck to develop the prototype for manufacturing rear sway bars for 2004-2006 F-150s 4x4s. If I get the time in the next few weeks I will be going by with my truck so they can get started.

BTW, disclaimer.. I design and sell Performance Suspension parts, and Twin Screw Supercharger Kits for V8 Porsches so I am a firm believer of Sway bar systems etc. OH, also have been a VERY active serious Off-roader too (not in Porsches :-)

Back to the topic, the first product I ever designed for a Porsche was a Carbon Fiber Cross Brace (strut Brace) and TRUST ME, the F-150 doesn't need one...it would be just dead weight.

 

928gt, I believe the new Dodge PowerWagon has swaybar disconnect on the fly. I still think that truck is a joke (please don't lecture me about offroading in a fullsize, I know quite a bit).

 

It did a world of handling improvements on my GTO.

 

928gt,

HR?

 

[QUOTE=928gtA properly designed Sway Bar (anti-sway Bar) doesn't "stiffen" up the suspension. Instead it controls the "roll" of the truck and will make it flatter in the turns. Most (all) auto manufacturers make sure they have lots of understeer designed into their suspensions to overcome mistakes and improper driving of inexperianced drivers. A properly designed sway bar for the rear of the F-150 that is made to complement the stock front sway bar would dramatically improve the cornering of such a large vehicle and would make it even safer in emergancy situations (think fast lane changes to avoid idiots). [/QUOTE]

Correct to a point. It stiffens up the roll of the truck but the outcome is still more oversteer. Cornering is subjective in that there are two school of thoughts on this, road racing and autoxing. Road racers tend not to use large swaybars and autoxers tend to use HUGE sway bars. Road racers don't throw their rear ends out to get around a corner where autoxers do. Your typical street driving mimics road racing more so than autoxing driving techniques so a huge bar in the back is only going to hurt your driving characterisitcs (i.e. on/off ramps, twisty country roads). I don't even come close to throwing my truck into a 90 degree corner that would give me the full benefit of a huge rear bar.
My .02 coming from an autox background.
Allen

 

Grubrunner,

Nice looking X-brace. The one I designed for the 928 works well also (photo of one of my 928s).



Allen,

Please don't misunderstand me, I said a "properly designed sway bar", that doesn't normally always mean "big".

 

We added a STB to my 2004 Mach I and it honestly didn't make that much of a difference. The Bilsteins and H&R springs made the most noticable difference for handling, but I really couldn't feel any improvement when we added the brace.

Of course, we used the stock hardware that came with the kit from Steeda rather than weld it. I have a feeling that most components are more effective when welded...