Track bar question.

[Grizzly_Dodge]

Good afternoon everybody,

I have a 2011 2500 gas with a 6 inch lift sitting on 37's. I have noticed some play in my track bar and I was wondering your thoughts on replacing this. I have read that with a lift you may not want to use a stock track bar, is this true? I have been looking at a Moog track bar to replace the one I have and I just want to know your thoughts on buying a "custom track bar" or just going with Moog factory replacement. Sorry for the newb question but I am just getting into upgrading my truck and I want to make sure I do it right.

Thank you in advance,

Mike.

 

[1500ram12]

With your lift I'd highly recommend going after market and getting an adjustable Trac Bar.

 

[Mauzz]

In general after market track bars are made from a higher strength material than the stock bars since they assume you have additional stress on the bar. That being said you have to put a lot of force on the bar before it is actually going to flex. I've always been a fan of Synergy Manufacturing (sorry if one of our vendors has one and I didn't know) I used their drag link and trackbars on my JK and they are much beefier than stock. If you're still running the stock bar did your lift come with a bracket to raise the axle side mounting point? At 6 inches your axle would be pretty off center.

 

[Grizzly_Dodge]

In general after market track bars are made from a higher strength material than the stock bars since they assume you have additional stress on the bar. That being said you have to put a lot of force on the bar before it is actually going to flex. I've always been a fan of Synergy Manufacturing (sorry if one of our vendors has one and I didn't know) I used their drag link and trackbars on my JK and they are much beefier than stock. If you're still running the stock bar did your lift come with a bracket to raise the axle side mounting point? At 6 inches your axle would be pretty off center.

It is still stock track bar. I would hope that it has the required bracket but I will have to get under it and look.

 

[brandonjansen]

A 6" lift definitely would have come with a track bar drop bracket and a longer pitman arm otherwise the entire front end geometry would be off.

I'd recommend an adjustable track bar as well. BDS, BD Diesel, Carli, Pure Performance, Thuren.... there's a number of them out there that will work great for you. I'd personally go for the BDS or BD Diesel bar.

 

[Grizzly_Dodge]

Yes it has an additional bracket that bolts to the original mount

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

 

[7510derrick]

My 3.5" kit needed a track bar!!! BDS got my business

 

[Mauzz]

A 6" lift definitely would have come with a track bar drop bracket and a longer pitman arm otherwise the entire front end geometry would be off.

Do you typically see drop pitman arms for these trucks instead of a flipped draglink and axle side trackbar bracket? All my solid axle life was on Jeeps...

 

[1500ram12]

Most kits, to keep costs down, offer a drop bracket. Some may offer either a correct length Trac Bar or adjustable as a upgraded option.

As far as drop pitman arms, I believe anything over 4" would come with one.

I've owned 2 jeeps. 95 wrangler had a 3" suspension, 1" body and 1" shackle lift and that kit came with a drop pitman arm. My 2000 grand cherokee that had a 6" lift came with a drop pitman arm and drop bracket. After 1 year got rid of the bracket and installed a adjustable Trac Bar.

 

[Mauzz]

Yeah I guess I never went past 4" to keep my COG down and gaining 3" on the axle side for both drag link and track bar was enough. I still ran adjustable track bars just for centering. The prevailing opinion on drop pitman arms was that they break under load, like 35 inch aired down tires turning into a rock ledge. Frequent situation for my Jeep but will never happen to my truck so its probably fine.

 

[brandonjansen]

Do you typically see drop pitman arms for these trucks instead of a flipped draglink and axle side trackbar bracket? All my solid axle life was on Jeeps...

All depends on the lift. As stated pretty much anything 4" or over will come with a drop pitman arm and track bar drop bracket (for the frame side) to keep them running parallel and prevent bump steer issues. But sometimes that involves the drag link flip as well. My 8" BDS kit for example came with the track bar drop bracket, and a longer pitman arm and the drag link is now flipped bolted up into the pitman arm rather than down through it.

The only time I've seen changes on the axle side track bar bracket or tie rod/drag link is on custom built lifts. Anything out of the box will deal with the frame side and pitman arm.

 

[ricky2010hemi]

Not trying to hi-jack, but I've noticed a knock sound when i go over speed bumps after installing a 4" Superlift kit, and i went down to check it out and my rear track bar bushing is shot. No body makes replacement bushings, so I've ordered a new bar. Question is this should be fine right? since the kit didn't come with a new bar but it did come with a drop bracket so a stock bar should suffice?

 

[brandonjansen]

Not trying to hi-jack, but I've noticed a knock sound when i go over speed bumps after installing a 4" Superlift kit, and i went down to check it out and my rear track bar bushing is shot. No body makes replacement bushings, so I've ordered a new bar. Question is this should be fine right? since the kit didn't come with a new bar but it did come with a drop bracket so a stock bar should suffice?

Yes that is correct. The track bar drop bracket will be built to be used with the stock bar. When you install it make sure that it's torqued up to spec and then check it again after a couple weeks of driving. They need to be ridiculously tight and if they're loose, will cause the bushing to fail prematurely.

 

[ricky2010hemi]

Perfect! Thanks for the info

 

[ricky2010hemi]

Track bar in, problem solved. Went through the installation instructions from the lift, and it says to tighten to 130 ft/lbs Incase anyone was wondering!