Hey guys,

I am going to be buying a set for front and rear swaybars for my 2000 4wd expy and i am wondering what you guys think the best ones are. i am thinking of running the Hotchkis ones. what do you think? the best price i have been able to find is $454.39 without shiping from summit racing. or $506. 79+38 shipping from truck performance. does anyone know of a better place to buy these? should i look at another company for swaybars?

Thanks in Advanced

 

I think if you want front and read Hotchkis is it. They're more expensive that say, Helwig, but I've read posts where people felt the matched set was worth it.

 

Thanks for the responce familyride, damn this board is dead, its been almost a day since anyome has posted in this forum. Is there another expedition forum that is better??

 

Whatever you do, don't buy Hellwig. After a day of struggling I put a set on my 95 Tahoe and it immediately started wearing a little notch in the A-arm. Poorly engineered - just my .02.

 

On the flip side, I have a Helwig rear on my Expy and it's great. Of course it's a direct replacement so it's easy.

 

Family Ride,

Got the Helwig rear sway bar the other day and it came with one 1 inch bushing and one 1 1/4 inch bushing for the bar. So as you can see I had bad luck again about simply getting the right parts in the box. Summit racing has already called Helwig and they are suppose to send me one out right away. Does anybody that you know of around Grapevine sell one of those poly D one inch bushing for like 5 bucks or something?? I am off today and tomorrow I just want to get it together. The front bushings from energy suspension are still on order. Hopefully these will be the correct part. I should change my sign on for this group to "WRONGPARTSDFWBMW"

Later

 

Like FamilyRide, I've upgraded to a Helwig read bar, and poly bushings on the front OEM. Coupled with the Edelbrock shocks and Michelin CrossTerrain tires, I am very pleased with the way my Expy rides these days.

 

dfwbmw

Man, it's time for me to do something else. We've got twins once your done except for the shocks. If you ordered the bushing kit by the part number you should be good. If not, they may send you the 4x4 kit. They did me. But I returned it, Jeff (jmartinb) ordered one and they shipped my return to him.

Of course I shifted gears and bought a boat instead of Expy stuff. I may do the Factory_Tech accumulator with my tranny service; I haven't decided yet.

Good to see you're still around Jeff. Like you I've not been hangin around as much. I found a forum for a boat manufactuer that we were considering and met a lot of people in the area from there. We've met up with some of them on the lake a couple times. I'm still here, justa little quieter. Hope things are going good for you.

 

I got a story for ya. I am getting ready to go to FL for about a week in the expy and with only 4400 miles on it I thought I would rotate the tires. I looked at the front and thought they were cupping already just by a little. I rotated the tires and my nieghbor, who is a manager of a Discount Tire, said bring it in and he will balance all the tires because they come from the factory with a poor balancing. I brought it in and all were out of balance. One was off so bad that they could not add enough wieght to it to get it balanced. They got it as close as they could. Bottom line is I wanted to replace those cheap steal wheels anyhow, so I won an auction on ebay for a set of 4 Navigator Alloy chromed wheels for $375 plus $36 shipping. I will have them Friday. My neighbor will put them on and balance them. I will let you know but anytime you put a buntch of epoxy to hold on that plastic chrome thing on a metal rim it probably was not going to work. Plus the wieghts don't get pushed on all the way also. Got to run I will send up some pics.....

 

Ride-
Good from hearing from you as well. Things have been great, just coming back from a trip to the Outer Banks in NC. Took the Expy out onto the beach for a little spin...just like taking the Tonka Toys to the sandbox. I didn't baby it, but didn't get stuck either.

Like you, I have hit a wall with the Expy mods. While I'm still under warranty, I am hesitant to do anything that would void it. Besides, my wife keeps telling me how much expensive my truck is, but it still puts her to sleep in under 30 minutes every time!
I'll always hang around here, trying to help others with their mods while I contemplate my next move.

I hope you are having a great time with your new boat. Once it gets too cold, my guess is you'll be tinkering with that Expy in no time! Enjoy the remaining weeks on the water.

 

Hopefully I can post a new signature pic by Saturday with the new Gator wheels on it. Later

 

Jeff,

I see that you have a locked drawer installed in your x. Where
did you install it? I have one, but can't figure where it goes. Under the front pass. seat? There are some wires under there that get in the way (heated seats). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Rich

 

Kraft3671-
On my XLT, I installed in under the front passenger seat. Now, that seat has manual adjustments and no heater. Given that, it was an easy installation with plenty of room.

I wonder if having the seat heater on and a metal box installed under it would cause a heat problem. Your best bet may be to look into another drawer that mounts under the 2nd row bench or captain's seats.

 

http://home1.gte.net/res02fmm/GatorWheels.jpg

There is a pic of the Expy with the Gator wheels on it.

Later

 

Got just the Hellwig rear Anti-sway bar on last night. When I took the old one off I thought what a toy, I can use that one as a paper clip of all the Schedule D's of losses I will have this year. I don't have the front done yet suppose to get them today. Wow what a difference. When you pull into the driveway and one front wheel starts up the slope the truck does not flop over onto the otherside. More road feel. I cannot believe that it is starting to feel like a BMW now in the turns. Cannot wait to get the front done. Later.