Had some vibration up through the steering wheel and from searching here some threads suggested a worn track bar. I was finally was able to get my son to wiggle the steering wheel back and forth while I watched from underneath and confirmed between 1/16" and 1/8" movement at the pivot on the original stocker. Truck has about 108k on it now, and sees light duty with only occasional off-road. Still stock height, stock wheels and tires, and I don't anticipate changing from that in the near future.

Would you guys recommend stock replacement or are there other better/reasonable options out there in the aftermarket world?

 

well.. I just did my hole front end this spring due to my track bar...

I got duralast due to lifetime warrenty... I replaced mine because it was bad.. two months later got new tire and went to have it aligned and they where unable to to bad ball joint AND track bar.. I thought they were trying to screw me.. so I went down there to look at my "new" track bar and it was shot.. mainly because everything else was soo loose that the track bar took all the beating.. so.. $2,000 later I have new upper/lowwer ball joint.. U-Joints, inner/outter tie rods and tie rod ends.. track bar (free)... drive straight as an arrow now.. btw.. if you do the track bar by your self.. there is a DIY and you will also need an alignment.. my steering wheel was 90 degrees off

 

That sounds a little high.. could you not do any of the work yourself?

 

When it's mine to do it'll be this: http://www.solidsteel.ca/Trackbar.htm with a factory new '03 track bar.

 

how ever you replace it, try to find or make a track bar with replacable ends and joints, meaning next time it goes, you can just replace the rod end instead of the whole bar as well

 

or get one with a lifetime warranty - then it doesn't matter...

the moog brand has a much beefier structure than the cheapos.
moog, raybestos, acdelco all have lifetime warranty.
autozone duralast is lifetime, but compare it side by side to a moog in structure before buying.

 

I did see the MOOG brand and the prices didn't seem too out of sight.

Thanks to all for the responses.

 

They had three flavors at Advance Auto.... Some no-name 1 year warranty, some other brand lifetime warranty, and the moog piece. The 'other' brand was I think TRW. Is was two thirds the price of the moog, and looked exactly the same...... right down to label locations....... I didn't even consider the no name part. It was wimpy.

 

Thanks HeyYou. Funny you should mention Advance Auto. That's where I tend to do most of my parts buying locally. And I saw the one your talking about. They show both the AA brand and TRW bars for $149 and MOOG for $214. From past experience, I'm not feelin' the AA brand and it's only a year warranty anyway. So it's between the latter two.

My local store has a somewhat rare thing...a couple of staff/techs who seem to know something other than which car wax is best. I'll talk to the guys about the TRW. If I asked, they might even order both the TRW and MOOG in for me to compare myself. I'll try to update the thread with any new info.
Thanks again.

 

if the TRW and Moog look and feel the same, they're probably made in the same factory somewhere and sold under both names. as long as they're lifetime warranty, they're probably both as good as it gets. if one is a lot cheaper - then all the better.