Went to my niece's birthday part on Saturday in Murphy, NC. Took US129 (Tail of the Dragon) over to Pigeon Forge, TN to spend a couple of days with the wife and kids. Fun drive.... Truck handled it well. Need to find me a rear swaybar out of an 05-07 and put it in.

 

Looking good, I saw Dragon in the title and expected to see a blue Dak.

Red > Blue...

 

who me? Good pic though. I love taking my 05 (Dragon) up to the Tail. I try to go at least once a year.

 

Rodslinger, I have been tossing around the idea of an aftermarket swaybar from a ram 1500. I can tell you, this dinky sway bar on the 05 is not for anything more than load leveling side to side.. doesn't do much at all for handling. It's only 1/2" diameter.

I'm looking at the Hellwig 7561. It WILL bolt to the axle, the only concern is the frame clamps and possibly the width of the swaybar putting the endlinks at an odd angle, but should still work just fine.

On that note... what have you done to lower your truck? Looks great with those stockers on it! Did you do a build thread?

This is the same location that Dragon05 has some of his pictures, am I correct?

 

It has to be better than no bar at all. The front can push pretty hard when driving at a faster pace.

I didn't do a full build thread but here are some snippets. I went a different route to lower the rear. By doing it this way the overload spring actually pulls the spring pack up effectively lowering the rear another 1" to 1.5". It also pre-loads the rear giving it a slightly higher spring rate. It rides firmer but doesn't crash into the bumpstops as easily.

I also didn't want to do a flip kit since I still tow and was worried about going too low. Didn't think the drop shackle would be enough so this seemed to be the best compromise. Have lowered some other Dakotas I had on the rear the same way and it worked pretty good.

http://www.customdakotas.com/forums/...p-4th-gen.html

Then I started the front with a set of Lowboys coilovers from Airbagit.

http://www.customdakotas.com/forums/...g-4th-gen.html

Airbagit did send me what should have been the correct units a few days later and this was the result after install. This is essentially how it sits now. Running stock 18's with Yokohama YK580 tires. I don't think I'll upgrade the wheel size. I don't want to add another 10lbs to the wheel mass and further kill my gas mileage.



The reality is even the replacements from Airbagit were too long. The body of the "correct" units were nearly 1" longer than stock, the shock valving was even worse than stock and the upper spring perch was lower which took away another 1" of suspension travel. In the end, with the truck lowered just 2" on the front, there was only about 1" to 2" of suspension travel left. The front end would crash on the strut housing just hitting a pothole.

They are supposed to be sending me another replacement set with the body 2" shorter. I'll try them when I get them but in the interim I put in some Rancho RS5000 and cut 1-1/4 loop out of the stock springs. Rides AWESOME.

Not sure what Airbagit was thinking on those coilovers but you can't lower a vehicle, put in a longer/weaker shock and use the same, soft spring. That's just asking for issues.

 

probably the same spot. the pro photographers up there usually set up in the same spot. I have pics from different trips that are almost same pose. J have t look at the truck mods to tell when it was.

 

We have a local car club that runs the dragon every spring. Nice roads.