Track Bar

[Gondul]

So, perusing other places like you do and I see a good amount of comments on how the track bar is really a piece of crap and should be considered a 'wear item' and replaced at 20K or so...
This being my first RAM and first HD truck I take many of these statements with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to these statements being made by aftermarket manufactures.
For those of you who have had several RAMs or HD trucks with solid front axles, what's your opinion?

 

[Squatch]

I’ve had the stock track bar for the life of one Ram, and on another I only removed it to put an adjustable one in there and the one I removed looked just fine, there was 140,000 miles on the clock at that point.

 

[Gondul]

Thanks... I tend to be very skeptical of the 'performance' market.
I see lots of claims with either irrelevant or no data to back any of it up...

 

[elephantrider]

I only put adjustable front and rear trac bars on due to having a lift and wanting my axles centered. factory one is fine. not near as beefy as a replacement.

 

[UglyViking]

I don't have any experience with this specifically but I think the issue mainly comes into play with larger tires and a lift that causes extra strain on a track bar that is not long enough. I can't imagine this is really an issue for stock applications.

 

[Gondul]

Thanks folks, yes... I would agree it is needed for lifted/large tire applications (I mean, you just changed all the geometry) but the underlying message they seem to push is the OEM track bar is trash and should be replaced at 20K miles because 'solid front axle'.

 

[UglyViking]

At least all the advertisements and such I've seen have been solely geared toward lifted/large tire application. In part because of the geometry change as you mentioned, but I believe that the aftermarket options generally have a higher density polyurethane or other upgraded bushing that will stand up to the abuse of the larger tire better than the factory will. The factory is balanced toward a smoother ride with less road feedback, and with the smaller factory tires that flex less you'll need something to help absorb those small issues in the road. As you move up in tire size (assuming you're keeping and/or shrinking the wheel size) you have more small bump compliance for issues in the road surface, thus you can get away with harder bushings in the track bar.

But yeah, I wouldn't be looking to upgrade your factory track bar unless you have a use case for such. A lot of what you see out there is just marketing.

 

[elephantrider]

more to the need for a trac bar is the adjustability with one after a lift. not necessarily being beefier.

 

[UglyViking]

Agreed, mostly. Adjustability is important for bringing the axel back to be centered under the truck, and you notice that right off the bat. That said, a lot of the aftermarket ones also feature more heavy duty bushings, and that's really the key to longevity for daily driving a lifted beast.

 

[elephantrider]

I dont believe you really need a stronger one for a pavement princess

 

[Gondul]

I dont believe you really need a stronger one for a pavement princess

99% of the 'bro-dozers' I see are mall crawlers...