Sway bar options

[livingez_123]

I would like to upgrade my front and rear bars on my 08 Denali. Who's the go to for a quality set? Hellwig? BellTech? Hotchkis?
Hellwig and BT are solid and Hotchkis are tubular.
Are there other options I'm not seeing?
I also found Nolathane 38mm, 30mm
Eibach also.

 

[OR VietVet]

I personally like the Hellwig and have the front and rear sets on my NBS. Instant seat of the pants feeling and the handling that it helped with kept me from an accident about 1 month ago. I had turned right and accelerated, hard like I normally do, and quickly, a car pulled out from a business driveway, right in front of me. There was a center turn lane to my left and I quickly moved left and then back right and avoided the impact. It was a quick, bang bang move. Complete confidence in the handling I expected at the time and the kits did not let me down. I did not lay way over with either quick steering turn.

 

[Doubeleive]

Hellwig, I swear you can feel the difference even sitting parked lol

 

[livingez_123]

Hellwig, I swear you can feel the difference even sitting parked lol

Damn, those must be some sensitive butt sensors

 

[OR VietVet]

Damn, those must be some sensitive butt sensors

The beautiful "sturdy" sensation is immediate when you first test drive after install. You feel it, even during intersection turns at lower speed. You really feel it, driving thru cloverleafs, entering or exiting highways. I have had "handling vehicles", like a Challenger or Camaro or Mustang, be on my ass entering a cloverleaf and I come out the other end way ahead of there speed they took the cloverleaf at. They have even accelerated around me and gave me the "side eye" look of "what the hell!"

 

[iamdub]

I would like to upgrade my front and rear bars on my 08 Denali. Who's the go to for a quality set? Hellwig? BellTech? Hotchkis?
Hellwig and BT are solid and Hotchkis are tubular.
Are there other options I'm not seeing?
I also found Nolathane 38mm, 30mm
Eibach also.

Hellwig is known to be the top dog as far as maximum sway bar effect. I have the underdog- Nolathane. Best I can tell, they're the same as Hellwig, just without the adjustable rear bar and end links and about 2/3 the cost. If you're lowered 3" or more in the rear, the adjustable links are useless and the link location in the Nolathane appears to be where the middle or max firmness setting is on the Hellwig. I haven't been able to confirm and I'm really not worried about it because I can now over-drive my tire's grip. I drive about 60% of the time how @OR VietVet drove in his emergency situation or on that cloverleaf. They really do transform the feel of these rigs. Whichever you get, you'll be glad you upgraded. We can only witness so much with words on a screen. Feeling it for yourself makes the cost worth it.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Hellwig sway bars are the way to go, IMO. As stated above, the rear sway bar allows to 3 degrees of stiffness, so you can 'tune' the performance of the 2 sway bars acting in unison to what you want in your truck.

Body roll is virtually eliminated with the Hellwig sway bars.

 

[CMoore711]

I had the Hotchkis front and rear bars on my 2015 GMC Yukon XL Denali and the improvement over stock is noticed immediately as others have already stated. The best way to describe it is your vehicle just feels more planted to the road, more predictable and stable in every situation.

I got caught up on the weight savings of the tubular hollow bars that Hotchkis offers which to be honest if I were to do it again I'd go with the Hellwigs. The weight savings of the hollow Hotchkis bars probably only made the install marginally easier being lighter and easier to handle under the truck. Let's face it our rigs are heavy; Saving a couple lbs. on some hollow sway bars versus solid bars isn't going to be noticeable or felt in any way. Logically it makes sense to me that solid bars would be stiffer than hollow bars which you would be able to feel and notice.

 

[livingez_123]

Well, I went with Nolathane bars. The front fit great but I shortened up the end links ¾" for a better fit. The rear bar took a little modification of the DJM end links and its a snug fit. Still trying to get rid of the ½" lean to the drivers side.....I'm about to give up.

 

[OR VietVet]

Unless I missed it, I don't see where you ever mentioned a 1/2" lean to the driver's side. The sway bar is not going to fix that. You may have wasted your time and money trying to fix a lean that you never mentioned.

 

[livingez_123]

I mentioned it it my other thread about lowering my 08 Denali. I knew the bars wouldn't fix the lean, just wanted more bar in the back so why not change them both!

 

[MrMonte]

I'm rolling with the Hellwigs swaybars & a 2/3 drop. As stated before you can feel the difference just by sitting in it. The driving experience vastly improved.

 

[iamdub]

Still trying to get rid of the ½" lean to the drivers side.....I'm about to give up.

That's a 30-minute/$20 fix. Buy a lift spacer set and just use one on the driver side. There are two styles- Under strut and over strut. Sell or give the other spacer to someone else that is a half inch low.

*EDIT* Just saw your other thread. I remember your issues now. Oof.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Yes, the Hellwigs are damn heavy. For the front sway bar, I had to bring a second jack under the truck, so that I could lift it into place, so that I could set the bolts into place.

But, what a difference in the truck's handling..........

 

[KidWgn]

Well, I went with Nolathane bars. The front fit great but I shortened up the end links ¾" for a better fit. The rear bar took a little modification of the DJM end links and its a snug fit. Still trying to get rid of the ½" lean to the drivers side.....I'm about to give up.

Ah YOU'RE the one who bought the last set on Amazon! I knew it had to be someone Chris referred!

 

[livingez_123]

Ah YOU'RE the one who bought the last set on Amazon! I knew it had to be someone Chris referred!

I would never do such a thing!
I bought mine from Nolathane, found a code for 10% off.

 

[KidWgn]

I would never do such a thing!
I bought mine from Nolathane, found a code for 10% off.

Wild. I've been eyeballing the last set available on amazon, waffling over whether or not to purchase them. Checked them yesterday and they're gone!

 

[livingez_123]

The code was FIRST10

 

[iamdub]

The code was FIRST10

Wild. I've been eyeballing the last set available on amazon, waffling over whether or not to purchase them. Checked them yesterday and they're gone!

 

[livingez_123]

After driving around with the new bars it is very much a different vehicle. It's body roll is significantly less and going around the corners is a lot more fun. I think it might be just a bit on the firm side. I think most of that is the new springs all the way around which will hopefully soften up a bit as I get more miles on it.