Sway Bars

2008 Toyota Tacoma - Pre-Runner - 2 Wheel Drive - Crew Cab

Is a sway bar upgrade worth it??

Do I do Front and Rear at the same time. Or is Rear just fine on it's own??

Easy to install for a beginner?? Or have it done professionally??

What's a good brand to get? I want a red powder coated one if available.

 

For track racing if you cant afford coilovers yes. For every day driving maybe not unless your trying to take every corner at high speed. If you only upgrade the rear you will notice a lot of oversteer which is fun lol. When i used to autocross and circuit race oversteer was a plus due to being awd. As far as brand wise i dont know but trd does make them though i dont know what mm they are. Ive only seen them on tundras and they are red. Yes they are easy to install

 

i thought all prerunners come with sway bar? mine is trd sport prerunner with #2 sport package it came with sway bar. i have done several different lifts in the front, for a new install, in the front, you will have to take off the oem black metal splash guard (wanna be skid plate thing) its 3 or 4 bolts and the aluminum skid plate (if you have one) again 3 or 4 bolts, then the sway bar has 4 bolts that bolt to the frame. easy-peezy just have someone help you because it can be a little tricky holding and bolting and unbolting the skid plates.

as far as powder coating, just get the part you think is best, at MAX, it would be $75 to powder coat it to whatever color you want and be better coating to!

 

all Tacoma comes with them in the front but not the rear.

 

Yup

 

Tundra Racing has kit to mount the X-Runner rear sway bar on the other Tacomas. None of the other Tacoma models have mounts for the sway bar. The axle housing for the X-Runner has mounting points welded on.

http://tundraracing.com/tacorearswaybar.htm

Hellwig also makes a smaller one.

Take pictures if you do it.

 

Thanks for reminding everyone that only the X_Runner has the welded axle mounts. I came upon this fact elsewhere while researching the rear sway bar. It would have been a real disappointment to have ordered the Toyota parts, only to find there was no way to mount them to the axle.

Normally, you would use a larger front stabilizer bar when adding a rear bar, in order to maintain handling balance. As far as I know, the X-Runner has the same front bar as the other Tacomas. The TRD Off-Road package has a smaller front bar.

Here is some additional information:

http://www.suspensionconnection.com/view-cat/toyota/tacoma?category=sway bars

The Hellwig rear bar is 0.75"
The Addco rear bar is 0.875"

Does anyone know the diameter of the X-Runner rear bar?

The stock front bar is 1.18", except the TRD Off-Road package, which is 1.10"

The Tundra Racing package is more expensive. I guess this is because the factory rear bar alone is $130.

 

Correction the X-runner has it in the rear.

 

Very good info!

 

There are a couple of us that have added the Hellwig rear sway bar. Do a search and the threads should show up. If you are a street truck, the sway bar(s) are a good handling improvement, but the bars affect articulation, so off-roaders tend to avoid, or remove the bars. I like the Hellwig on mine, but it wasn't as good of an improvement as I would have liked. The Hellwig instructions and mounting hardware (lock nuts mostly) are also a PITA.