"New" 04 XLT Owner

[Kinny Vinson]

Last week I found an '04 Sport Trac with only 42K miles on it, and even with some of the small issues it has had, I could not pass up on it. First I want to thank you for the information on this site. It has already been very helpful.



Besides servicing all of the fluids on the vehicle, new tires, new brakes, I am looking to change out at a minimum the shocks to hopefully improve the ride of the trac. I was also considering installing an Explorer Express Sway bar, as I have seen them mentioned several times here and on other sites. However, I do not see them offered on explorerexpress.com. Am I looking at the correct company's web site?



Thanks in advance.

 

[Kinny Vinson]

As a follow up, I can not seem to find any rear anti-sway bars for my ST. I am hoping I am not out of luck here.

 

[Todd Z]

Welcome to the site and good luck with the truck....



Addco 633 or there is a helwig one that fits. EE may still have them, Call or email them.



Good luck with the truck !!



Todd Z

 

[TrainTrac]

:welcome:



:worthless:

 

[swshawaii]

Ditto Todd. EE X Spec removed from their site a while ago. Hellwig 7648 is chromoly steel vs. Addco 633 heat treated steel. Both are 1".

 

[Kinny Vinson]

Thanks for the replies. If I remember correctly, did I see mentioned that Hellwig made the bars for EE? As far as the Pics (assuming I don't screw this up):



As I found it (Covered in mildew, grime, and pine sap, still on original tires)

After some TLC:

 

[swshawaii]

^ Correct, however the EE was a different design from the other two and larger diameter. Nice Trac BTW. :supercool:

 

[EddieS'04]

:welcome:

You will enjoy driving your trac much more, after some good shocks and rear anti-swaybar.

If you dont mind some rigidity at first. Go with rancho rs-5000 series shocks. They are not bad, just more like a sport truck should be. Monroe senso-tracs for softer but more stable than oem.

I have the rancho rsx on my '04 (out of production now). They are an early version of the rs-5000. I like the the stability of a tougher shock.

 

[Matt Sween]

Which rear anti-sway bar would you reccomend? I have evidence from alot of people saying that the stock ones are "pretty beefy" what did you go with??

 

[Kinny Vinson]

I went with KYB Gas-a-Just shocks and chose the Hellwig 7648 anti-sway bar. The whole job took about 3-1/2 hours. I am very happy in the ride and handling improvements on my '04.



In the projects section, there is a writeup for installing the EE anti-sway bar which has a picture comparing the stock bar vs. the EE bar (which seems to no longer be available). While the Hellwig is not quite as big as the EE, it is close and is still more substantial than the OEM one.



If you search, you will find information on the Addco 633. I chose the Hellwig primarily because I did not want to deal with having to slightly modify the sway bar brackets that came with the Addco. If memory serves you have to drill those out slightly to insure proper bolt hole alignment.



The Projects section really help prep me for what needed to be done, especially in the rear, to make the job go as smooth as it did. I ended up dropping the breather box which gave me tons of room to access the top of the rear shocks. I would do it again if I had to repeat the job.