Front Reciever Hitch w/Stock bumper

[Ford F834]

Steve83 wrote

Ford F834 wrote

I found one in a salvage yard that was attached to the stock F150 cross member.

That's certainly a homebrew, and it doesn't look very strong.  I've bent those crossmembers BY HAND, and by stomping on them to straighten them out.

Yes, it is definitely home brew, but most of the force is on the angle iron that bolts to the frame ahead of the factory cross member. It is attached to the cross member mostly as a brace from twisting. Whoever built it added another piece of angle to stiffen the factory cross member. I found mine because I was replacing one that was badly bent.

Gary, good to know the cross member is there with or without the sway bar. I don’t know if the sway bar would still fit with my front hitch or not, but I mistakenly thought it was either or...

[kramttocs]

Ford F834 wrote

I don’t know if the sway bar would still fit with my front hitch or not, but I mistakenly thought it was either or...

kramttocs wrote

As for the other jy sway bar one, with that style of sway bar, since the bar goes behind that crossmember (at least on my 86 f150) I don't see why it would interfere.

[Steve83]

It depends how the sway bar is attached to the frame.  On my '83, the (JY) crossmember would NOT fit with the factory front sway bar.  But on some trucks, the sway bar mounts TO the crossmember.

[BigBlue 94]

I removed my swaybar. You can still see the drop brackets for it that came with my lift. It's that C-channel with and angle cut on both ends. They, too, have since been removed.

[kramttocs]

Yeah, with how your receiver is setup, any factory sway bar setup will work. Ford attached the front sway bars a handful of different ways. It's when the receiver hitch is attached directly under the frame horns that one may run into issues - all depends upon the bar style they have and how the receiver hitch is attached. Since for these years, all front receiver hitches are going to be custom jobs, never know what one will find.

[BigBlue 94]

Why on earth I wonder, would they attach swaybars different ways for the same say D44 TTB trucks?

Of course I recently ran across a 78-91 center console with deeper cupholders, so who knows what Ford was doing back then!

[Steve83]

BigBlue 94 wrote

Why on earth I wonder, would they attach swaybars different ways for the same say D44 TTB trucks?

To match all the various ride heights.  A sway bar doesn't work nearly as well if the geometry is wrong.

[Gary Lewis]

The sway bar illustrations are shown here: Documentation/Suspension/Sway Bars.  And the part numbers are there as well, but I'll show them here also.  Each of those probably had a different way of mounting.

I know for sure that the illustration that is marked 1980/ F250/350 - 2WD And F-U 150 4WD is wrong for Dad's truck.  Probably because of the quad shock setup, but that sway bar attaches to the crossmember like the 2WD one shows to do.