Hellwig prices increased
- Thread starter Danizanon
- Start date
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Today with summit coupon 450 hellwig
And 500 hotchkis... which one is the best choice for the price ?
I found Amazon beat the price of Summit by a lot when I bought my sway bars a few years ago.
They’re both good sway bars. The appearance of the Hotchkis parts is a little “sexier”, but as far as function goes you’re not going to notice much difference.
The install is a little different depending on what model year car you have (67-72 or 73+) and which brand you go with. So you may want to look at the instructions and see which install is easier/more appropriate for you, Summit posts all the instructions online.
DART 69
Like I said, there are some differences in the installation process between the Hellwig and Hotchkis bars, and you should check to see what suits your needs and abilities.
As far as function once the bar is actually mounted on the car the differences are going to be relatively minor. The Hotchkis bar allows for wider tires compared to the standard Hellwig bar for the 67-72 cars (5906), but there’s “pro touring” Hellwig bar that solves that issue (55917). And all of that is moot if your front tires are going to be narrower than a 245mm tread width.
The biggest difference is that the Hellwig #5906 and #6907 bars are solid, and the Hotchkis bars are hollow. The diameter of the Hotchkis bars are larger, but because they’re hollow the spring rate isn’t massively different (probably a little stiffer). Obviously the Hellwig bars will be a little heavier, but if this is a street car we’re talking about it’s not big deal.
Also, the Hellwig #55917 pro touring front sway bar is hollow, although still a little smaller in diameter than the Hotchkis front bar. So the Hotchkis front bar is still probably a little stiffer, but neither Hellwig or Hotchkis publish the interior diameter or wall thickness of the bars so there’s no way to be absolutely sure without testing them both.
The Hotchkis installation requires welding, while the Hellwig installation can be done without welding (although it’s better if you can weld some of the mounts).
But since we have no idea how your car is set up or what your intended use of the car is it’s hard to say if one will be better for you than the other. On a street car the differences on the road are not going to be huge, and it will totally depend on what you’re running for tires and torsion bars.
My car it will be a streetcar with a supercharger 205 tires on the front .94 torsion bars with hotchkis shocks, original k member, offset brushing and some minor modifications as c body tie rods an sleeve... and adjustable strut rods as well
The tires will hit their limit long before you’re maxing out any of those sway bars.
So do you think it's not necessary to change the sway bar?
That's not what I said. But either the Hellwig or the Hotchkis bars will be fine. They'd both be an improvement over the stock bars, but with your tires and suspension set up I don't think you'd notice any difference on the street between the Hotchkis and the Hellwig.
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