Installation Time
(approx) 3 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Mechanical expertise or professional installation required.
Installation Guides
FREE 1 to 3-Day Delivery on Orders $119+ Details
Hey, guys, Stephanie with americanmuscle.com here with the RTR Anti-Roll Adjustable Sway Bar Kit, for 2015 and up S550 Mustangs. In this video, we're gonna be discussing a few different things with this sway bar kit, but mostly we're gonna be talking about the materials and construction of the sway bars, and the install. I'll get more into the install later, but I'll tell you right now that this is an easy install, and I'm gonna call it a one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter.The RTR Anti-Roll Adjustable Sway Bar Kit is gonna be a good option for someone that's looking to improve their handling for their S550, plain and simple, with an adjustable tubular sway bar that's gonna give them handling options. Sway bars have a big impact on the handling of the S550, or any Mustang for that matter, so they tend to be one of the most cost-effective handling upgrades. They provide a lot of benefits, such as less body roll for better all-around handling, which is great news for the S550 chassis, and they aren't as expensive as other suspension mods. Sway bar kits, like this one here, have a positive impact on handling performance with one single purchase.The way sway bars work isn't complicated. For normal driving and cornering, the suspension is gonna compress and decompress. A sway bar counteracts as compression and decompression. The weight transfer during cornering creates a twisting force on the sway bar so that the sway bar creates a lifting force on the outside control arm in order to create a flatter handling experience. By flatter handling experience, I mean things like correcting understeer and oversteer.There are a few things that affect how much of an impact the sway bar has. The thickness of the bar and its composition are gonna play a big role, and these bars from RTR are tubular bars, which means that they're gonna be strong but they're also lightweight, especially when you compare them to a solid bar. And both these bars are upgrades over the factory bars when we look at thickness. The front bar is 35 millimeter and the rear bar is 25 millimeter. They are also powder-coated so they are gonna have corrosion resistance, as well.Another factor that's gonna affect how well a sway bar works is the geometry of the bar. By the geometry of the bar I mean that the sway bar has bends and different angles to it, but the key is gonna be the length of the lever arm, which is right here. Both of these bars are three-way adjustable. So you can see that you have three options here for your install. Having these bars be three-way adjustable means that you're gonna have a longer lever arm. When you look at the length of the lever arm, the shorter the arm is, the greater torque and the more force that the bar is going to have. This is what you're adjusting when you're moving around between the points on an adjustable sway bar, the amount of force and torque that will be applied to that outside control arm in order to decompress the outside suspension.Now, you have three different options here when you go to install these bars, and depending on what kind of performance you're looking for from these bars. So just know that if you're hanging out here at the very end of the lever arm, you're creating a softer setup, one that's closer to stock. The bushing is also gonna affect the sway bar. These bars come with polyurethane bushings, which is gonna be a good option for street cars. Poly bushings are more rigid than the factory soft rubber bushings are, but they aren't too rigid to stop all movement. The more rigid the bushings are, the more rigid the bars will be because they'll not be allowed to move as much. These bushings are also easy to maintain, which means that you can keep greasing them over time, which will keep down on the noise and keep up the life of the bushing.The last think I wanted to talk about when it comes to sway bar effectiveness is that suspension travel is going to affect the sway bar. When I say suspension travel, I'm mostly referring to spring rates. The sway bars and the springs are gonna work very closely together, and while sway bars are a very effective upgrade on their own, these sway bars work best with a set of RTR springs. The springs and these sway bars were designed to work hand-in-hand to give you three totally different handling experiences.As far as price, you're looking at spending between $500 and $600 for this kit, which is relatively close to the other options on this site, but it is a little bit more expensive. But if you're looking to complete an RTR handling package, or you're brand loyal, then this kit is what you're looking for. The other options on the site do have different materials, or different adjustability, or different thicknesses, so just make sure you're shopping in the range of materials, thickness, and adjustability that you need for your setup and how you want your car to perform.The install for these sway bars is not difficult at all. You're looking at spending about two hours to get it all done, and it's a one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter. Get a handful of different tools but nothing crazy, and as usual, a lift would really help here but the job can be done on jack stands if you don't have access to one. Your old sway bars are gonna need to be removed. I'd recommend greasing any new bushings as well, prior to the install, since waiting until after everything is installed will make that process a little bit more difficult. Grease the bushings as much as possible, since poly bushings can be a little noisy after a short period of time.Getting the factory sway bars out is really only a few bolts. You might need to pop out your air box to get to some of the bolts for the front sway bar, but the majority of the bolts can be removed from reaching down through the engine bay, except for the [inaudible 00:04:40] bolts, of course. And you just have to maneuver the old bar out, which can be a little bit tricky but it just takes a little time. The rear is a little bit easier to get to. You can get to all the bolts from below the car, so remove the end links, and the bolts and the brackets that hold the bar to the subframe, and sneak the bar out from below the car. The new bars install the same way that the old bars came out, so there's no surprises there. You just need to figure out what your adjustment points are gonna be and how you want the car set up.Wrapping things up here, the RTR Sway Bar Kit includes a front and rear three-way adjustable bar that's tubular in design, and thicker in diameter than the factory bars, for more rigidity. This kit's made to help with cornering and handling by keeping the suspension flat and even. You can check it out more online here at americanmuscle.com.
Features, Description, Reviews, Q&A, Specs & Installation
CA Residents: WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Installation Info
Installation Time
(approx) 3 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Mechanical expertise or professional installation required.
Installation Guides
What's in the Box
10 More Questions