Video Transcript for How to Set Up Your Hellwig Adjustable Rear Anti-Sway Bar on a 2020 Ford F-150

Ian with etrailer here. Today we're gonna be looking at the Hellwig rear sway bar on our 2020 Ford F-150. Let's get into a couple features and then that install. So this rear sway bar is not a replacement like we've done for the front, but this is a add-on for the rear of this vehicle, giving it more stability going down the road. That way if you are towing, or you happen to have a heavy load in the bed, it's really gonna just brace that rear end of the vehicle like it should. I wanted to mention as far as the look on this, it's got a great finish visually, but these pits on the finish actually serve a purpose as well.

You'll see there's grease inside the bushings, and that those pits are gonna allow a spot for that grease to live, opposed to your factory bars, which are not gonna have any pitting. And then the grease wears out causing squeaks and noise, and other issues like premature wear. Another great feature of the Hellwig sway bar is the adjustability. So you'll see that it does have a threaded rod to be able to adjust our height up and down to get our most level position for the bar, which we're gonna be looking for. And then we do have these three positions here, which are gonna be our tension positions, depending on what type of ride we'd like.

If we've got a heavier load, of course we'll have it in the heaviest position. And then if we're just driving around the city for a long period of time, we're just gonna have it in the lightest position, like we do for this neighbor. So I will say with the installation, it's not all that bad. We do have to run a couple plates that are gonna go inside of the frame, so that's about as hard as it gets. But all that being said, if you don't wanna try to tackle this on your own after watching the video, please do check out our dealer locator.

We'd be happy to get you a trained professional that can install this for you. But for all those DIYers, let's go ahead and hop into that install. So we're gonna start by taking our plate that's attached to the wire here. This is gonna act as our backing plate for the front clevis we're gonna be putting on. So we'll come up to this hole.

There's one above the bump stops, but you're gonna find one just in front of that, and that's where we're gonna insert into, and we're trying to line those holes, one of the two up with this hole here that's in line with our shock bracket. So that may take just a little adjustment. You'll have to fiddle with it until you've got at least one of the two holes on that plate lined up. I got it somewhat lined up. Just to kind of help bring that into place, I've grabbed the bolt that's gonna be going into it anyways, put a couple threads on there, and just pulled that into a better position. We're gonna raise up this clevis, and then we do want that facing with our bolt holes towards the side of the vehicle as much as possible. And we will just feed that through to the plate. And again, you may just have to keep adjusting as you go along, 'cause that little plate will wanna dance inside of the frame. And then once we've got that into place again, we're just gonna wanna try to have that as lined up with the rear of the vehicle as possible. And then we're gonna torque to the specs shown in the instruction manual. We need to build the end links. Both of 'em are gonna be built the exact same way. We're gonna start with our threaded end, and we'll be adding on the larger nut that comes with the kit that's gonna work as our retainer on that link. And we'll just get that down as close to the bottom about an inch away. And that should be more than enough. And we're gonna thread on the other end of our link here, and we'll just go all the way down to where we've got the retaining nut. Then we'll need to push in these rubber bushings first. So easiest thing to do is just kind of get those set in place, and then you can use either a vise or good pair of channel locks to do the exact same thing. And we'll wanna evenly press that in, nice and slow. Then if you need to, once you've got that started, you can either push it in by hand, or you could tap it against something, and that'll finish it out and center it back up. We're gonna have two of these insert sleeves that will go in the center of the bushing. Those you can just get started by hand like that. And then same situation, either that pair of channel locks or vise grips to get that pressed in. And we'll repeat that on the other side as well. Now we'll take the threaded end of our link here. We're gonna run this silver bolt through that. It may be a little tricky to get that in there first. Just kind of give it a good wedge, and we're gonna come through the backside with the bolt, and then add the lock washer on the outside. We're gonna leave all that loose, just so we can get everything else up. There's gonna be three holes in the ends where the link can attach to. The outer ones are gonna be your most stiff position, the inner, your least. So what we're gonna do is just go with the least for now per the neighbor's request, and we'll slide the bolt with washer through the outside, and then going onto the bar with another washer on that inside edge. And last, the nut. I'm gonna leave all this loose while we get the rest of it hung. Going to be putting the D-rings onto the sway bar before hanging it all the way up. So we'll just need to lubricate the inside. There is a split that's gonna allow us to go over the bar, but we'll start with that lubricant, and we'll spread that out evenly. And we're gonna take that bushing, and just get it over our outside edge loop here. So you can see there's one bend, and then our second bend here. So it'll be on that second one, and we will add the D-ring bracket as well. Then we're gonna follow the instructions as far as getting the U-bolts up here. We're going to have this run up in between the bracket, 'cause I found to be able to get that to line up. We're pretty much at the very edge of that bend. And then we will be adding our bracket here with the V notch towards the axle. And then this is gonna sit right below that, and we'll add a washer, and then a nut to the end of each of the U-bolt studs. We're gonna come to the passenger side now, and do the exact same thing we did on the driver. And then we're gonna wanna torque these down to the specification shown in the instruction manual. What we'll wanna do is just kind of alternate these between the two until we've got nice, even pressure, and then that torque spec. And then we're gonna come through to the end links, and get those torqued to the specification shown in the instruction manual, both top and bottom. And we will be repeating on both sides. That's gonna do it for our look at and installation of the Hellwig rear sway bar on our 2020 Ford F-150. My name's Ian with etrailer. Appreciate you watching.