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I should mention up front: this is not a "recommended" or "approved" approach—it is purely experimental at this stage, although I will probably report back later with more conclusive results, especially if they're positive. So I've complained for a long time about the regular bumps and bangs up front, especially when taking the Warrior on extended trips. I would set the torsion bars to spec, with proper ground clearance up front, and then do some test drives—all felt good. However, once we were loaded with all the humans/dogs/gear on a real excursion, the suspension travel would virtually disappear and we'd all take a beating on rough roads. (Basically, like some of you have probably already realized, our torsion bars were not up to the job anymore and couldn't really handle the weight of the fully-loaded rig. And, by the way, lifting the rear-end higher by increasing pressure in the air bags, only exacerbates this kind of front-end problem.) So, the only replacement option out there these days for a '90 chassis, far as I know, is the always-backordered, $300+ Sway-A-Way bars. Which I probably should go head and do, yes. Goshdarnit. But, instead I did a bit of research and measuring and then came across a set of these Gabriel #34073 Front Load Carrier shocks at a discount price of $72 for the set. The extended/compressed dimensions are correct, the mounts are pretty close (more about that in a sec), and they're typically used on big hoopties from the 70s-80s, along with Suburbans and a few GM cargo vans, etc. The biggest reason to use these, of course, is that they add a few hundred pounds of lift to the front-end, which should be enough to maintain some decent suspension travel on an overloaded Toyota pickup, in tandem with the existing t-bars. Installation was not very difficult: the shocks slide in just fine from below and the upper mounts bolt up per usual with nut + locknut. The only real hurdle was that the lower mounts have a slot that needs to be opened up (basically to match the lower mounts on, for example, the KYB KG5458 shocks that I installed about 6 years ago). Modifying the lower mounts took less than 5 minutes with a hacksaw, and I made sure all that was very securely bolted to the control arms by using thick fender washers on the bottom, Grade 10.9 M8 flange bolts, with locknuts on the top side. It's too soon to say if this is "a real fix," but the initial driving that I've done has felt good, with less swaying/rocking in turns and more general smoothness. We'll continue to test with some actual, fully-loaded-camping around southern MO this Fall. That's all for now...!

So when we brought our Sunrader home last year I noticed that the passanger side front was lower than the drivers side. 1 year has passed and a new full floating rear end later, the saging came back to my attention. When I looked under the front to see about adjusting the bar, I noticed that my mechanic, that installed the new rear, had already adjusted it to just about max already. I thought about dialing down the drivers side to match...but the reason the sagging is occuring is due to weakness; I don’t feel comfortable about the front end being week in the area of stability. So, I look up torsion bars for toyotas and this is where my question lies. So I’ve found no less than 3 companies that manufacture performance upgraded torsion bars. My thinking is that I should go with a stronger bar to match the strength of the new rear end I just had installed. I’m also going to add airbags in back as well. So, If I lower the driverside to match the Passenger side I’ll have the rear end pushing around the front. If I replace the torsion bars with stock ones, the rear will still be stouter than the front, result, the rear pushes the front end around. If I go with performance bars, like from LCE or Swayaway, I run into a couple problems. 1) SAW (Sway Away) has 1983 bars, but they cost $130 more, total $329.00 pair. The spring rate from stock is a good sounding 20%-30% increase. 2) All the other bars from LCE tout a 28%- 40% increase in spring rate, but they say they’re for a 1984+ truck. All the more affordable options are for 84+ trucks. So the question beckons, are there physical differences in spline count, spline diameter, master key spline or overall leangth in the torsion bars from early 80’s to late 80’s Toyota trucks? Can they be interchanged? A second question is: has anybody replaced their torsion arms with any quality and what did that do for you in the area of handling? My seat of the pants feeling is that I would want a 20% - 30% increase in spring rate to match the rear capibilities and new found weight capabilities. Thanks for any of your thoughts.