Correct me here if I'm wrong, but a longer bar doesn't really do much for correcting the problem of the lifted coil rear.... You are still in the same boat. Just with a much stronger panhard bar.
Well, not entirely. Stock, the lateral bar sits parallel with the rear axle at rest, thereby centering the axle under the truck. Once it's lifted, say, 3 inches, you have to use your old Geometry notes to get the Pythagorean Theorem out and see what length bar you really need now, because you have a triangle instead of two parallel lines. When you do the math, the difference is less than a half an inch or so, even up to 4 inches.
Now, that being said, there's the debate whether you should be lenghtening the bar and making a triangle, or dropping the mount and going back to the two parallel lines. Theoretically dropping the mount is the way to go because it brings it back to stock geometry, which is what all those engineers spent so much money and time designing. That being said, the triangle works pretty well and lines up everything pretty well, although at some points in the travel of the suspension it's not doing exactly what it's DESIGNED to do. Not to say it doesn't work, I don't think anyone has had any problems with it, but like I said, it's not exactly the way it's DESIGNED to work.
Joe, my understanding is that when the distance from the frame to axle is getting bigger, you need a longer bar to compencate. Otherwise, the axle placement and axle behaviour is different from how it was meant by truck designers.
This is true if you DON'T drop the mount, but if you drop it, the bar you need would be the same length as stock.
I did not broke the stock bar - it made some terrible noises on the trails but it was still intact and straight.
The fact that the bar was making noises at all leads me to believe there was a problem with the mount and that was causing your handling problems, which were corrected by replacing the bar itself. The bar shouldn't really make any noises unless it's somehow compromised.
-Chris
