Hey Adam,
I've been having a good summer with my 417.5 (417 Smokem deck, full 418 plastics) up here in the northwest. Modified.
I too found the new C-hubs a bit fragile. So, I'm running the softer TB04 hubs, and sort of like you said earlier, the car got pushymushy. The one thing that brought it around is a medium rear swaybar. I've yet to find a pro setup with the medium rear bar listed, but man, it has worked for me. And the nice thing is that the softer c-hubs simply don't break. They're rather marvelous in that way. Granted, this is on asphalt, so maybe the utility of my experience is limited for you. And, maybe you've tried the medium bar and
no bueno.
So, at the risk of adding to the useless post count, may I offer: TB04 c-hubs/medium rear swaybar.
BTW, "nuthugger." I'm going to try working that into my lexicon
