Front sway bar removal and extended rear sway bar links.

morphious

morphious

New member
Just thought I would post a follow up to these 2 mods in case anybody is interested. Wow!!! What a difference it has made on the way my truck drives and feels. After I raised it and removed the Xreas I felt the handling was awesome but the ride quality suffered as it was a bit harsh. After talking to some people on here and reading many posts I decided to do both of these and man it now drives like a dream. Removing the front sway bar has made it become truly independent and feels like it floats over anything you drive it over and extending the rear has got rid of the jolting feeling once the rears hit what ever the fronts went over. With the FJ coils and Bilstien shocks, handling is still very controlled and responsive even at highway speeds without feeling sloppy or unstable.
 
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Interesting. I just put my sway bar back on after having it off for a couple years and really like how much better it handles.
 
ebg18t said:
I loved the extra flex in the front. But it only took one evasive move to avoid an accident and I put it back on.
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Not trying to start a this is better or that is better post, but just posting my observations of how my truck feels and thought I would share. You put it back on after the evasive move to avoid an accident, did you get into that accident because it was off? I come from a long, long love of street cars because I love the speed and the rush of a car feeling like it is on rails when pushing it to the extremes, but also knowing it's extremes and not going beyond them. I have had built lowered trucks in the day, MR2 turbo, NSX, Corvette and learned their abilities and respected what they could and could not do. Like I said, just letting people here know my opinions of the feel, of course this feel is not for everybody, and I am not telling anybody to do what I have done.
 
morphious said:
Not trying to start a this is better or that is better post, but just posting my observations of how my truck feels and thought I would share. You put it back on after the evasive move to avoid an accident, did you get into that accident because it was off? I come from a long, long love of street cars because I love the speed and the rush of a car feeling like it is on rails when pushing it to the extremes, but also knowing it's extremes and not going beyond them. I have had built lowered trucks in the day, MR2 turbo, NSX, Corvette and learned their abilities and respected what they could and could not do. Like I said, just letting people here know my opinions of the feel, of course this feel is not for everybody, and I am not telling anybody to do what I have done.
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I understand. It is just my opinion. As a HDPE instructor for ACNA and PCA I am pretty comfortable with vehicle dynamics. My suspension at my ride height the "feeling" during evasive maneuver was not something I was going to let my wife experience. Yes my spouse does drive my car sometimes and she does not have the same driving background as many of us.

If my vehicle was a full time off road vehicle I would not run either sway bar. But seeing as it spends 90% of its time on pavement I need to keep it. Yes I could adjust the compression/rebound on my suspension to offset the bar, but then I lose comfort. It's a trade off on a street vehicle.

It appears your suspension on your truck with your experience is different than others. That is a great thing; ie we need these opinions out there for others to learn from. :thumb3:
 
I have had my sway bar on and off twice now. First time I only had the ToyTec lift and roof rack. Was a little too top heavy so I put it back on. Added some armor and weighed down the front so I set the Bilsteins at 1.75 to raise it back up. This stiffened the front up enough that I pulled it back off and tried again and find that I like it better without now. Body roll is pretty minimal at the speeds I drive but makes the front end much softer than with the bar. I also have the extended links on my rear bar with poly bushings that always squeak.
 
morphious said:
Not trying to start a this is better or that is better post, but just posting my observations of how my truck feels and thought I would share.
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That's the way it should be John. I put mine back on primarily because I'm doing a lot more long trips with my travel trailer and like the added stability. That and winter coming means less off-road stuff for me until it warms up again.
 
The ride is nice without the front bar. Much softer. But the added body roll is insane. I've had to change my driving style to compensate for this. Not too big of a problem but I can't help but wonder how dangerous its going to be when I need to make a quick maneuver.
 
CXS said:
That's the way it should be John. I put mine back on primarily because I'm doing a lot more long trips with my travel trailer and like the added stability. That and winter coming means less off-road stuff for me until it warms up again.
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I absolutely agree it would be much better on for towing. I sold my boat and no longer tow plus my wife never drives the 4runner.
 
Bskelton said:
I have had my sway bar on and off twice now. First time I only had the ToyTec lift and roof rack. Was a little too top heavy so I put it back on. Added some armor and weighed down the front so I set the Bilsteins at 1.75 to raise it back up. This stiffened the front up enough that I pulled it back off and tried again and find that I like it better without now. Body roll is pretty minimal at the speeds I drive but makes the front end much softer than with the bar. I also have the extended links on my rear bar with poly bushings that always squeak.
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Makes sense, I have no added weight and have mine at max lift on the Bilsteins.
 
does the rear extended sway bar links help that much? Mine are on a decent angle right now and debating the extended ones. I dont flex much, would just do it for a possibility of a better ride.
 
LTDSC said:
does the rear extended sway bar links help that much? Mine are on a decent angle right now and debating the extended ones. I dont flex much, would just do it for a possibility of a better ride.
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It depends...

If you stock links are shot then yes.

If you have a long travel or 3"+ lift it does allow more articulation when flexing Offroad. It does take some of the stress off tweaked links from tall lifts.

The person I know with them has the MT long travel kit. He gained ~2" of drop compared to OEM links. I installed his links with my regular travel kit. I gained ~0.25" more movement. I installed a replacement set of OEM links since my bushings were toast. This was tested by lifting one corner and measuring the drop with a tape measure.

I only has a 2" rear lift so my links are only sorta stretched, but not as bad as folks with more lift like the AP 3.5" kit.

I don't have any info on better ride, my ride is pretty plush anyways. The OP indicated a noticeable difference in rear ride quality.
 
ebg18t said:
It depends...

If you stock links are shot then yes.

If you have a long travel or 3"+ lift it does allow more articulation when flexing Offroad. It does take some of the stress off tweaked links from tall lifts.

The person I know with them has the MT long travel kit. He gained ~2" of drop compared to OEM links. I installed his links with my regular travel kit. I gained ~0.25" more movement. I installed a replacement set of OEM links since my bushings were toast. This was tested by lifting one corner and measuring the drop with a tape measure.

I only has a 2" rear lift so my links are only sorta stretched, but not as bad as folks with more lift like the AP 3.5" kit.

I don't have any info on better ride, my ride is pretty plush anyways. The OP indicated a noticeable difference in rear ride quality.
Click to expand...

Thanks, i know most my ride is because the blown fox's im waiting to rebuild but i noticed i had a pretty good angle so wondered if that was some of it. I only have 2" toytec springs in and the daystar puck on the driver side.
 
LTDSC said:
Thanks, i know most my ride is because the blown fox's im waiting to rebuild but i noticed i had a pretty good angle so wondered if that was some of it. I only have 2" toytec springs in and the daystar puck on the driver side.
Click to expand...

It truly does depend on what you feel on your truck. I too only have about a 2" lift in the rear but thought it was a good idea to try and keep the sway bar as much in the stock position as possible. I didn't want to spend a lot of money to see how it would feel so I did this one and am glad I did.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/141258-custom-ish-extended-rear-sway-bar-links-write-up.html
 
Also done the extend rear links and helps a lot with the 3/3 lift all around. I take the front bar off for off roading and put it back on when not planning to off road for awhile.
 
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