Front Sway bar is gone and I love it!

[Tooltime19]

One thing I forgot to mention; With the sway bar on, when one front tire is approaching full compression, the sway bar pulls the opposite tire up with it causing both tires to compress when you dont want them to! They act almost like a solid axle. Also, it can cause harder bottom outs. The sway bar begins pulling the opposite tire up way before the initial tire gets close to the bump stop. With the bar off and at full droop, my cv's have no binding issues. My cv's are freshly prepped and when I broke them down for prep, found no excessive wear. Just my .02

 

[VidRunner]

+1 for the no-swaybar plan. Ran my Taco that way for 10000 miles with no issue. Looking forward to seeing how it works out on the Runner.

 

[chili]

I've never tried to run without the front sway bar, but I see the benefit of removing it on an IFS truck if you do a lot of wheeling.

On the other end... my T4R lives mostly on pavement and I just replaced the original links and bushings at 12 years/140k miles. The old ones were completely shot.

Comparison of the old and new links:

https://youtu.be/yIOCCSryYzs

It feels much flatter cornering now and it also had less front-end wandering at highway speeds.

 

[Wile.E.Coyote]

Hope this isn't too far off topic, but i was planning to do bushing upgrades in the rear to fix a thunking noise I was getting after lifting a couple inches which I believe was sway bar related, but now this thread has me thinking about removing the rear sway bar altogether permanently. For those of you cautioning about the dangerous side affects of sway bar removal in the front, do you think that rear sway bar removal would also cause significant negative handling characteristics?

 

[VidRunner]

Hope this isn't too far off topic, but i was planning to do bushing upgrades in the rear to fix a thunking noise I was getting after lifting a couple inches which I believe was sway bar related, but now this thread has me thinking about removing the rear sway bar altogether permanently. For those of you cautioning about the dangerous side affects of sway bar removal in the front, do you think that rear sway bar removal would also cause significant negative handling characteristics?

Define significant. It's not very hard to try it out yourself! Take it off, drive a day, and then decide about your upgrade options.

I've driven this way for several days and I like it a lot. That said there is quite a lean in long turns. And I haven't had to dodge an elk. If I were going to put one back on, it'd be the rear first.

 

[VidRunner]

(I drove a CJ -7 for ten years and my runner with zero sway bars feels about as the same if not more stable than that.)

 

[Wile.E.Coyote]

Yea I may try this weekend. Follow-up: does sway bar removal have the same articulation benefit in the rear given that it's solid axle versus IFS?

 

[CruzadoBlanco]

Yea I may try this weekend. Follow-up: does sway bar removal have the same articulation benefit in the rear given that it's solid axle versus IFS?

the rear swaybar has little effect on rear articulation till you get to the amount of travel that setups like mine have. but most suspension setups wont really see a benefit in removal of the rear swaybar.

 

[CXS]

I ran w/o one with my OMEmu suspension and it was fine. Once I hooked my trailer to the truck is was bad so I'm running with it on now. If you have stiff springs you should be fine w/o a swaybar.

 

[Drunner97]

+1 for the no-swaybar plan. Ran my Taco that way for 10000 miles with no issue. Looking forward to seeing how it works out on the Runner.

Works out awesome if you have aftermarket springs. I wouldn't try it on stock though.

Hope this isn't too far off topic, but i was planning to do bushing upgrades in the rear to fix a thunking noise I was getting after lifting a couple inches which I believe was sway bar related, but now this thread has me thinking about removing the rear sway bar altogether permanently. For those of you cautioning about the dangerous side affects of sway bar removal in the front, do you think that rear sway bar removal would also cause significant negative handling characteristics?

I removed my rear a few weeks ago and it didn't change my handling at all. I think the front sway bar has the bigger impact. It's not a race car, you just need to remember that. I still drive 70-80 on the freeway and I've actually stopped flinching at shit in the road (I just run it over now regardless 99% of the time) because I don't want to be yanking the wheel at speed.

 

[VidRunner]

I was totally happy and confident with the front off. With both off, I need quite a bit more driving to decide what I think.

In my experience, the rear does less. Which might be exactly why it's worth putting it back on first. If it's not huge either way, but both off is too intense, I'd start with the smallest return to stock.

 

[Tooltime19]

I have both bars removed. Won't be going back. Especially after I install the Total Chaos L/T kit front and rear. Yet, if I towed, I would have both bars installed for sure.
I can't strongly caution anyone enough; This will damage a few egos so here it goes, If you are not 100% in tune with driving your rig and are NOT an advanced skills driver and don't have the ability to feel everything your rig is doing while driving and you do not understand the physics of how a vehicle reacts under any conditions, you do not need to be taking off your sway bars period.
This type of chassis setup is for advanced performance minded individuals who are in tune at all times. My chassis package is the absolute minimum I would use without the bars. I actually feel like my rig drives nicer without them on the street. I will say though, we had extreme winds for a few days and it was a hand full. I drive freeway 22miles to and from work in aND oUT of rus hour. All is fiNE except for the bad windy days. Then it's two handed driving for sure.

 

[Wile.E.Coyote]

My rear clunking issue turned out to be the panhard bar not the sway bar and I stopped a bunch while wheeling Sunday to check out my rear articulation and it's plenty for me (pics below) so I won't be removing the rear. And the girlfriend drives the rig occasionally so I won't be removing the front either. One of these days I'd love to look into the detachable sway bar that Blackworksinc was working on but for now, way more important things to do.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

I have both bars removed. Won't be going back. Especially after I install the Total Chaos L/T kit front and rear. Yet, if I towed, I would have both bars installed for sure.
I can't strongly caution anyone enough; This will damage a few egos so here it goes, If you are not 100% in tune with driving your rig and are NOT an advanced skills driver and don't have the ability to feel everything your rig is doing while driving and you do not understand the physics of how a vehicle reacts under any conditions, you do not need to be taking off your sway bars period.
This type of chassis setup is for advanced performance minded individuals who are in tune at all times. My chassis package is the absolute minimum I would use without the bars. I actually feel like my rig drives nicer without them on the street. I will say though, we had extreme winds for a few days and it was a hand full. I drive freeway 22miles to and from work in aND oUT of rus hour. All is fiNE except for the bad windy days. Then it's two handed driving for sure.

See, it's not that I disagree with your statement; but now that I don't like how it handled without the front sway bar. On my setup, the bar isn't the limiting factor at full droop, so removing it offers no benefit besides forcing me to deal with excessive body roll on a regular basis (to be clear, it's not that I can't; but rather I don't want to have to deal with it all day if I don't need to) compared to it being on; the benefit vs. cost isn't in favor of it off here. Though admittedly I'm having an issue with clearance against the sway bar and coilover right now.

I think that depending on the setup, running without is possibly beneficial or negligible; driving skill factors into it admittedly, but sometimes making the vehicle drive worse for a negligible gain isn't a good idea.