Removing Sway Bar with Upgraded Susp, Thoughts?

[ObeseFieldMouse]

howdy...my brother had a 97 explorer on 35" tires, and it was lifted approx. 6 inches. he had the sway bar off front and rear. we live on a fairly curvy road. it was kinda scary the first few time around it cause it definately tucks and rolls into corners more, but offroad he had no problems. also rode like a champ, and looked really sweet if he were coming right at you with the a-arms moving independantly of each other...

imagine that, a truly independant ifs.

seeing as how the exploder and the 4r are close to the same size i see no problem with you disconnecting yours

 

[ObeseFieldMouse]

and did i mention that if youre off road, definately disconnect your front sway bar. if you are close to your roll over angle and that things connected, if one tire nudges a rock the suspension doesnt take it up, the truck does. i learned this on my beater suzuki sidekick.

 

[Bala de Plata]

yeah, thanks for that. sway bar has been happily removed for a while now. defiantley superior handling charecteristics offraod and dont even notice on road anymore. but i only suggest removal of front sway bar. And only if your maxing out range of travel.

Up travel

Down travel

not possibly with sway bar attached

 

[ObeseFieldMouse]

make a quick disconnect for the rear so when you go offroad, you can pop a pin out, and slide one end of the rear sway bar loose. 4runners have nasty flex without the rear sway bar, but also have nasty body roll....

 

[Thai]

Wow, that would be opposite to what i would want to do. I would think to keep the front roll bar intact because there is not much more flexibility you can gain with IFS. I would remove the rear because the rear axle has more potential to flex than front IFS. In addition, with front roll bar intact, your cornering stability will be maintained.

But, i guess that with the 4runner, it's the opposite. Lance is the man when it comes to these modifications!

I ran across this recently....

From this link: http://www.sonoransteel.com/store_complete_liftkits.html

(scroll down to FAQ)

"5. Why don't you include front sway bar disconnects? Because they are completely useless. By disconnecting the front sway bar you may gain a very slight amount of added a-arm droop. But here is the problem with an IFS truck. The only tire that has any weight on it is the one compressed, so it does not matter if the other tire is in the air, almost on the ground or on the ground. It will spin because it has no weight on it. The front IFS solution is an ARB RD90 front locker, not anything to do with a sway bar. It is however correct to disconnect a sway bar on a straight axle truck as it will increase articulation. The real benefit of having a straight axle is that both front tires bear the weight at all times. Not only one like an IFS truck under articulation."

Above info may be bias, but is consistent with what i have read about IFS. And this explains why the Range Rover (IFS/IRS) has cross-linking shocks...so that if one side goes up, the other side gets "electronically" pushed down, thus simulating the action of a solid axle.

 

[T?@\7]

im about to order a 2wd 4runner/fjc front swaybar. about this {_} close
i need new mod.

 

[Thai]

Is the FJC rear swaybar thinner than 4runner too?? If so, then i would get those instead of the front ones. I think that the thin front swaybar or discos (in front) are good for picture taking (slightly more droop & compression), but as stated above, the practicality of doing these mods on IFS in real-world off-roading is questionable. With slightly more droop in front (IFS) due to thin swaybar or discos, i would think that you are force to depend on the weight of tire & rim to provide enough downforce to create enough traction to move the whole vehicle weight. The problem lies in the fact that the left and right are not connected on IFS system...thus, one side goes up does not force the other side to go down.

Well, at least, that is how i think...correct me if i am wrong.

 

[Hayn4R]

Hey Muffin-Top,

What is your problem? Who are trying to be the surgeon general for modifications? Your just as bad as the police...maybe you should become a piggy-wiggy. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to "ASS-UME" because it makes an ass out of you?

It is the driver that causes accidents and not the vehicle.

I think you should buy a Hyundai and leave the mods to us.

What a waste of a 4R!!

 

[Bala de Plata]

The continued topic and usefulness of the removal of the sway bar really needs to be split into different categories here. As there are completely different reasons to have it on a 2wd vs. a 4wd.

My thoughts and interjections are focused only on 2wd drive as that is what I am using. As such, the sway bar has no true usefulness on a prerunner. The complete objective is to achieve more travel. Now not to say that a sway bar couldn't be useful, but from experience of having a front suspension with 20" of IFS travel, you can compensate for not having the sway bar by the use of coil/shocks. Using different valving and different strength coils it is possible to reduce body roll significantly as with my vehicle. Additionally there is increased tract width with the LT and my stability in turns has improved over what was stock on the vehicle.

As far as the argument goes for 4wd drive I would tend to agree with the previously mentioned.

But again it is more in what type of wheeling you are doing. I would think that in a crawling situation that the sway bar is an added benefit to maintain traction, but in a 4wd desert vehicle. I believe it would still be more advantageous to remove the sway bar. Which every LT Toyota that I know of has.

 

[Thai]

Bala, i honestly don't know the answer...but why would 2wd (rear-driven) SUV/prerunner need a long travel suspension up front?? You don't have any power going to the front wheels to make it any useful. Is it for increased stability while speeding across washboards and sand hills?? Is it for improved comfort at high speed off-roading?

I really do need to read up on rally racing and the mods that are needed.

BTW, did you ever install ARB rear locker in your rig?? I thought that i remembered you talking about it...but i am getting older and my mind is...well, you know....

 

[T?@\7]

Is the FJC rear swaybar thinner than 4runner too?? If so, then i would get those instead of the front ones. I think that the thin front swaybar or discos (in front) are good for picture taking (slightly more droop & compression), but as stated above, the practicality of doing these mods on IFS in real-world off-roading is questionable. With slightly more droop in front (IFS) due to thin swaybar or discos, i would think that you are force to depend on the weight of tire & rim to provide enough downforce to create enough traction to move the whole vehicle weight. The problem lies in the fact that the left and right are not connected on IFS system...thus, one side goes up does not force the other side to go down.

Well, at least, that is how i think...correct me if i am wrong.

Hmm, well to be honest I dont know! I im just dying for a new mod and thought this might be the direction to go... Itd be interesting to know the diameter of the fjx rear sway...

 

[Hayn4R]

Hey Bala de Plata,

What kind of lift/tire/rim combo are you running? Looks good from the little pix that are posted. If you could get more pix from all angles and list what you have done, that would be awesome. I want to mod out my 4R and want to see everyone's setup so I can make an informed decision.

Keep up the great work!!