Sway Bar Disconnect from Front Range Offroad

Yeah, they are, but I don't agree with the swaybar statement for IFS in their FAQs.
I'd rather have the lighter wheel have some contact and some traction than none at all. Having the swaybar on, or locked if you have a disco, will give you less articulation and lift the wheels off the ground sooner. And that will stop you from moving forward if you don't have a diff lock or A-TRAC.

 

I have eibachs and i tried no sway bar for a bit, didn't really like it, handling was sloppy and there was too much body roll. Probably a good idea to keep if you drive mostly on road like myself.

 

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out why I'm not dead after a year and a half of mostly daily driving....

 

I agree. I have had mine off for about a year and a half now and I don't exactly drive slow either. I am running 33's with a 3" suspension lift and a 1" body lift so I am not exactly short either. It there some sway in the corners, yeah, but most aftermarket coils have a much higher spring rate than OEM and counter that body roll decently. I don't think anybody I roll with runs sway-bars at all and we do just fine.

If you have a linked solid front axle, I'm pretty sure sway bars equal "you don't die on a corner" but for IFS they are not nearly as important. IFS suspension doesn't flex nearly as easy as solid axle rigs do.

Just don't drive a truck like a "racecar" and you will be just fine. (I put racecar in quotes because you can still do alright in a corner, just feel it out. Just don't expect your truck to corner like a car does, they are just too tall and heavy, even in stock form).

 

Precisely. Anyone driving their truck like it is a sports coupe is going to have trouble anyway.

 

^ ya see what happened was..... haha

 

That is a good argument. For what it's worth I didn't notice a change for the worse with the sway bar off, but I went from 5100's set at 0.85 with TRD Offroad coils and sway bar on to 5100's with 886's set at 0 and no sway bar. It had less sway in the latter, but maybe it would have had even less with the bar still on On that note, not only are 886's stiff coils but they have a good amount of preload on them on 5100's so that is why I have less sway. My ORI's have significantly less sway than my 886's ever thought of. Seriously, they have almost no sway! But that is because we tuned them that way.

 

Yeah, high speed turns and sawing at the wheel while panic braking are completely different things. I have tried swerving while braking and my truck isn't too bad, and I'm not really a panicky type person anyway. Been a street biker for too long to freak about anything out while driving an automobile

 

Those are for the endlinks that attach to the LCA. Those unbolt with a wrench and an Allen wrench.

When you Disco the Front half you can rotate the bar up and ziptie it up. I remember it took me awhile to find when to zip tie it and get it situated so it didn't contact anything.

I used to disconnect the swaybar every trip. Then I just removed it permanently. Its been 3 years without it, No complaints.


Anyone who claims the swaybar is better for offroad... Has clearly never wheeled an IFS truck with a swaybar and then without. I can see the argument that with the bar on it may shift the weight favorably... But that would only be in very limited instances. The extra 3" of travel you will get plus the ability of the tires being allowed to droop/stuff independently of each other defiantly make a huge difference. This is most apparent in off camber climbing instances. Without the SB you will gain a lot of stability and comfort.

Watch the Front end move up and down. Then try to imagine the front end in the same situation with only an inch of travel. The truck would be a lot more offcamber and ride like shit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GdT5PSNHQ8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqlDiAwJOqM

 

The quick disconnects are a great idea, no laying on your back trying not to strip an allen head. Takes you about 30 seconds to disconnect and then get ready to drive home. If I had a sway bar I would want one.

 

I have to say in the first video you took that ledge like a boss.

 

Well thus far it doesn't look like we will get 10 people, which is a drag. I personally like the safety of having a sway bar for my highway driving, and like the idea of being able to disconnect it before a hard trail run. I drive my family from Boulder, CO, to Moab, which is quite a bit of 70mph driving.

Anyone else interested? Please chime in if you are, or send me a PM.

 

i'm definitely on board with the idea of disconnects -- most of my driving is on the road, and definitely don't want to run without one for highway driving. just need to see how they'd work in actuality, you know?

 

I'm the original poster and I'd post a photo of one installed, and/or a video, except that I've never seen one installed and I have no photos or videos. I'm just a Taco owner who wants one. I couldn't find any companies currently making them so I contacted Front Range Offroad. They said that demand wasn't great enough anymore and they stopped making them, but that if I managed to get 10 orders, they'd make a batch.

Thanks.

 

Theoretically, I love the idea. One of my favorite areas requires several hours of highway driving in mountains followed by a multiday wonderland of offroad trail opportunities. Quick disconnects would be ideal for this sort of use.

Nevertheless, I think the biggest issue will be where do the bar ends reside when not attached. Again, I checked this out on mine, checked the range of motion, and was very concerned that when disconnected, they would interfere with brake lines and suspension components. That's when I decided to just remove it on a trial basis and cautiously test how it handled with my 881s.

Yes, there is a l slight difference with a little more roll/corner dive. But not so much that I have even worried about it. I drive really conservatively anyway with plenty of space because everyone on the road is retarded. That's a given. But I have tested evasive maneuvers with it and felt fine. For off-camber higher speed curves, I may back off a little more than I would with a swaybar, but that is more just a comfort issue, not a control issue. Same goes for roads I am not familiar with. I swear that I would be more concerned about my safety doing evasive maneuvers with weak worn out stock spring and shocks. I have virtually forgotten that it is gone.

Further, I believe the early first gens and later first gens actually have 2 different end link styles, so one style of disconnects would be required for earlier first gens, and another for the newer style.

 

I am in your same boat basically. I drive about an hour each way to my wheeling spots and both of which are on the interstate, besides the fact that my Tacoma is practically my DD and there are a lot of windy roads in Idaho.

Luckily I have not had to make any evasive maneuvers on the road, likely due to more conservative driving like you said, I very very rarely speed, if anything I usually do like 5 under the speed limit. I have had to make several at high speeds while offroading (usually finding a corner you didn't see until you are on it or that a corner is a lot sharper than it looked before) and it still handled those situations well. I have scared myself on a few occassions but I never felt that having the sway-bar would have helped those situations, mostly just because you still have sway with a sway bar and once that sway is maxed out you lift a wheel off the ground. I won't lift that wheel until I run out of droop/stuff.

 

http://www.wabfab.org/component/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,110/

I have read a lot of mixed reviews about this guy but if you are set on getting some it might be worth inquiring.

 

^ This.

Known casually as the "Moose Test." It's my understanding that a stock Tacoma will pass the moose test with the sway bar on, without it, it will fail. I think it's really that simple.

And sorry to the OP, thread has gone sideways.

 

Yes, a stock Tacoma without the sway bar will fail obviously. But that's not what we're saying. We are talking about aftermarket coils without the sway bar. Completely different beast.