Another newbie question....about sway bars

why do I see a lot of people getting rid of the stock sway bar?

 

Leaving it on limits the articulation of your front suspension.

Taking it off gives a little more travel.

 

ok...gotcha. does it affect the ride?

 

Not really

 

You will feel the front dip when you turn. Body rolls a little more.

 

Better ride off-road.

Subjectively better ride on road with more body roll, depending on your shocks and coils. I prefer the ride without.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...F6CkU8iRT-kqQNy2w&sig2=9uH3bS-XNvAJT90gmhbRgg

 

I'm willing to bet that over 90% of the people taking their front sway bars off do a ton of off roading. Off road, articulation (or lack thereof) can be the difference between getting stuck and not getting stuck. On road, more articulation equals more roll and can lead to a loss of control at higher speeds.

The way a sway bar works is to tie both front wheels (via sway bar links attached to the lower control arms, then to the actual sway bar) together. When you hit a two wheel bump such as a speed bump, the sway bar does virtually nothing since both wheels move up and back down together. The sway bar pretty much just rotates in it's mounts and doesn't do anything. So hitting two wheel bumps with a sway bar in place does not affect ride quality.

When you hit a one wheel bump like a pot hole though, the wheel that rises up tales the lower control arm on that side with it. This takes the sway bar link attached to that control arm up and twists the sway bar. This twist (torsion) gets transferred to the sway bar link - and thus the lower control arm, then wheel - on the other side causing it to want to come up to. So when you corner hard and the vehicle rolls to one side, the sway bar pulls the other side down and thus limits roll. That's fairly important on the street - especially at higher speeds. It does mean that one wheel bumps will transfer somewhat more force to the vehicle though so ride is somewhat negatively affected. The suspension designers took all of that into account in deciding on what size shocks, sway bars, bushings, springs, etc. went into our trucks. And since most of our trucks spend the majority of their time on roads, the sway bars were built into the design to make them handle better on road.

I should note that some relatively hard core off roaders disconnect their sway bars before they go off road for articulation. They also reconnect them before they go back on road so as not to lose control there. And some newer vehicles actually allow one to disconnect the sway bar via a switch on the dash!

 

thanks...lots of good information here. I'm not a "hard-core" wheeler (at least not yet). I think I will keep right on swayin!

 

careful, it causes you to flip when turning into a gas station, tumbling wildly into the pumps and exploding. Kitten deaths are usually involved, too. #swaybardeletemod

 

I can smell the sarcasm.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/swaybar-removal-challenge.477065/

 

Damn, didn't realize you linked it already with that "ugly" URL.

 

I realise that North American automobile terminology refers to them as "sway" bars, and that I am being anal, however calling them such does not make it so--they are stabilizer/anti-roll bars--vehicles do not "sway", they roll...

from the '09 FSM: