Who has taken their swaybars off?

[Emo]

I've got a 93 Landcruiser with a 2 1/2 " lift but wouldn't mind a bit of extra wheel travel. Who has stories for or against running without your sway bars? From my internet homework, 80 series Landcruisers can't run disconnects

[matthewK]

my old man has the 80 series and hes taken oof his sway bars completly <sitting on shed floor seen with my own eyes >
has a fair bit of roll iv ridden in it few time and its not too bad really

[bad_religion_au]

I've got a 93 Landcruiser with a 2 1/2 " lift but wouldn't mind a bit of extra wheel travel. Who has stories for or against running without your sway bars? From my internet homework, 80 series Landcruisers can't run disconnects

can't you

http://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php? ... disconnect

http://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php? ... disconnect

and i know daz's 40 that runs 80 diffs and swaybars are easy to disconnect for offroad use. you'd have to ask about the fronts, but his rears just have a pin where the diff mounted bar connects to the upright ones to the chassis. he then bungee cords them out the way.

[MYTTUF]

Mine are gone off my 80. I do notice some increased body roll, but drive accordingly, as the improvements off road are huge.
Jonesy

[OUTOER]

Have taken mine off about a year ago, best thing I ever did. Offroad performance increased dramaticly. She rolls a bit at highway speed but can still drive as hard as I used to, just takes awhile to get used to and scares the crap out of passengers which is a bonus. I am running 5" spring lift 2" body lift 1.5" spacers and 35" tyres on 16" rims.

[christover1]

Mines been off for over 9 years, and I would not ever put it back on.
I have OME shocks which, like many good shocks, are speed sensitive, and stiffen up at higher speeds.
It's never been a sports car anyway. Adjustment to driving is needed after any mod, so use wisdom.

christover

[jeep97tj]

If u are doing off camber stuff off road i would leave them on, i would rather lift a wheel every now and then, than roll over.

[Goatse.AJ]

Chuck 'em!

You'll never go back.

[Mad Cruiser]

I only removed the front swaybar to flex more, doesn't have a lot of roll in it so it's good..... only bad thing is if you have a big lift and keep the rear sway bar, they will put dents in your rear shocks

[Pinball]

hmmm if this is a toyota only question... not me..

but otherwise... just about everyone who ever drove a Sierra hard has diced the sway bars for flex!

body roll up, just pay attention on the road cornering.

Spock

[AJ]

Isnt it your daily driver?
If so consider handling and insurance issues.

Best way to find out is to take them off and see if you can live with the handling. If you've fixed the Landcruiser Lurch with new suspension why go back???

[RV80]

I've ditched my rear sway bar And have left the front on for road etc. When doing comps/ night runs etc i take it off and put it back on when i come home only takes about 15 minutes to do.

[RockyF75]

I took mine off, only takes about 5 mins so I though 'meh, i'll stick em back on for on-road use'... went and did calbashhhhhhhhh, i mean, a rocky track, flex was improved very, very noticably, and noticed maybe 5% more body roll if that on road, so the bar is now sitting under a pile of parts somehwere

DO IT, TRY IT, and you wont regret it... its not like your angle grinding anything, you can just stick it back on if its bad

[rockcrawler31]

hey there

i've got a hzj troopcarrier, and it damn topheavy as you can imagine. I took off the sway bar and trial ran it without it, and havn't put it back on.

i got a little more flex, and barely noticable extra body roll on road. just keep it in the shed in case you have to do a roadworthy in future.

[Wooders]

From a Jeep perspective - I Run sway bar disconnects in the front (readily available) and leave the rear attached.
I have previously removed the rear sway bar - I fel i was unsafe when towing at highway speed, gave only minimumal extra travel & didn't make the front end work as well so I re-attached the rear.

<Flame suit on>
Question for anyone that's removed their swaybars - Did your engineer approve removal of the swaybar? (would love to see an engineers report with "swaybar removed" on it )

For guys with bigger lifts (5"+) on a daily driven rig, IMHO ditching the swaybars is a risky business. Your CoG is much higher - and now you've increased the body roll by yanking off the swaybars - yup that sounds safe......

Also sure you might get more raw wheel travel without any swaybars, but it's often less controlled flex as one end isn't making the other end work more...... IMHO a better idea would be a thinner sway bar, with the correct length of linkage (you do know a swaybar has a sweet sport right?)....

[rick130]

Question for anyone that's removed their swaybars - Did your engineer approve removal of the swaybar? (would love to see an engineers report with "swaybar removed" on it Wink

when you have a Defender, (or a RR Classic) some come from the factory with them, some don't. Who really knows for sure what went with what ?

[Maggot4x4]

Question for anyone that's removed their swaybars - Did your engineer approve removal of the swaybar? (would love to see an engineers report with "swaybar removed" on it Wink

when you have a Defender, (or a RR Classic) some come from the factory with them, some don't. Who really knows for sure what went with what ?

Mine is a factory non swaybar

[JemmyBubbles]

My Shorty gq came with only the rear from factory. I got a factory locker rear housing fitted and the people who did the work plassed of the swaybar mounts on the diff when they were rotating the coil perches..

I would have loved to have done what wooders mentioned- get it lengthened to suit your lift. Super Lucky Happy road times and still flexy yay... While I still could I am lazy and have gotten used to no swaybars on 4" coil lift..

[bogged]

Mine are gone off my 80. I do notice some increased body roll, but drive accordingly, as the improvements off road are huge.
Jonesy

ditto

[Vulcanised]

i tried mine off..... but on 35's with 6" of lift, it rolled around a bit on the highway. i made disconnects for mine at work and lengthened them 50mm to cope with the lift. only takes 2 minutes to remove them when you go wheelin, 5 minutes when you get back. Makes it handle rather well for a big vehicle......... just need to sort the camber out now so i can drive in a straight line without having to fight it

As wooders said, it's a grey area if you are involved in an accident..... they frown upon removed suspsension parts.

[-Scott-]

I've removed my rear sway bar, and haven't noticed a difference in body roll, but it doesn't lift wheels off-road anywhere near as much.

I view it this way: a sway bar effectively increases your spring rate when one spring is compressing more than the other. I've got stiffer springs than standard, so I no longer need the sway bar.

Even when I'm "taking it easy" driving through the Adelaide Hills, I'm still travelling faster than most - I think it handles acceptably.

Cheers,

Scott

[Hekta]

Mine are gone off my 80. I do notice some increased body roll, but drive accordingly, as the improvements off road are huge.
Jonesy

ditto

I didn't know you had an 80 Bogged

I have ditched both my swaybars... same as these two guys, bit more bodyroll (manageable) and heaps bettter offroad.

[Tiny]

make some disconeects

[bogged]

Mine are gone off my 80. I do notice some increased body roll, but drive accordingly, as the improvements off road are huge.
Jonesy

ditto

I didn't know you had an 80 Bogged

I am a closet Yotasexual...

[runnin4life]

i bought my 4B and it didnt have any and i dont notice any excessive body roll

but i think half of the body roll i have is in the super soft springs and the flogged suspension bushes

question?
is it bad if my bump stops are like 50-75mm from touching the diffs
and leaf springs are flat well they have a little arch in them but wouldnt say i can see it with the naked eye you need a straight edge to find out (which i have done)

cheers
elliot

[zookjedi]

i run my gu with no front sway bar but have the rear on on road and just disconnect for offroad use , and bought adjustable shocks to help compensate body roll ,

earlier on i had the rear removed and the front left on but the missus didn't care for the handling on road , but with the front removed and the rear on it handles good on road .

big difference in the rear with it removed offroad , (only 2" lift)

[-Nemesis-]

I notice on my 4Runner that removing the front one makes braking alot worse. The rig nosedives bad, and won't pull up as quick. The soft set up doesn't help.....

I've left my front on, and don't run the rear which is compensated by adjustable shocks.

[rick130]

I notice on my 4Runner that removing the front one makes braking alot worse. The rig nosedives bad, and won't pull up as quick. The soft set up doesn't help.....

I've left my front on, and don't run the rear which is compensated by adjustable shocks.

an anti-roll bar is a lateral load transfer device, it does absolutely nothing in pitch or two wheel bumps. There is no way it can affect braking unless there is some major mis-match in linkage length to the rest of the suspension and it is binding it up, which is plain bad engineering.

Think about it. An anti-roll bar is a torsion bar sitting across the chassis, is anchored to the chassis in the middle and both ends are linked to the axle at either end. A torsion bar works by twisting. If both ends are moving in the same plane (as when you are braking and the car is pitching) there is no twist in the bar so it isn't doing anything.
As soon as the chassis starts to roll, or one wheel moves relatively to another, then it starts to resist the motion by trying to twist the bar.

[evanstaniland]

took mine off my bundy and as everyone else has sayed bit more body roll but you learn to drive to it, i find i can lift a tyre round town if i ride the body foll sometimes its fun but ive had a couple of scary moments where ive gotten on 2 wheels by accadent

try it if ya dont like it put them back on, alot of the time you have to try it to see if you like it or not cos so many peoples coments are contradicting

evan

[-Nemesis-]

I notice on my 4Runner that removing the front one makes braking alot worse. The rig nosedives bad, and won't pull up as quick. The soft set up doesn't help.....

I've left my front on, and don't run the rear which is compensated by adjustable shocks.

an anti-roll bar is a lateral load transfer device, it does absolutely nothing in pitch or two wheel bumps. There is no way it can affect braking unless there is some major mis-match in linkage length to the rest of the suspension and it is binding it up, which is plain bad engineering.

Think about it. An anti-roll bar is a torsion bar sitting across the chassis, is anchored to the chassis in the middle and both ends are linked to the axle at either end. A torsion bar works by twisting. If both ends are moving in the same plane (as when you are braking and the car is pitching) there is no twist in the bar so it isn't doing anything.
As soon as the chassis starts to roll, or one wheel moves relatively to another, then it starts to resist the motion by trying to twist the bar.

Mate I know what you are saying, i'm no mechanical dunderhead. And in theory I agree, however in my situation it does so.

My torsion bar and shock combination are very soft, not on purpose but that's the way they are. And in my application when I remove the front swaybar, the vehicle dives 100% more than without it. I'm not sure if it actually takes longer to stop, but it doesn't feel very comfortable. Don't ask me why it happens, but i'm more than happy to offer a demonstration to those wishing to debate

Anyways removing it did offer more wheel travel, but being IFS it wasn't enough to compensate for the huge loss in on road poise. Plus the fact that i've got airlockers both ends

The rear is another story, the rear end travel is now envious to a few who have spent more on their rigs. And without the swaybar there's no huge sacrifice on road. But with the swaybar on it loses probably 2" downtravel, and close to that in up travel etc.