Anybody run without the sway bar?

[Dusty]

I put Chanel up on the rack yesterday to try to track down a clunking noise I had in the front end. Found out one of the sway bar bolts were loose and when I grabbed the wrench to tighten it up, I paused, thought a moment, and decided to just pull the whole thing off instead. Figured I'd drive it a week or two without it to see if I was OK with it's street manners without it. I drove it to work today and so far so good. But the main reason I did it was to try and squeeze some flex out of this thing. I ran it up on my rock pile to test it out and it flexes quite a bit better now. For those of you with lockers that's not such a big deal, the 6G's tend to 3-wheel pretty well. But for mine, a Base with no lockers, keeping tire contact is even more important. I was able to get quite a bit further up my rock pile with one tire, after removing the sway bar. So unless it turns out I don't like the road manners I'll probably leave it off.

Curious if anyone else has just pulled theirs off rather than mess with sway bar disconnects, and your thoughts on the results.

 

[BadSquatch]

Mine concerned would be how it handles an emergency like trying to avoid an obstacle at higher speeds.

 

[ntsqd]

IF there's a rear sway bar I'd take it off too.

 

[Jmart52]

I drove home from TDS with mine disconnected. I could feel the difference but it wasn't bad. I did the panic stop (on purpose) to see what it felt like. It defiant as sure footed but manageable. I have the ac fab disconnects and the are a pain

 

[BadSquatch]

I drove home from TDS with mine disconnected. I could feel the difference but it wasn't bad. I did the panic stop (on purpose) to see what it felt like. It defiant as sure footed but manageable. I have the ac fab disconnects and the are a pain

That's good to hear. But like I said above, I'm more concerned about an emergency need to avoid something while at speed. For example, if I'm on the freeway, and the guy up ahead drops a ladder off his truck and I have to very quickly change lanes. Personally, I'd deal with the sway bar disconnect pain just for the safety aspect of it. BTW, that's one of the reasons I switched from the Wildtrack to the Badlands. The Badlands had the automatic sway bar disconnect and I've had Jeeps with the manual kind and found them to be a PITA.

 

[ntsqd]

In general the larger the bar's OD and/or the shorter the lever arms are the more likely it is to be felt in a quick response maneuver. Front and rear sway spring rates are developed together which is why I suggest taking the rear off if you've taken the front off. Unless "Rally Car / Robbie Gordon" is your preferred driving style, then leave it on.

It sounds like a justification for being squirrelly, but regularly and carefully taking the vehicle to it limits provides an intuitive sense of where the boundaries are so that when it's an instinctive response you'll know how far you can go. It just looks like you're being squirrelly, especially to LEO's.

 

[BadSquatch]

In general the larger the bar's OD and/or the shorter the lever arms are the more likely it is to be felt in a quick response maneuver. Front and rear sway spring rates are developed together which is why I suggest taking the rear off if you've taken the front off. Unless "Rally Car / Robbie Gordon" is your preferred driving style, then leave it on.

It sounds like a justification for being squirrelly, but regularly and carefully taking the vehicle to it limits provides an intuitive sense of where the boundaries are so that when it's an instinctive response you'll know how far you can go. It just looks like you're being squirrelly, especially to LEO's.

I couldn't agree more. It also applies to off-road driving. There's no substitute for learning your vehicle's limits by testing them, so that when you get to an obstacle you'll have a much better idea if it's within its capabilities, picking a line it can handle, etc. Same applies to the driver. You gain confidence by pushing your limits and through experience. In my case, I'm sure that my Bronco is more capable than I am, so I'm playing a bit of catchup ball. So, right now, I probably need a bit more spotting help than I would, say, a couple of years from now.

 

[Rolo]

I have the AC fab sway bar disconnects mounted on my Black Diamond. I used it for the first time this last weekend. I was a little concerned at first on how hard it would be to connect back after off-roading but that went away when I was able to easily connect the sway bar back. I could definitely tell the difference in flex while they were disconnected asI was able to maintain contact with the wheel longer. Had to jump onto the asphalt to transition to another trail so I tried the quick jerk in both directions and I could definitely tell they were disconnected with the way the vehicle dropped more in the opposite direction. I liked the ability to be able to disconnect the sway bar and connecting it back also don’t mind that I didn’t spend the extra money for the button to disconnect.

 

[jviz4u]

SwayBar is good for the road / bad for Offroad. I wish someone (ACfab?) would create an Electric/Magnetic remote swaybar disconnect. Until then - rally style it is!