Who's running W/O R. Swaybar

[mosupernak]

Hi All,

Well one of my rear sway relocation brackets from Sonoral Steel rattled off. (Not really a design flaw from Sonoran by the way) No big deal other then some clunking from the bar bashing on the original bracket the rest of the trip. I was planning on just useing some threadlock or lock-washers on its reinstall but haven't noticed any major issues while on the highway.

Is anyone with a 3rd gen 4Runner running rear swaybar free?

I've read about some gained off road benefits. Any first hand info about the plus/negitive side would be great.

Thanks -Marc

 

[4runnerteq]

Had a 91 I took the rear sway bar off of with ARB lift. Did very little offroad,fire road type stuff. Took some getting used to everyday driving. Not much issue turning on curvy road but could get to be a handful turning back at speed. And I mean just normal speed. After I got used to it,no real issue,just had to learn to slow down a bit & not get jerky on the wheel. As for your SS 1.2,do you like it. I have one on order for the 97 hand me down from the wife. Cant wait,285/75s on order as well.

 

[SOAZ]

No rear sway bar for years. OME 891 springs currently and I've run the REALLY heavy duty OME 892 and the too light duty 890's and the performance products springs all with no rear sway bar.
With OME or Bilstien shocks it can get your adrenaline going a bit, but once you know your vehicle, it's roll center and suspension travel taking corners with the lean becomes old hat.
Now I run Icon's 2.5 external reservoir rear shocks and it feels much better. A lot less lean. Of course in a long enough corner any shock will eventually let the truck lean as the piston cycles in the shock, but at least for fast turns the truck doesn't lean nearly as much.

Best advice I can give is, it's easy to remove so try it out and be careful until you get used to it.
:victory:

 

[mosupernak]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll just take it off for a while and see how it goes.

Now I'm wondering if limiting straps would be a good idea w/o the swaybar.

Cruiserbent: the ss 1.2 is an awesome lift. Great offroad, well designed, and it handles well highway too. It took two of us about 7hrs to install it his garage. Just be sure to measure well on the track bar. I've heard some horror stories if you do it wrong. I also left off the front coil spacers because the coils just looked to compressed. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

[SOAZ]

If you used limit straps to limit your wheel travel it might help, but that's no good for offroading. If you put limit straps on that went taught at the same point that your shock travel runs out it would do nothing.

 

[maclean216]

I have the SS1.2 lift with no sway bars. I like the improvements off road but it does have 1 major drawback. You will HATE off camber situations. That said I am not going to be putting my swaybars back on, I will probably look just to stiffen up the rear suspensioin.

On road it will take some time to get used to the way it drives but its not that bad. If you drive on twisty mountain roads with a roof top tent then I would not remove the rear one.

 

[mosupernak]

If you used limit straps to limit your wheel travel it might help, but that's no good for offroading. If you put limit straps on that went taught at the same point that your shock travel runs out it would do nothing.

Your right limiting straps wouldn't help at all on the street. The straps would just be a safty measure for offroad. Without the swarbar in the rear there isn't anything to protect your shocks from overextending. Correct? I've never used limiting straps.

 

[SOAZ]

Your right limiting straps wouldn't help at all on the street. The straps would just be a safty measure for offroad. Without the swarbar in the rear there isn't anything to protect your shocks from overextending. Correct? I've never used limiting straps.

The shocks themselves should be strong enough to limit the suspension. Stock shocks, may eventually have a failure, but most aftermarket shocks were designed to take that abuse.
The best way to minimize the leaning on and offroad is to keep the amount of lift low. I run my truck at about 2 inches of lift front and rear and try to leave the roof rack off, or loaded with lighter objects when wheeling.
(I hated having a roof top tent and no sway bar, that just felt dangerous offroad)

Be careful, try it out and enjoy the bumpy offroad stuff without sway bars. It's NICE.

Footnote!: Make sure the shocks ARE the limiting factor. Brake lines, breathers and electrical wires are bad limit straps. ;-)

 

[FLYFISHEXPERT]

I am running LX450 coils in the rear, and for a while ran without the swaybar connected. I feel, with my 4Runner setup, these coils are too soft to run without the swaybar connected for normal on-road driving conditions. I commute 100 miles round-trip to where I am currently working and have had to make maneuvers on the interstate to avoid wildlife. I feel I was able to maintain control of the vehicle in these situations because the sway bar was connected. I like the idea of running swaybar disconnects, and will be building a pair shortly. This way I can have the best of both worlds!

 

[CYi5]

I wouldn't run without the rear personally unless you're running a really controlled shock like the icons.

 

[sweet trav]

here's an older post on yotatech that shows a set that can modified to work for 3rd gen 4runners...not sure how reliable it is though. I'm currently looking into this option too since I have a lot of weight up top and wouldn't want to drive on road without a swaybar.

http://www.yotatech.com/f129/2nd-gen-sway-bar-quick-disconnects-75746/

 

[Mr. Leary]

I wouldn't run without the rear personally unless you're running a really controlled shock like the icons.

x2.

I have never run very far on the road with my rear swaybar disconnected, but I have spent some wheeling weekends with it disconnected. There is a difference, but IMO its not enough to justify the trouble of getting down there to connect / disconnect. I disconnect the front much more often then the rear.

 

[sweet trav]

these look to be solid...

http://www.wabfab.org/products/suspension/quickdiscos.htm

 

[Mr. Leary]

these look to be solid...

http://www.wabfab.org/products/suspension/quickdiscos.htm

The problem with any sway bar disconnect is that you have to be on flat ground to hook them back up easily. Finding that perfectly flat patch of ground is difficult, so one usually ends up under the truck, bench pressing the sway bar into position, and then trying to slide the pin into place.

The other thing to consider is how to keep your sway bar up out of the way when you have it disconnected. This is easy in the front, as you can just tie it up out of the way, but in the rear it is more challenging. Actually, I sort of take that back. Its easy if you don't mind listening to it every time you flex out your rear axle. Getting it secured out of the way without having to listen to it is a feat I have never accomplished, although I'm sure its been done.

Rear axle travel with the rear sway bar connected is around 15" on a stock rig, and about 16" with it disconnected. My advice would be to try to bring the front up to 8", and you will be pretty happy with it. I have front/rear travel of 8"/15" with both ends unhooked, and 4.5"/13.5" with them hooked up. This reduced travel compared to stock was my trade off for more weight capacity. Once I installed the locker, I stopped caring as much about travel, and started to focus more on weight carrying capacity. I don't disconnect now unless I plan to leave it that way for a couple days. Nowadays, I run more forest roads then difficult trails, and appreciate the added stability of both swaybars.

 

[offthebeatenpath]

When it really comes down to it- you only need to disconnect one side of your sway bar. If you disconnect both sides, your sway bar can "float" a bit side to side if not secured well. If you only disconnect one side, it will continue to move with the other end of the sway bar.

Sway bar stuff is quite common in the Jeep world, where I was baptized... anyways, what somebody needs to produce is a product like this:
http://store.jksmfg.com/merchant2/m..._Code=JKS01&Category_Code=Swaybar_Disconnects

Hardened steel, fully adjustable, greasable, and the pins that you need to slide onto to reconnect the sway bar have a tapered or pointed end. That makes a world of difference for reconnecting, as it helps compensate for that slight bit off unlevel ground you're on. Those wabfab links look like they could work, but they don't look near as nice as the JKS links. Unfortunately JKS only makes Jeep stuff.

What I did in my jeep was this- found a spot to anchor a small eye bolt near the sway bar link. This allows you to bungee the disconnected link and bar to it while you wheel. If you leave one side connected, use a bungee as it will need some room to move as you wheel.