Swaybar removal pro and con

Big D

Observer
What isn't fun about the disconnects exactly? The Jeep guys I go with use them, the only annoying thing is getting the holes lined up to reconnect. Still a lot less work than what I'm doing now.

Or is there something else peculiar to Rovers?



Is that true? In an off-camber situation, will the truck roll easier? How much difference does it make?

The roll angle does change in offcamber situations but as always it depends on what you have in the truck.

With sway bars on, the compound compression rate (spring plus effective rate of roll bar) are combined. So it's like having a stiffer spring. Hence the rollover centre is changed. Once you remove the sway bar, it's like going to a softer spring. So basically the down hill spring will compress easier as the rate of compression is smaller (sway removed).

For offroad, and depending on the terrain I would disconnect both. It gives you a more balanced truck. If the terrain calls for a lot of offcamber situations, just reconnect them.

My previous ride was a lifted 4doorJK Rubicon on 34's. The things was a tractor! But the first thing I did was remove the rear track bar. Since the Rubi has electronic disconnect, it was very convenient to connect or reconnect the front depending on terrain.

My current vehicule is 2000 Disco II comes with ACE and air suspension in rear. I know there are a lot of problems with these but I love it especially with ACE. You get race car handling with ACE on any speeds over 40 kph. Virtually no lean!

Now when you go offroad the systems allows very good articulation, and apparently it has accelerometres that measure roll over, even at slow speeds and adjust the sway bars to prevent vehicule from flipping over. I have not tried this feature yet.

So on this vehicule, I'm keeping everything connected, but just for convenience.
 

R_Lefebvre

Expedition Leader
I should preface that comment by saying I'm in my late 40's and rolling around on the ground and then jumping in the truck sucks a little more than it used to. Lining the holes up and getting the pins through when the truck is filthy and dripping on you especially if your skill set allowed you to not have to get filthy up until that point . Keeping the rear bar up out of the way so it doesn't get tangled in the springs while off road ,is another fun task, zip ties didn't work. My issue was always compounded by the fact that the truck needs to be on fairly level ground or you need someone to rock it for you and be quick with the pins. Then there was the pin dropping/popping out- I went to removable bolts with nylock nuts after that. Just not the greatest compromise. My experiences were on 90's and 110's. I removed them on the 90. On the 110 I only had a rear and it made a huge difference in on road sway/safety (picking up two two tires on an interstate off ramp @ low speed scares passengers).
Pushing a button sounds awesome.

Strangely, the manual disconnects on the one JK, he just removed the links, and the swaybar stayed level all by itself. The swaybar bushings were "keyed" to the bar. I don't remember why, but the OEM's have been going that way the past 10 years or so.

Last week, I had the rear bar removed, and the front bar installed. On wet pavement. Accelerating and turning left from a stop sign, with the manual transmission and a bit of an abrupt launch, the inside front tire let slip pretty bad. 3 Amigos so no traction control.

Having the truch "unbalanced" by removing only one bar causes other problems. In this case, the majority of the anti-roll was being done up front. Lifting up on the inside wheel, reducing traction. Still, I was surprised to be spinning a wheel on an AWD underpowered truck.
 

AxeAngel

Expedition Leader
I run without both swaybars. Picking up some new links for the front from a local guy as I have decided to go back to running sways.

Gonna fab up some homemade disconnects from the stock units, if it doesnt work out, I will likely build a set of disconnects using heim joints. Its OUTRAGEOUS what some companies charge for disconnects.

-Sam
 

James86004

Expedition Leader
However, as a point of comparison, all of the early RRCs did not come with anti-swaybars. 110s in many configurations do not. My FJ40 did not. Nor my CJ5. Just drive slower and more conservatively.

I had one of those early RRCs, and it made me nervous at first. Then I saw an article about a school in the UK that taught chauffeurs how to drive RRCs in a get-away-from-the-bad-guys situation. They said that while the body rolled a lot, it was actually very, very hard to flip. There were some pretty spectacular photos of RRCs in hard cornering situations.

Granted, this is with the stock suspension and the stock, skinny tires, but that is how ours was set up.
 

R_Lefebvre

Expedition Leader
Granted, this is with the stock suspension and the stock, skinny tires, but that is how ours was set up.

And they were lower than Discos, and had no roof load. ;)

That's one thing I don't get. People always talk about Land Rovers having low CG's, but when I sent the measured CG height of a Disco to a friend who knows the CG's of Ford trucks, he fell out of his chair.

Gonna fab up some homemade disconnects from the stock units, if it doesnt work out, I will likely build a set of disconnects using heim joints. Its OUTRAGEOUS what some companies charge for disconnects.

I might do the same. Maybe we can work on something. It's easy as cake other than the mount at the bar end as it's turned, so you can't use a simple rod-end. You need to rotate it somehow. Slickrock made that bracket.
 

David Harris

Expedition Leader
I have a '92 Range Rover Classic without sway bars from the factory. It drives just fine. As a matter of fact, I actually like the way it drives better than my two Discos overall. Those soft factory springs without sway bars really give a plush ride around town and are the most comfortable ride I've ever had off road. They flex like crazy too. I've always felt in control, even when cornering at speed. With that said, both of my Discos have the bars and drive stiffer. My experience with the RRC has tempted me to remove them from the Discos as well, but people I've asked say that the Discos roll a lot more. I don't think it would really effect roll center off road, though. Just look at the Camel Trophy Discos without bars. They seemed to do fine even cornering at speed with a lot of weight on the roof, unless they were getting really stupid, that is.
 
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gjackson

FRGS
That's one thing I don't get. People always talk about Land Rovers having low CG's, but when I sent the measured CG height of a Disco to a friend who knows the CG's of Ford trucks, he fell out of his chair.

What's the measured CG of your Disco? And how did you come by that number?

cheers
 

Viggen

Just here...
Someone make something like the Antirock from Currie. Ive read great things about it.
antirock1.jpg


http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/antirock.aspx


There was also that anti sway bar put up by Justin from Lucky8 that used hubs on the bar ends as built in disconnects. Not sure if you guys saw that. Depending upon the price, I would just rather drive without bars and keep my already modified driving style.
 

R_Lefebvre

Expedition Leader
I'm basing it on info posted here by somebody who was banned, who claimed to have measured it using a scale system. It'll be hard to find the info, and I'm not even sure the posts still exist.

But here's an email conversation with a friend of mine.

BTW, somebody did this scale thing to calculate the CG height of the Disco, and they came up with 30". I think the truck used was modified as the gross weight was 1400lbs over the curb weight... so I don't know what they've done. But just for a point of discussion, how does 30" compare to other trucks?

Sweet f'in' cripes that's high.
 

David Harris

Expedition Leader
I think the answer just depends on what you are doing with the truck. If you are on paved and dirt roads, and moderate off-roading, then you won't be apt to notice the improvement in performance that removing the bars will give you because you won't be in terrain the flexes the suspension much. So, bars will give you superior on-road performance and adequate off-road performance with more load control. However, if you are in the really rough stuff, or on an RTI ramp, then it will be worth disconnecting the bars, or removing them. I would think that for most heavily-loaded long distance expeditions, keeping the bars would be preferable, at least on a Disco.
 

mongosd2

Adventurer
Someone make something like the Antirock from Currie. Ive read great things about it.
antirock1.jpg


http://www.currieenterprises.com/cestore/antirock.aspx


There was also that anti sway bar put up by Justin from Lucky8 that used hubs on the bar ends as built in disconnects. Not sure if you guys saw that. Depending upon the price, I would just rather drive without bars and keep my already modified driving style.

I'm working on something as we speak for a d1...I already have a direct bolt on for a d2, but the I haven't had a chance to get info out on it...
 

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