no sway bars?

just curious how my xj will handle with no sway bars front and rear with a 3'' lift?......i dont have sway bars in any of my wheelers but this is my first xj and im just trying to get some input. im not a speed racer or anything but it will be taken fishing and there are some winding roads.im not really that concerned but thats why im asking here, i know alot of people arent running them but i can't find anything about ride characteristics.anything helps.....


thanks
Sean

Running with no sway bars doesn't make much of a difference, especially with a lift. My dad's had his off for about 5 years with a 4" lift and it handles just fine, and we take it on whindy roads all the time. I actually just took mine off today. Its a stock XJ, for now, and it seems to make no difference at all. It also gave me a whole lot more suspension travel.

Keep the front sway bar. Mine handles like a loaf of bread on the highway without it. Just save up for some disconnects.

MIke

BTW, bshaw, LOVE THE SIG LINE!!!!!!!!!!!

I asked the same question, and found that it was better to take it off. I took mine off and love it.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=29654&highlight=Sway+bar

I have removed the rear sway bar completly, no ill effects with a 4.5" lift.

For the front I have disconnects. Every once in a while I get lazy and drive back without them connected. There is a noticable difference in handling. Where you really notice it is if you swerve to miss something, say if you swerve hard right then left. You don't notice it so much on cornerning.

Go into a empty mall parking lot and takei it up to about 30MPh. Swerve hard one way then the other. If it doesn't freak you then you can probably leave it off. But I don't recommend it. Disconnects only take a minute and can be made fairly cheap.

Can get sporty when you get into the breaks hard and front sway bar isn't connected too.
I've run without the rear for 5 years never noticed a difference.

dmillion said:

Well, it's not useless, and if you rarely ever off-road and never take your Jeep on difficult trails then you should leave it on. It doesn't do very much, however, and if you have stiffer than stock rear springs then it does even less. So, in your case it would definitely be worth taking it off for the increased flex.

Click to expand...

This says it the best.

Rear doesnt make much difference, but if you are gonna see alot of highway time do yourself a favor and get some front disco's. Emergency manuvers aren't fun without the front sway bar attached.

Well I lost a center section to one of my disco's last week when wheelin', so I removed the front sway bar altogether until I order a new (and better) set. After a week of driving it with it gone, I will definately say it handles differently. I could definately feel the high winds we got here today alot more than before. The upside is it rides alot nicer and I am getting used to the adverse effects of it being gone. I may leave it off for a while...

I took mine off today and drove for about an hour and didn't notice much of a difference.

My 97 TJ swaybars(frt.,rr) have been laying in the garage since @ 97. I disconnected them a couple times, then just removed them all together. I also have an old XJ that I ran without the frt. bar alot. There is obviously a difference lifted or not. It just depends on how comfortable you are w/ the different characteristics. My TJ has a 2" lift, 32 Swamper radials, and I'll drive it harder than most cars on the road. It's been sideways on asphalt many times. Lots of body roll, rides better, and scares most people who ride in it but I like it. It actually slows the transient response of the vehicle. If you make a lane change type manuever, it takes a longer input of steering to actually get the Jeep to move over a lane. Otherwise it just kind of wags its tail. Definitely not for everyone, but try it. You may like it.

Brian

this topic is always popping up... the rear swaybar can be tossed without much notice in the drivability... the front however really should be kept... invet in some disconnects if it will be street driven at all... even the most competent driver CANNOT fore-see any impending "emergency maneuvers".... thats why they are called EMERGENCY MANEUVERS....... when its a jerk-the-wheel-or-die-or-kill-someone situation... my 3.5" RE lift handles better disconnected than a stocker thats disconnected.. i attribute this to the stiffer springs.. and i could handle it for daily driving because it doesnt get squirlly.. my 87 with 5.5" lift on 33s rides like a stage coach in the corners because the RE springs are so soft and flexy... i do not sdrive it on the highway and i take on a totally different driving style when i drive it (no swaybar at all) I ABSOLUTELYL DO NEED A FRONT SWAYBAR... and regardless of how comfortable i am driving it as it is, it would be totally irresponsible for me to tell you that its "perfectly ok" to get rid of it... i have to agree with the "loaf of bread" comment made before.. off ramps and twisty canyons add a few degrees to the "pucker factor"....
be reasonable and think about the effects OTHER DRIVERS have on your ability to control your rig...

More food for thought...
Watch an offroad race vehicle (CORR trucks come to mind) and notice the body roll. Professional drivers mind you, but very controllable trucks regardless of surface. I know, they all run swaybars. The point is that swaybars, or more properly, antiroll bars, are used to tune chassis response. For example, I can tell you from experience you don't want to remove the frt. bar. and leave the rr. connected. This biases the roll resistance to the rr.. Simply put it unloads the inside rr. tire in a corner (enough to lift off the ground if you really crank on it) because while the frt. can roll easily the rr. can't. The result is oversteer or you backing it in to the wall. Just the opposite w/ the frt. connected and rr. gone. The rr. rolls easily, the frt. unloads the inside tire. However irresponsible, when I used to run mine this way, you could carry the left frt. tire off the ground all the way through a left turn from a stoplig,er, tree anytime you were accelerating. Less contact patch at the frt. = understeer. To say that it is unsafe to remove or modify the swaybar, is the same as saying it is unsafe to modify the suspension in any way. All parts; springs, shocks, control arms, tires, air pressure, etc, control the various suspension dynamics that effect the handling of any vehicle. This is why some experience little difference when they remove the bar IF they have stiff springs that are adding roll resistance. Just trying to make the point that everything has to be tuned as a whole.

Brian

With no front antiswaybars, if you swerve to miss a kid chasing a ball into the street and hit and kill someone, you can be held liable. For on road usage, connect your swaybars, or get some disconnects for offroad. No matter how many people have done it before, if you don't have them and injure someone you will be liable. You can remove the rears because they were not installed at the factory in some models. Here is a good link with info: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=38559&page=2&pp=30

not to mention the added stress you place on your springs, which could cause premature spring sag or failure.

jrsxj98 said:

not to mention the added stress you place on your springs, which could cause premature spring sag or failure.

Click to expand...

Justin-
Glad to hear you're running your front bar again. You've got some precious cargo in there at times. :wave:

from what i've learned, it also makes a big difference whether you have it or not when you're towing anything behind the rig...just something to take into account if you plan on towing any time soon- your trailer may end up controlling your rig :wow:

My thoughts copied from a post about a week ago:

It all depends on your spring and shock combinations, and lift height, so each rig is different. It seems that guys with stiffer coils, like Rancho's or Skyjackers, and/or with stiff rear springs (like BOR or a bunch of add-a-leaves) do much better without the sway bar. With softer front and rear springs it can be leany on turns and quick manuvers.

The problem with a question like this is peoples standards, which are mostly impossible to determine. Two of us could drive the same rig with no sway bar, and one could say it's fine while the other says there's no way to drive that everyday or on the highway without the sway bar.

We've had a lot of discussion about this, and I've wondered how much real information was provided. I'm starting to think a better question would be "how much sway do you get on your rig without the front sway bar and in what situations?" along with what springs and lift are being run.

On mine, with RE ZJ coils and soft homemamde rear leaves, and ES3000 shocks in front, it made a big difference what my rear RS9000's were set at (7.5" lift). Set at 3 (of 5) it was real comfortable to drive but it needed the sway bar, being leany around corners and unstable at highway speed. When the rear 9000's were set at 5 it was much better and I could live without the sway bar, but it was rougher over dips in the back. Changing to Sway-a-Way shocks front and rear with a relatively soft valving meant having to use the sway bar since it got leany again and was quirky at highway speed. Changing to 8" Skyjacker coils with one coil removed (much stiffer than the RE's) and stiffening the valving in the rear SAW's added a bunch of stability and it's pretty good without the sway bar.

i say take the rear sway off and put wing nuts on the front and make ur self some quick disconects