sway bar necessary????

I have a question for all you four wheelers out there. I have a few fellas in our area who also run lifted xj's and four wheel them a good bit. My question is, how unsafe is it to remove your swaybar all together? These fellas have removed there's and drive these jeeps daily. They said they initially got rid of them for the extra travel but found that they didn't seem to miss them at all on the road either so they opted to leave them off. I know for a fact these jeeps are road driven daily, I also know the guys who are driving them aren't exactly rocket scientists either. Good guys , just not sure sometimes about their thinking patterns when considering wheeling ability vs. safety.

I recently bent my sway bar and drop bracket bad enough to push it into the coils up front, so I am pondering is it ok to get rid of this thing or should I fire up the torches and start straightening?? Thanks for the input.

Personally, I think its safer to keep them, especially on a daily driver. You'll thank them when you have to dodge a kid chasing a ball into the street. Disconnects are nice to have as well if you offroad. I think your question will be initiating some varying opinions though...
B.

you can drive everyday without sway bars, but the stress on the coils would weaken the coils and such. . .driving daily without front sway bars ocnnectied would be necessary, thats why there are Qucik disco's. . . removing the rear sway bar is fine.

thanks for the input. I am considering removing the rear sway bar for sure because I believe that is where all the banging comes from everytime I hit the backroads. As far as the front is conscerned. I just removed it to have a better look at the damage and while I had it off I went for a quick ride around the country block. No handling problems other than it seems to body roll allot more if any quick steering adjustments are made while travelling 35mph or more. I now see that it can be done but i would agree that for safety's sake it is probably better to leave it on. You don't always have time to plan ahead for a gradual turn around an obstacle in the road! Thanks again guys!

I run my 91'xj with 8" lift without sway bars, but it's just my wheeler. If I had to drive it everyday, I'd put them back on and run sway discos. I might get some sway bars from the bone yard, it makes driving it less unpredictable, but unless you have to make a sudden move like avoid a accident, etc that are pretty easy to get used to. At 1st I had them off of my 89'xj with 3"lift and 31's and didn't like it after driving without them on my YJ, you definately notice them more on a coil sprung vehicle like a xj, over a leaf spring vehicle like a yj without them. I also like not having to disco them and reconnect them, just air down my tires and go.
Troy

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.