Off-camber situations and swaybars

In off-camber situations is it safer to disconnect the front swaybar? Disconnecting would help the vehicle stay level, but the swaybars are there to prevent rolling, after all, and I vaguely remember hearing something related about weight transfer.

I/m no expert by any means, but my rig always feels better when cornering while driving with the swaybar connected, and more stable when off-camber with it disconnected. JMHO. I guess the difference between gravity and centrifugal force.

All going to depend on the situation...
W/ your not going to get much body roll.
W/o your going to have a wheel, tire, and part of the axles weight hanging down compensating.

Are you driving on the street, or wheeling? On the street, the swaybar prevents body roll by limiting weight transfer during cornering. Offroading, it hinders the flex of the front end, and can actually cause your body to roll instead of letting the front end flex more. I know with mine, I'll go over an obstacle and the front will be completely level, then the jeep will get body lean as the rear goes over as it's not as flexible with the leaf springs. Run a set of disconnects and disconnect for off road, but reconnect for on road use.
I know guys that have removed their swaybars, but I wouldn't want to face a situation requiring quick steering/swerving to avoid something on road that way.

I had stock worn out susp. I could not even drive the xj with the swaybar disconnected! Went on a slight off camber sitituation the whole thing leaned real hard, almost felt like it was going to tip. I just put the RE 4.5 springs HD trackbar new upper and lower control arms. I was out at miller jeep trrail yesterday, popped off the jks quicker discos, and it wheeled so much better, on road I hooked them back up and went home. I think handleing with out a swaybar depends a lot on your susp. setup

Someone is making an off road bar now for the XJ.
Some types off road racing have been running custom bars for decades. Sand people mostly.
The special bars do limit wheel travel a bit. But when you travel that FAST in the sand you got to limit roll some.

Check out the Currie Anti-Rock, Once you have wheeled with one you will never do without. Same set up most of the Comp rock guy's use. I love mine, no loss of travel and it gives you a lot more control.

Sway bar connected on-road, disconnected off-road. You should have a roll limiting device when navigating traffic, hard braking and turns cause a lot of roll, you'll be safer with a sway bar connected. Off-road, disconnecting it lets the front suspension flex, following the dips in the trail. This provided better traction and control. Picture a Jeep on an obstacle with the suspension flexed-out (axles crossed-up) it keeps the Jeep relatively level. With that swaybar connected, it'll drop to the low side, often picking the opposite side rear of the Jeep in the air.
The only time I might recommend leaving it connected off-road is on long sidehill stretches of trail. It'll keep the body roll due to gravity to a minimum.

Many of us use JKS disconnects, they're relatively cheap and do the job well.

Depends on the situation is the best answer.

On the street, Anti-Sway bars work by countering body roll in corners. This prevents the body from rolling towards the outside of the corner and unloading the suspension on the inside of the corner, which improves handling and traction.

Anti-Sway bars Off-Road limit articulation of the suspension. Instances where the suspension needs to work independently are limited by anti-sway bars and traction is reduced.

In strictly low speed off-camber situations, the body will tend to roll towards the low side of the off-camber situation. The higher the center of gravity and the more unstable the suspension, the more pronounced that roll will be. Anti-Sway bars load the downhill side of the supension and will prevent some body roll but will once again limit your articulation. If you are in an off-camber situation and you need to have the suspension articulate, you may create a more hazerdous situation by limiting that articlation.

Off-Road suspensions are essentually a compromise. You need to take a number of situations into account when deciding what you want. Articulation vs stability is a tradeoff. That is why people tend not to go for the "Circus Wagon" look anymore, but lift to a reasonable level, then trim to accomidate tires. The result is a more stable suspension and a lower center of gravity which handles off-camber situations much better.

Ron

More info would probably help here. I have a 3" OME lift, rear swaybar removed and Tomken disconnects, with 30" tires on stock wheels. I have a roof tent, which makes the off-camber thing a little more of a concern.

Driving sideways off-camber on mountains makes me pucker. Would disconnecting be safer in that regards?

What is the weight of the tent setup?

How much other stuff is up there with the tent?

On-Road or Off-Road?

Off-Camber to the inside or outside the corner?
How any degrees Off-Camber?

What Speed?

Are you scared of shelf roads? < They can give me the creeps also >

I was going down a long side hill last night and my front end would droop pretty bad to the low side on the front if I just used my brake pedal. However if I used mostly me e brake it would not droop as much. So yes my sway bar was discod and it may have been better with it hooked up but no I was not going to roll and it was not that bad. I just was using too much front brake bias(need to adjust to take advantage of the bigger d44 drums ha ha)

Zuki-Ron said:

What is the weight of the tent setup?

How much other stuff is up there with the tent?

On-Road or Off-Road?

Off-Camber to the inside or outside the corner?
How any degrees Off-Camber?

What Speed?

Are you scared of shelf roads? < They can give me the creeps also >

Click to expand...

The tent weighs about 120 lbs. I keep the stuff in the front rack light, like 10-20 lbs.

Does a really crappy-rocky-rutted road in BFE count as off-road?

As slow as possible.

I didn't have a protractor with me, but I was sliding off the seat a bit.

FordGuy said:

Check out the Currie Anti-Rock, Once you have wheeled with one you will never do without. Same set up most of the Comp rock guy's use. I love mine, no loss of travel and it gives you a lot more control.

Click to expand...

:cheers:

nates94xj said:

The tent weighs about 120 lbs. I keep the stuff in the front rack light, like 10-20 lbs.

Does a really crappy-rocky-rutted road in BFE count as off-road?

As slow as possible.

I didn't have a protractor with me, but I was sliding off the seat a bit.

Click to expand...

Not sure what BFE is, and you really didn't answer the question of camber direction, but...

It sounds like you are on a Forest Road with some small rocks and pot holes making it uncomfortable. I don't think that 120lbs stapped to the top of a 3: lifted cherokee is going to make much difference with sway bars connected or disconnected as far as rolling it. What feels like off-camber to you is no big deal to the Jeep. 30 degrees off-camber feels like you should be sitting in the pass seat, but the Jeep will easily do that.

If you are just doing forest roads, and not any "real" Off-Roading, you might just as well leave them hooked up.

Ron

Bum-f***-Egypt.

30' off-camber sounds about right. It becomes off-camber every direction depending on what direction you are traveling. I'm not talking about playing in an ORV park, I'm talking about being a 1000 feet up from the valley on a mountain in BLM land on a road that has never seen a grader.

Do they have "real" off-roading in Wisconsin?

nates94xj said:

Bum-f***-Egypt.

30' off-camber sounds about right. It becomes off-camber every direction depending on what direction you are traveling. I'm not talking about playing in an ORV park, I'm talking about being a 1000 feet up from the valley on a mountain in BLM land on a road that has never seen a grader.

Do they have "real" off-roading in Wisconsin?

Click to expand...

Absolutely