swaybars

[ryan22re]

was cruising the net, searching for ideas on how to create a front sway bar that wouldn't hinder travel, but still provide decent street manners with a 4-6 inch lift. i know all about ORD's sway bar disconnect kit, but i am looking for something better. i stumbled onto speedway engineering's web site ( http://www.1speedway.com/index.htm ). seems like they have sway bars much like currie's anit-rock sway bar. i wonder how you could calculate the needed stiffness (i.e. swaybar thickness and legth of the arm) to acheive my desired results. speedway has all lengths and diameters, and arms to attach to the sway bars. any ideas? or should i just throw the sway bar in the junk pile and deal with a little (or alot) of body roll?

ryan

 

[heavy4x4]

Throw yours out and don't look back. With lift springs, you won't notice any bad effects...you'll have a better ride though.

If you want to create your own sway bar from scratch I hope you know some material properties and mechanics of materials. You'll need to need to figure out how much travel you could get on both ends, measurements to mounting points, length of sway bar, length of "legs," material type/thickness/properties, torsion formulas, etc.

I could design one for you, but what's the point.

If you're set on keeping yours, make some extensions on the attachment points that bring it back closer to stock geometry. That will help with ride characteristics, but flex will still suffer.

 

[ryan22re]

yeah thats really what i was thinking, beacause i dont want to dig out my engineering books, or try to find that book i had that had the sway bar rate calculation formula in it. just an idea, thought i would throw it out there.

ryan

 

[Desert Yeti]

I'm new to this stuff and was contemplating disconnects for the sway bar... but it's really true that with front lift springs (say, Tuff Country 4" or so) that you don't need to run the sway bar to be safe at highway speeds? That's awesome!

I don't expect my K5 to be a sports car, I just want to be able to drive on a mountain interstate at 70mph to get to the trail...

 

[mouse]

When you disconnect the sway bar be sure to conduct a "flex check" as you will increase your trucks ability to flex the suspension and you'll want to see if anything will hit lock-to-lock. I am close right now with the sway bar connected, but I am willing to trim a little more if need be. Its one of my up-and-coming to do projects.

 

[amm888]

i got rid of my sway bar about two years ago. only thing i've noticed is that the ride got a whole lot nicer (less stiff), can't say i've noticed any more body roll than before - just take it off and see what you think,

al