My '14 JKUR has a 2.5-3" OME lift with the HD springs and 35" Nitto Trail Graps. I've been driving around with the stock front track bar for almost 2 years, mainly because I didn't know any better. I saw a Teraflex Adjustable Front Track Bar pop up locally on craigslist for a good deal and jumped on it. I installed it last night and took it out for a shake down on some familiar roads and HOLY COW what a difference that made. The slop that was in the steering wheel before is completely gone and the steering feel is much more solid overall. I can't believe I waited this long to do that!

If you have a lift and big tires without a beefy/adjustable front track bar, I HIGHLY recommend doing it!

 

Some may disagree but i feel a beefier TB does help. Make sure those clamp bolts are tight, i had issues with mine. One stripped and i upgraded to grade 8 bolts. Torqued down and all was good.

 

I doubt it matters how beefy it is.
Drives better because you now have you axle centered.

 

I was on the stock track bar for a little while running a 2.5in Teraflex lift with 315/70 r17 GoodYear MTR Ks. When I was trying to find worn parts in my steering (turns out I had a bad drag link), I had my wife sit in the driver's seat, and turn the wheel back and fourth. When I had her go all the way lock to lock, you could see the axle walking back and forth in relation to the frame as the tires turned, due to the amount of give in flimsy stock track bar. I upgraded to a Synergy HD track bar, and all is better know.

Teraflex's website has a video for their HD track bar showing the give in the stock track bar when running 35x12.5in tires.

The combination of the flimsy track bar and the bad drag link had my jeep wandering all over the road. Now all is well.

Sent from my iPhone using JK-Forum

 

Your axle is always moving left right as you drive. A small offset is NOT going to change handling.
If anything most improvement is going from a worn out stock TB to a new TB.

 

2.5"-3" lift is not going to be a small offset. I know from personal experience how much it effected me on my last jeep with 2.5" RK coils.

Edit: my last jeep was a '14 less than 6months old. TB was not worn out at all

 

eh... I'm with kjeeper10. 2-3" of lift would shift the axle no more than 3/4". It's more likely that the OP had a worn out TB or the TB was loose.

 

+3... I'm betting the original trackbar wasn't torqued to 125 or the bushings were shot.

 

Any more than 1/4" front axle offset will have a negative effect on handling & steering. Yes, the axle moves laterally as the suspension moves, but on a stock JK it does so from a near-neutral position, front & rear. As the axles move laterally they also steer slightly. The stack up of misaligned components caused by an off center housing causes any number of issues, such as wacky handling, triggered ESP, etc. From personal experience sorting out club members JKs the OP likely had at least a 1/2" -1" misalignment at rest.

 

Wait until you get new ball joints, tie rod and drag link. It almost drives normal then.