No rear sway bar
JK Super Freak
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,266
Likes: 0
From: Wiliamsburg, VA
Well, one guy was running without his rear sway bar. And he flipped his JK on a trail ride. However, He says it wasn't related. But I don't know of anyone else doing it. I would like to know more, though. Any others runnning sans rear sway?
Thread Starter
JK Freak
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 675
Likes: 0
From: Mississauga, Ontario
The reason I want to remove it:
First of, that sway bar is fairly thin. But nonetheless it is designed to work with the front sway bar to balance the car. In a rear wheel drive or solid axel vehicule the biggest weight shift occurs in the front. Hence, the huge thick sway bar up front. If I was designing the suspension, I would put higher rate springs on all corners (compression might suffer a little, always a compromise I guess) , a bigger front sway an no rear.
I've had both sway bars off on my Liberty. Drove like that the whole summer (not the first vehicule I had off with sways). Offroad is was amazing. Just like a trophy truck. The front end stayed level as each of the wheels worked independently. The back end drove over the obstacles at speed as opposed to boucing over them sometimes. Mind you the rear sway bas a lot bigger than on the Liberty.
On road handling was ok too. Yes it does lean more and yes it's a truck so you don't drive it like a racecar. I found that once you approach the limits of the lean you would actually feel that it is coming up to it's limits. With both sways, you would stay level until you reach a point where it snaps and breaks loose. If you ever want to see how this works do a wet skid pad test to give you a feel of what's happening.
Almost forgot...I want to move the rear sway links to the front since they are a little bit longer to compensate for the RC BB lift.
First of, that sway bar is fairly thin. But nonetheless it is designed to work with the front sway bar to balance the car. In a rear wheel drive or solid axel vehicule the biggest weight shift occurs in the front. Hence, the huge thick sway bar up front. If I was designing the suspension, I would put higher rate springs on all corners (compression might suffer a little, always a compromise I guess) , a bigger front sway an no rear.
I've had both sway bars off on my Liberty. Drove like that the whole summer (not the first vehicule I had off with sways). Offroad is was amazing. Just like a trophy truck. The front end stayed level as each of the wheels worked independently. The back end drove over the obstacles at speed as opposed to boucing over them sometimes. Mind you the rear sway bas a lot bigger than on the Liberty.
On road handling was ok too. Yes it does lean more and yes it's a truck so you don't drive it like a racecar. I found that once you approach the limits of the lean you would actually feel that it is coming up to it's limits. With both sways, you would stay level until you reach a point where it snaps and breaks loose. If you ever want to see how this works do a wet skid pad test to give you a feel of what's happening.
Almost forgot...I want to move the rear sway links to the front since they are a little bit longer to compensate for the RC BB lift.
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JK Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 174
Likes: 0
Yeah, I have the rear sway bar off my Liberty too. It does help improve articulation. What we need is brave soul to take his off his JK and see how it drives. Any takers? It may not significantly improve articulation since the JK was designed as a more hard core wheeler than the kj was.