I am thinking of beefing up the stock sway bars on my 08 Sahara 4door. This would be the only upgrade...everthing else stock.
Question: Has anyone done this? Is it a good idea? Waste of $$$?
Thanks,
RB

 

The only way is to replace the bar. It is the torsion designed into the bar that makes it do what it does. Think of it as a coil spring that isn't coiled. On a coil spring, the 'spring' isn't the forcing of the ends together, but the twisting action on the metal rod that is coiled. Well, in the sway bar, it is the twist caused by one wheel dropping or rising more than the other that you are fighting.

In most cases, a larger diameter bar is used as it is easier to predict torsion that way than by using different alloys of the same diameter.

Now the question is, does anyone make a bigger swaybar and mount for the JK?

No offense, but why would you want to do this anyway? It kind of strikes me of buying a corvette and then installing non speed rated tires. In other words purposely hindering the very design of the vehicle.

But to each their own.

 

My best suggestion would be as follows. Go to the dealer and order a new front sway bar and use it to replace the rear sway bar. Its probably no going to bolt right in, but shouldn't be too difficult either. the front swaybar on the Jk it quite stout. if you look at pictures of people articulating their JKs with the front sway bar still connected, the rear flexes a lot and the front only a little... So by placing a front sway bar in the rear, it would stiffen up the rear considerably and make your body roll a lot less, which i assume is what you're looking to do. again, probably not a bolt right up ten minute project, but considering they're both for the same vehicle, i would imagine they are similar enough widths to make it work without too much fuss. Good luck, post pics, and let us all know how it goes.

 

Oft times, getting firmer valved shocks will control the handling, and preserve the off road ability...better than stiffer anti-sway bars, which are street only mods.



If you don't off road...it won't matter though...except the ride will be worse with firmer sway bars than with firmer shocks.

 

No offense, but why would you want to do this anyway? It kind of strikes me of buying a corvette and then installing non speed rated tires. In other words purposely hindering the very design of the vehicle.

But to each their own.


Thats why I asked the questions to this board of experts.
Ultimately, my goal is to cut some of the rear-roll on the road. From what I now understand beefing up the shocks woul be a much more affective application. The sway bars were my first thought. I do some off roading but find myself on the hard surfaces more than not.
Thanks for the help...

R.D.B.

 

What about a stiffer anti-sway bar with quick disconnect?

 

Are you asking about the front or back bar?

They make a QD for the front...that's already a stiff bar because the factory includes a electric disco option for it, and JKS, etc, make manual QD's for it....so, if you got a stiffer front bar custom made and installed, as long as you had your fabricator use the same end types/positions, you could use std off the shelf disco's for it.

If you mean the rear bar, and replacing it with a factory front bar, you could conceivably also fashion a QD for it as well....the adjustable JKS versions would probably be able to work, as you can adjust the lengths as needed, etc.

Again, you may get more of an overall improvement in street performance by going to extended length stiffer shocks.

Hope that helps.