Manually Disconnect Front Sway Bar

Coming from SFA vehicles, I always disconnected the front sway bar off road. My first jeep I would crawl under it and manually pull the quick disconnects then the Rubicon made it electronic.

I know the sway bar disconnect is an option on the new Tacoma but mine did not come with that feature.

Is the Taco similar to the jeep where I can crawl under it to disconnect it for improved articulation?

Is anyone making quick disconnects?

How much is articulation actually improved with it disconnected?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4oymoFNhnM&t=3s

 

Thanks @snickers definitely seems worth it to disconnect. I guess back to my other two questions about manually disconnecting it or if anyone makes quick disconnects for the Tacoma

 

I’ve seen them somewhere? For the gen 3 but they didn’t work very well. Nothing for the gen4. You can buy OEM if parts are available for about 7K!

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=kwiklynx+...i=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j80kJC-l2xw

 

Only $7k? Well damn, I could get an old XJ to take off road for that kinda money.

I will have to crawl under there and take a look, the jeep I would pull two pins on each side then zip tie the bar up out of the way.

 

I’ve read if you’re going to disconnect just remove it all together, guys that zip tie it up usually get their cv boots chaffed up and destroyed from the bar rubbing the boots because you’re not able to secure it far enough away from the boot.

 

Hmm. Seems like the negatives may outweigh the positives. Thanks for the input.

 

Do the risks of a rollover on a highway avoidance maneuver outweigh the extra articulation off road?

 

I would not remove it, was looking at the possibility of a quick disconnect for off road use. With the video showing the decent amount of difference connected vs. disconnected I was hoping there was a quick easy solution. The wrangler took all of 2 minutes and was a huge difference off road. Part of my reasoning for choosing a Tacoma over a Gladiator was on road performance so I wouldn't want to do anything to change that. Well that and jeeps have become ridiculously expensive.

 

If the 4th gen is similar to 2nd/3rd, you're limited to either full removal, or hopefully someone makes a product like Airlynx or Quicklynx.

 

Whoa $750 for quick disconnects?! I will admit that airlynx is pretty cool looking.

 

Yeah Quicklynx are expensive as hell because they use an air cylinder and lever to keep the swaybar out of the way. I think it's overkill but I didn't design the thing lol

 

Or do a SAS.

 

No one does it yet to my knowledge. However, you should be able to just unbolt one link and run it. The 4th gen sway bar mounts to the LCA instead of the knuckle like on 2nd/3rd gens, so unbolting the link doesn't encroach on the CV joint.

 

I made a post asking about this before and everyone thought I was crazy.

I've been under there investigating this and to me it appears that it would need to be completely removed as it's shape wont let it rotate completely out of the way of other moving parts.

This is a topic of some debate in the 2nd & 3rd Gen forums. To remove or not to remove?

I removed the sway bar on my 2nd Gen before an offroad trip to see how I liked it with intent to replace it if the on road manners were compromised too much.

I never reinstalled it.

It did compromise the on road manners a little bit but not enough to miss it.

Basically, it just drove like you would expect a truck to drive, instead of the sports car like handling that it previously possessed.

All that malarky about snap oversteer or flipping the truck was just that.

Independent suspension has been around longer than anti-sway bars.

Another side effect of its removal was the truck was less hard on the front tires.

I really wanted the swaybar disconnect mechanism on my 24 Tacoma, but I'm also not into waiting and figured that i would probably just remove it and forget it anyway.

I was hoping this subject would come up and someone else would report their findings, but if that hasnt happened before I have the truck off road ready, I will be doing it.

Off road, on my 2nd gen, not having it made a huuuge difference in how well the truck articulated over obstacles.

Not only did it gain more "flex" but it also made it ride so much smoother over all obstacles and not so jerky and tight.

I do wonder what the dealer might have to say about it if you brought the truck in for service with it missing.

Perhaps someone with a 2nd or 3rd Gen has experience with this?

 

If you do end up removing up definitely report back on how it handles on road. Unfortunately I spend more time on road than off so I am unsure about doing something that would change it's on road performance too much. Years from now when I am able to make this a dedicated off road rig then yea I will do whatever to make it perform better. I still have yet to crawl under there and take a look at what it could contact if I disconnect it, I will have to get out there after work and take a look. Hopefully someone comes out with something for the 4th gen, would love to soften the ride up even more off road, it will make convincing my wife to join me a lot easier.

 

On the 2nd Gen, the difference on road was tiny compared to what it offered off road.

Tiny.

Perhaps the difference on the 4th Gen could be even smaller because it would still have an anti-sway bar in the back that the 2nd Gen doesn't have.

 

Having just a rear swaybar will greatly increase a vehicle's tendency to oversteer in a corner which feels great until you're sideways or maybe backwards into the woods. As long as you drive with the understanding of what is going on and know to be cautious you'll be fine.

 

Well, that depends on a lot of things. Practically every road car made in the last forty years or so has a rear swaybar and there's not that many people flying backwards into the woods. Arguably, most of those that are would have done so anyway because of they way they drive.

 

Most cars have front only, some have both front and rear. I've yet to see one that left the factory with a rear only but if you can find me an example I'd love to see it. Some of the aftermarket rear swaybars that are larger than stock even come with a warning to upgrade the front because it will cause oversteer.