Sway bar removal?

I am going to be installing icons tonite or tmrw morning. Was wondering if I should remove my sway bar. Any thoughts? It's my daily driver but is also my hunting rig and I offroad pretty often.

 

Quite a few people have done it. Some say they don't notice a difference on road while others say it wanders at hwy speeds. Either way you get more flex i your suspension. I think it really depends on your style of driving.

 

Some people will say a reason to leave it on is more control during evasive maneuvers. I'm not entirely sold on that point.

I've heard it's easy enough to disconnect that you can before getting on the trail, or whatever, and reconnect before getting back on the road. Haven't tested that theory yet.

 

If it were me, I would leave it on for now. The sway bar will keep your cornering under control and help ease up your steering on turns. I am waiting for Currie Enterprises release an Antirock off road sway bar for the 3rd gens, then I won't have to worry about disconnecting to go wheeling.

 

I can still drive like a maniac with 600# springs and no swaybar and the body roll is very manageable.

 

That was my thought (minus the 'drive like a maniac' part). My coils are 620# and I figured that would be enough to counter any body roll.

 

only times I've scared my self is bombing down washboard gravel roads at 60mph. start to get the speed wobbles haha.

 

OP, rid of the sway bar. Hell, I'm on a 3 link SAS and don't have one. Wifey drives it to work everyday and no complaints.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for your input guys. Sounds easy enough to remove it and put it back on so I'll try it with and without. I'll give an update.

 

FWIW

I have an OME suspension all around.

When I took the sway bar off for two weeks, read: the end links exploded and I was waiting on parts, it felt very unnerving to me driving on road, around curves, mountain passes, etc.

After buttoning it all up it felt much safer on road.

I've also noticed no limitations off road. While I'm not rock crawling up stuff that requires 40" tires and 5.29 gears, I have wheeled this truck on pretty tough stuff its whole life (with a sway bar).

And if you really want to disconnect it prior to going on a trail, all you have to do is remove one end link bolt and tuck it up out of the way. Having only one end link connected is virtually the same as removing the sway bar entirely (if I understand the dynamics correctly)

Just my $0.02

 

Madjik,
Cool build and rattle can techniques!
Your truck would be awesome on 33's. Try wheelin' w/o the sway bar. Your truck would do well.

 

Thanks man.

31s are good enough for me. Have never left me wanting more. If anything I'd upgrade to the stock 16" alloys and go with a 265/75r16 tire.

Oh and I'd like the quiet stock exhaust too

 

I run disconnects. Best of both worlds. They are strong and wont break offroad. I can really feel the front end loosen up without the front bar when up in the mountains on the passes doing 50+mph. It can get downright dangerous and you must take some turns at a good amount lower speed than normal. If you have really stiff front coils then you wont even notice.

 

if you're old and scared of your shadow don't do it, if you got a big hang down... remove it.

 

Haven't had a sway bar since idk, a few years at least, (my build probably has a date). Haven't drifted out of control and died yet but I do feel more manly knowing others claim I'm cheating death and an adrenaline junkie simply from removing a sway bar.

Seriously though run without it for a week or so and off-road without it. Then make an informed decision. I hated hiting a pothole with one tire and having the whole truck lurch because sway bar.

 

disconnects on a 2nd gen... ok

 

Thought this was a 1st gen thread. I have them on my 4runner that shares the same front suspension geometry. You can disconnect the front bar on a 1st gen and just push it up to clear the cv's.

 

There's a guy here who makes stout disconnects.

I have it bookmarked on my computer.

But I'm on my phone now.

A quick search should find it for you.

 

Just fab up your own disconnects. I had some from an old Jeep Cherokee. Fabbed em up to work on my 98. I don't really notice a difference when they are disconnected besides the obvious gain in suspension flex. On road I don't notice it either. probably because I have some stiff azz springs in the front. I'd imagine a stock set-up might get squirrly.

 

I removed mine completely. It's not a daily driver anymore but I removed a while ago. Yes, you notice a difference in driving, but as long as you KNOW that, and drive accordingly, you should be fine. I mostly notice when turning right from a stop light. I get more body roll on acceleration, so I'm left some rubber behind a few times when getting on the gas.

As with anything, it's going to be a compromise. I never saw any quick dissconnects I was happy with, so I just took it off completely