Sway bar disconnect question

[chorky]

You've got the right attitude. Your jeeps on-road handling has been compromised by the anti-rock, and if you drive defensively and slowly, you can mitigate that for the most part.

But you are right about guys driving 90 in lifted trucks.

New Hampshire is the playground for Boston people. On Friday and Sunday you will see weekend people driving up I93. While there are lots of families in crossovers and minivans, you also see a lot of 3 kinds of vehicles in greater concentrations than normal.
1) The crunchy eco-freak in their Prius or Tesla. These are not "rugged" people. They are just up for a visit.
2) Liberal "rugged" folks in their Subaru CrossTreks - rock climbers, skiers, hikers.
3) Conservative "rugged folks" in their jacked up full sized HD diesel pickups. In the winter they are hauling enclosed snowmobile trailers at about 90 mph.

The drivers of these trucks are the most hideous obnoxious people imaginable. They will crawl up your bumper trying to intimidate you to move over when you are in a line of cars and going as fast as you can.

They don't use their turn signals, actually scratch that, none of them use their turn signals.

Where the macho truck guys are aggressively a55holish. The Tesla/Prius/Crosstrek drivers are more oblivious than anything else. "Oh, you want to go by me. you mean 57 mph in the left lane isn't enough?? So sorry".

In all seriousness, these macho truck drivers are the worst drivers on the road when I have the misfortune to be in the middle of this crowd.

p.s. to this group, F150s are for wussies. You need a lifted diesel F250/2500 on 22" rims with 35" tires and a pair of balls hanging off the trailer hitch if you want to run with these douches.

And then there's me. In the right or right/middle lane with the cruise at 73 listening to the dead with the windows down. Ha.

I sorta fell into category 3. Except I never drove like an @$$hat. Even in my OBS 7.3, lifted and built, I drove well under the speed limit of 80. Because 65 was plenty good for that old beast - speed demons can just go around. That being said, those other trucks - yes, I agree they are horrible. Especially in winter.

However, where I live, everyone is in a rush. I can't tell you how many times I had a Prius 2" from my bumper waving their hands all pissed off that I wasn't going 30 over... This state, surprisingly, has worse drivers than western washington! I think its due to the influx of out of staters - once they crush their car with their first deer strike or kill their own kid sliding off the road in winter, I'm sure they will slow down - but it will be too late then.

In all seriousness though, there is literally zero need to be doing 90 - heck even 80, unless your rushing to the hospital or meeting a dying family member - in which case you should ALWAY have your 4 ways on....

You really wouldn't gain much by doing so. Some builders have actually experimented with RTI ramp and having the rear connected disconnected, and found better flex with it connected.

I disagree. Well...in terms of 'flex' then sure your right - I saw a bunch of discussion on that too. However, in functionality a rear disco would provide significant more comfort. I am not interested in 'flex'. This broken down vet wants comfort and to still go off road lol.

Imagine going over a speed bump, at an angle, with your left tire hitting first. With the front connected. You first rock to the passenger side as you hit the bump, then you rock back as your drivers side tire drops and the passenger lifts up, only this time you rock harder because your in motion. Now as the rear hits the rock is even harder because your in even more motion. With more subsequent bumps and dips (on a potholed riddled road) it gets worse and worse until you stop or slow to a crawl to let things stabilize. So you disconnect the front sway (or if in my TJ have anti-rock). The disconnected sway allows the front left tire to rise up over the bump without placing extra pressure down onto the passenger side - thus reducing the rocking motion. And as the front driver tire drops, and the passenger tire lifts, it is seamless being soaked up by tuned springs/shocks. Now, as the rear end approaches, you dont have this sway disco option, so you begin the heavy rocking motion again. Imagine the rear having rear disco's. It would be silky smooth.... So functionally speaking, in my Glad Rubi, with the front disconnected, when the front tires went over bumps/dips, it could hardly be felt as the suspension worked like it should - but the moment my back axle went over the same bumps/dips - all hell broke loose and the jeep rocked sometimes violently depending on the combination of bump/dip size and speed....

I know this because referring back to my OBS 7.3, when lifted I removed the front and rear sway bars. And it rode significantly smoother than my TJ - and considering it's age, almost as smooth as the Gladiator - for a 25 year old truck. I have no doubt that disconnecting the rear sway on the Glad would make for a very plush ride. now, in the case of an off camber road, it would cause for a scary situation though... But if one had electronic disco's, it would be easy to re-connect them for off camber stabilization.

Sponsored

 

[samd1351]

So interesting to read all of the opinions here. I was super hesitant to just to do the 2.5" lift. Suspension stuff scares me. Almost, but not quite as much as electrical. I highly doubt I'd attempt any suspension change myself on the 'stang, but the jeep was, looking back at it, so easy. And the back and forth is pretty civilized! Thanks so much for all of the info