04Tacoma, removing front sway-bar, any advantages or dissadvantages?

[yellowpasta2000]

I have a 2004 tacoma 4x4 which is all stock but i am getting sway away coil overs and a upper control arm from Camburg Engenering. i went offroading yesturday and somehow my front sway-bar got disconnected from the right side. Shold i take the sway bar off? is there any advantages or dissadvantages of having it on or off?

Thanks,
Anto

[Cadwell]

I had a 2003 taco and i had sway aways up front. I took off the front sway bar and it rode much better and you have more body roll! The only problem i had was when driving on the freeway and was passing semi trucks i was being pushed over more than normal from the wind coming off them! Also you can't make sudden swerves with the sway bar off!

[yellowpasta2000]

I have the sway bar disconnected and with little wind on the freway the truck does get pushed around... it also understeeres a lot more on the street... and the rear gives out easier on the dirt. Would it handle better or be better when im offroading/prerunning?

[Bulldozer]

The only problem i had was when driving on the freeway and was passing semi trucks i was being pushed over more than normal from the wind coming off them!

Haha, i've noticed that a lot in any truck with long travel or mid travel and no sway bar. It feels really weird compared to driving a normal car, something you have to get used to.

[smokey]

I have the sway bar disconnected ... it also understeeres a lot more on the street... and the rear gives out easier on the dirt.


I don't have an answer, but this is related and someone else's reply to this may be beneficial.

This is something I've been curious about. Isn't the theory that the more roll resistance an axle has, the less steering power it has? That the axle with the least roll resistance has the most steering power? I presume the reason being that in a turn, it will unload the inside tire more with more roll resistance, and therefore decrease grip on that corner/end of the vehicle...

So if you disconnect the front swaybar, shouldn't it make the truck more prone to oversteer? I can see it making the back end looser in the dirt for this same reason, but where does the understeer come from?

[DRIVE Jon]

I would re attach it, but that is just my preference. If its a daily driver..I would keep it...for those occasional highway evasive maneuvers...to avoid cell phone talkers, etc... Think about lawsuit stuff too. IF you swerve...roll, and wad up the truck around someone...the will be looking for modifications to the truck..removing factory safety equipment could be something they might come after you for. Of course half the people on this site drive with the sway-bar removed. just something to think about.

You could set up a "disconnect" sway-bar, so you have both. I believe there are off the shelf kit for $100-200.

On the dirt, it is probably up to the individual. Many serious off-road vehicles feature at least 1 sway bar...usually in the rear on 4-linked trucks, and buggies, some vehicles are now using front and rear sway-bars. Although many leaf-sprung trucks don't use any...I don't know the science why(roll-center, instant-center, etc..) but it seems to be less a prob with the leafs.

The sway-bar reduces the free-articulation of your front suspension, but not the travel(if set-up properly)...although your individual (left-or right) suspension spring rate is higher when you hit a hole with just one front wheel. So the truck wont soak up some "single-wheel" bumps as well...on the other hand, it will delay bottoming when hitting large "single-wheel" bumps. I

The SB helps the handeling by "biasing/loading" suspension on the inside of the turn when the outside wheel suspension gets compressed...thus keeping the inside suspension from unloading as much and trying roll the truck over.

I like things that help keep the greasy side down. The sway bar won't reduce your available travel if you are still running lower ball-joints and short travel. I am putting in a mid travel setup (13-15") travel and I think I may have to make some mods to keep the sway-bar, cause it is running into the frame with my increased up-travel.

People with a lot more experience than I might want to chime in. It is an interesting topic...probably been covered before. All my experience is with a short travel tacoma...but I have ridded in a 17" travel Toyota with no sway-bar. It is a big difference!!

[EQuin]

Alot of the folks over on www.ttora.com recommend taking it off to keep from hindering already available wheel travel, or so they argue. I took mine off, and personally I don't like how it drives on the street without it. I plan on re-installing it, and I think V4DRJOn makes a good point about keeping it on.

I was also wondering whether keeping it on might have the unintended benefit of preventing over-extension, aka too much downtravel, (kind of like a limiting strap) so as to keep the CV and upper ball joint angles from becoming too severe. Only reason why I wonder about that is because disconnecting it obviously helps lower the control-arm assembly, making it easier to install aftermarket coilovers. Whereas keeping it on makes it that much more difficult.

[DRIVE Jon]

My experience is if you have 4wd, the stock sway-bar is not a limiting factor in down-travel...the CVs max out first. If you are talking 2wd...I don't know, but may shocks sold for tacos will max out soon after....and the ball-joints are close behind those as far as becoming the limiting factor.

[loufish]

The front sway-bar should not reduce or affect wheel travel when both wheels hit the same bump/dip. Of course if the links are too short or have bad geometry then there could be an issue.

Independent bumps/dips will be affected by the SB, not only does single wheel rate increase adding more spring then is needed, which most people know, it also hinders the wheel from dropping into holes and keeping better contact with the ground.

And yes, all things equal, removing it should increase oversteer, which could be a good thing as many trucks have a fair amount of understeer already built in...but you need to learn how the truck will handle after removel.

For just about all dirt situations, no bar is better, but most pre-runners still spend a lot of time on pavement. Remove it, knowing it will cause the truck to roll more and see if you can live with it...Because each truck/spring/bar combo is so different, only way to tell is giving it a try...

[Jerry Zaiden]

My 2007 Toyota Tundra has our bolt in coilovers. I do not run the sway-bar on my truck and I drive this truck every day. The truck handles great and I have no complaints. My truck tows the race truck to the races with a load of spares in the bed. One thing to think about is the spring rate is increased and will add some resistance to the body roll. Valving in the shocks also controls slow speed much better than stock in return also helps with body roll. Now I have driven my truck with the sway bar and i like it much better without the bar. The only thing i can say is drive it for a week without the bar then add the bar back in and see what you think. Now driving off road is a whole other story. The trucks works so much better off-road with out the bar I would not run it off road.