Sway bar help.

Thornbird1

Thornbird1

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Looking for a rear sway bar. Initially wanted to build my own using a torsion bar from something but can’t find one that is the right length, 45”. Looking at branik but I’m wondering if it’s overkill for me. I can get a 45” antirock bar kit for a little over 500, the best deal by far. What’s everyone thoughts, antirock any good? Will it hold up being single shear? Branik? Other ideas?
Truck is a dodge Dakota 16 x 2.5 kings all the way around. 3 link front 4 link rear. Truck leans way too much. I’m stiffing up spring rates some but think I’ll still need some form of sway control. My signature picture shows the body roll pretty damn well lol.

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Where do you live? I have an antirock that I think is close to that I just cut off my old truck. I’m building a buggy and it’s too wide for it. Might make you a good deal if you live close to Utah.
 
Check out TK1 Racing. They offer quite the range of different swaybar options. I've got one of their rockcrawler bars and the arms are super beef.
 
rockdog57 said:
Where do you live? I have an antirock that I think is close to that I just cut off my old truck. I’m building a buggy and it’s too wide for it. Might make you a good deal if you live close to Utah.
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Thanks, sent you a pm
 
I have a Ruffstuff in my FJ55:
sway27.jpeg

It really controls the 54" Tahoe leaf springs and extra heavy roof rack:
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Without the sway bar, a pot hole at more than 55mph starts crap your pants body roll.

The only nitpick is they want the sway bar length measured one way. When I called, I explained exactly how I got my length and they still did it their way:homer: Fortunately, no issue replacing aside from wasted shop time.
 
arse_sidewards said:
This shouldn't happen. Something else in your geometry is fucked.
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At the time, super soft rear leaf springs(54" Tahoes) and stock stiff front springs with no change. All are zero degree on mounting surface. No real geometry to fuck up. :homer: Shocks were standard Bilstien and not overly heavily valved... ie they were good for rebound not the bullshit theory of using them sway control:rolleyes:

With even the stock FJ55 sway bar, I didn't get the pot hole induced sway.

With the Ruffstuff swaybar plus the 54" Tahoes on all four corners, I can carve up Wentworth Springs(windy "mountain" road) without dipping below 45mph and staying closer to 55mph.
 
Looks like you aren't running a sway bar in the front which is where I would put one first. Increasing the roll stiffness in the rear but not the front promotes oversteer. Conversely, putting a sway bar in the front but not the rear will promote understeer.
 
I've always thought the Antirock was the standard by which others were judged. Currie has as much knowledge in racing and offloading as any company out there. He designed the original specifically for his KOH buggy.
 
I'm similar with 4 link rear and 3 link front, why a rear bar over a front bar?
I have no sway bars and am looking into it now too.
 
'84 Bronco II said:
Looks like you aren't running a sway bar in the front which is where I would put one first. Increasing the roll stiffness in the rear but not the front promotes oversteer. Conversely, putting a sway bar in the front but not the rear will promote understeer.
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It’s hard for me to package a front sway bar due to steering box on the outside of frame, oversteer is better than under at least, right?
 
Thornbird1 said:
It’s hard for me to package a front sway bar due to steering box on the outside of frame, oversteer is better than under at least, right?
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Generally understeer is preferable from a stability/predictability standpoint and is considered much more street friendly.

EDIT: Don't confuse chassis oversteer with power oversteer. Chassis oversteer is much harder to control and more likely to cause you to spin out.
 
'84 Bronco II said:
Generally understeer is preferable from a stability/predictability standpoint and is considered much more street friendly.

EDIT: Don't confuse chassis oversteer with power oversteer. Chassis oversteer is much harder to control and more likely to cause you to spin out.
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10-4. Is anybody running only rear sway bar with good results? I realize front is better but too much going on up front to package. I can drive the truck 90 mph on the highway, bridge transitions at highway speed give a little sway hear and there but overall is totally streetable. It’s just if I throw the thing into a corner, 4 wheel drive hard turns or slow extreme side hilling it feels sketch.
 
Thornbird1 said:
10-4. Is anybody running only rear sway bar with good results? I realize front is better but too much going on up front to package. I can drive the truck 90 mph on the highway, bridge transitions at highway speed give a little sway hear and there but overall is totally streetable. It’s just if I throw the thing into a corner, 4 wheel drive hard turns or slow extreme side hilling it feels sketch.
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I've got no front in my lj, but its much lower. Been running it that way for a few years now with no issues. Done 95 down a hill in it.
 
Sh00ttok1ll said:
I've always thought the Antirock was the standard by which others were judged. Currie has as much knowledge in racing and offloading as any company out there. He designed the original specifically for his KOH buggy.
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The Currie Antirock was around for about a decade before KOH was even conceived....
 
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Treefrog said:
I've got no front in my lj, but its much lower. Been running it that way for a few years now with no issues. Done 95 down a hill in it.
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Thanks for the info, thats good to hear. Its actually not tall. The picture turning makes it look tall, but I have a ram charger on 35s that sits higher.

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TTMotorsports said:
yeah the antirock isn't designed around the abuse and vehicles that run in KOH. Need something much beefier than that
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Thats what I was thinking, every time I see them in person I always think they look dinky. The tk1 racing desert truck setup looks like my best bet.
 
aw man, my buddy is picking up a sway bar and i cant remember what brand he went with, most likely anti rock

but i think it might be TMR customs that makes an extra thick sway bar that you can lathe down till it feels just right

technically you can do that with any sway bar, or just get longer arms
 
Do you have a picture of your front setup with the steering box on the outside of the frame? An H3 guy just came up with a swaybar solution for SAS H3s with outside frame mounted sway bars and it may work for you too.
 
Thornbird1 said:


Thanks for the info, thats good to hear. Its actually not tall. The picture turning makes it look tall, but I have a ram charger on 35s that sits higher.
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Then the heights might not be that different.

In the process of swapping axles to cure death wobble, I pulled the rear sway bar off and went for a lower speed test drive. Even trying to feel the difference I had a hard time noticing the rear being off in a corner, only noticed it when trying to simulate a lane change at 30. That said they were low speed small corners, not longer sweeping ones.
 
I am not sure what room looks like but here are 2 ways guys made sway bars work with an outside frame mounted box. They took universal anti rocks and modified the one arm, the other arm was left alone but they made sure bolt hole to sway bar arm was the same length even though the one side had all sorts of goofy bends in it.

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That’s a cool idea for the front sway bar but I feel like I wouldn’t be able to make the one strong enough with the amount of bend I would need and how much articulation the front has. I see the one has disconnects, assuming just for road use. Now I’m torn though don’t want to buy a bling one for the rear and have it under perform. Best front pictures I have from when I was building it.
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Have you tried just lowering the coil slide stops so it gets into the secondary rate sooner? Probably take like 30 minutes to try it...
 
DesertCJ said:
Have you tried just lowering the coil slide stops so it gets into the secondary rate sooner? Probably take like 30 minutes to try it...
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No that’s a good call. I just ordered stiffer springs and will try that when I put them in, thanks.
 
Thornbird1 said:
Thats what I was thinking, every time I see them in person I always think they look dinky. The tk1 racing desert truck setup looks like my best bet.
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I've seen these on some extreme desert prerunner and race trucks and they all hold up and work awesome. What I would recommend. Buy once cry once.
 
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