Offroad-Express

While out with Kiwipete yesterday (after doing his body lift) we did a bit of a flex test.

Crude, but it worked

The first is with the rear sway bar attached



The next is with Rear sway bar removed!



What do you think?

Remove it?

Same!

What about droop on other side? I'd leave it off.
What do you think of the on road difference handling wise?

I havent done a true test yet, I had to reconect it to drive home (otherwise it would flop round)

I will remove it. I had already done so at the front and noticed no great difference. Im going to take rear right off and give that a go.

On a lot of Wranglers (TJs which are coils all around), people normally leave the rear sway bar on permanently but disconnect the front when going offroad (there are easy disconnects available for TJs). The idea is that it allows better weight transfer related movements in the back rather than it floping around on obstacles and bottoming out. It is possible that Safaris don't suffer from the same weight transfer issues, just something to think about.

Also, take a photo from the other side as that will show the droop on the other rear - that is where you will gain most in terms of keeping in contact with the ground.

Elmo wrote:I havent done a true test yet, I had to reconect it to drive home (otherwise it would flop round)

I will remove it. I had already done so at the front and noticed no great difference. Im going to take rear right off and give that a go.

Front sway bar doesnt do much on the nissans,you well feel the difference when removing the rear though as the back does articulate quite well thats what I found with mine any way,probley a little worse with mine as it has a larger/heavyer body that well make the body roll more.
unless you have long rear shockes sway bar wont make a huge differance off road as it can twist quite a lot.

Shane

One thing I forgot to add, flexing also depends on the hardness/softness of the coils springs. Softer springs allow better articulation. If you want max articulation, go the softest possible coils springs for any particular application.

I've removed both of mine completely. Still goes round corners fine. I say remove it and sell it on TradeMe.

I wont sell em, as ya never know when the warrent man will ask for the 'item fitted by purpose' to be refitted. Its not stated that sway bars need to be fitted, but it is stated that items fitted for a purpose be there!

Quite right Elmo, they will make us put them back.
I heard a wisper from someone in the know not too far back that the "powers that be" are going to start on 4x4's now that they have hammerd the boy racers.
Sway bars will need to be fitted, is one of the things they will be looking at.

In the meantime, remove them and enjoy the wallowing, after all it is a baby whale isnt it?

Seriously the roll isnt too bad, just stick to the posted speed limit. Well it is a little more noticable when you combine it with a suspension and body lift.

I got failed on a WOF because of no swaybars on my Safari, but its the same old story, depends on who is testing it

Interesting. When I was buying my Safari there was another on the yard a year older than mine and it didn't have either front or rear sway bars. It was fresh of the boat from Japan, along with mine. There were no brackets on the rear for a swaybar at all, and the only sign on the front were the bolt holes on the underside of the radius arms. I'd say that truck genuinely never had any swaybars on in its life. Nor did it have a factory rear locker.

It had done alot less km's than mine and in better condition, so had a higher sticker price, obviously I went for the cheaper one.

I used mine for quite a while with no front sway bar and a factory disconectable rear. There's quite a differenece to the handling between the rear on or off particulary at speed on road and on side slopes offroad. I only removed when extending wheelbase made the extra work to keep not practical. It depends on what you do etc.
I now have none and don't feel I slow down on road because of it, but mine has been modified so much it isn't really a good one to compare to.

mine never came with a front sway bar and i was 2nd owner of it, and my truck WAS very tidy and never been offroad in its life until i got my hands on it,and i checked our farm safari 2day and that has not got any front or rear sway bars and does not appear to ever have had one on the rear,

still have mine conected at the rear,but i can disconect mine from the lever that most safaris have under the dash but i always forget to disconect it when i am offroad anyway , might take the rear off and see how it goes

vince