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Disconnected front anti roll bar difference vid

Matt Vee

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Joined
Jul 22, 2019
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164
Bored as a bunch of holes so I disconnected the front anti roll bar to see if it does make a difference to articulation/handling.

Here's a vid. It's not very scientific.I used a small kerb to get one corner activating.
Clip without the front plastic bumper is my kid driving it with sway bar connected
Clip with plastic bumper is the bird driving it with sway bar disconnected.

Can you see any difference?
Only difference I can see is my kid is a smoother driver than the bird.
That and it bounces more when the back end goes over, but that still has the sway bar installed.

At higher speeds which I didn't vid, it seemed to make more difference and if you watch closely the droop is faster without the sway bar (could just be the birds driving though)

On road it deffo felt more like a boat with the front nearside diving going round a roundabout where it wouldn't normally.

So what do you think?
Is it actually more independent or bog all difference?

 
I can definitely see a difference - without the sway bar it looked much more independent especially the front half. With it looks a lot more solid, or just stays level (and recovers from the bounce) a bit better. I don't have any technical knowledge of suspension mind.
 
Thanks for the reply dude :)
Well theoretically it should have more "articulation" and on droop it is more obvious than on the upward stroke. In practice I think if it's 1" on the up before the forces go across the chassis and compresses the other side, I would be amazed I'll take the rear out tomorrow and see if that bounce goes away.
Like I said at higher speeds it is more obvious as the force is greater I spose and the coil compresses more obviously.
 
All the sway bar does is compress suspension on the offside wheel in sympathy while cornering reducing body roll , off road you want all 4 corners independent of each other . Yanks seem to like quick and easy drop link disconnects for the best of both worlds , something i'm sure you could knock up with your fabrication skills Matt .
 
I think the video demonstrates it pretty well. It wants to roll a lot more, and this is at lower speeds. With regards to if you want to keep them off, you also have to think about the safety aspect on the road if you do a lot of road driving.
 
Well I took the rear ARB off and all I can say is fuck that shit, it could be my shocks are screwed or the springs have softened but man it felt like piloting a boat at speed around corners. Rear ARB makes next to no difference to rear end articulation as a whole but does improve independence all round.
The conclusion I have come to is rear on front off is a fairly good compromise but I think I'll make a quick disconnect for the front rather than remove.
The ride is deffo more comfortable over bumps without the front ARB so by that I am going to assume it is working more independently without.
 
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Ok more head spins......

Reconnected/reffited both anti roll bars then went for a blast around the lanes.
Disconnected the front anti roll bar and left rear fitted and went for another blast.
Using an angle finder for welding we measured a five degree LESS difference in roll with the angle finder on the dash board WITHOUT the front ARB attached.

How weird is that.
 
That's odd is it less angle but more 'bouncy' making it seem all over the place without the ARB? Also what you doing to remove them, just removing one of the droplinks, or removing both droplinks and the ARB itself?
 
What people often miss when they fit a lift kit, is fitting spacers to the ARB too. The ARB works in torsion and it's important to have it sitting in a neutral state when all four wheels are flat on the ground. With IFS the limit of flex is typically is the IFS itself and the CV / top wishbone angles so the front ARB really doesn't affect flex.
On the the solid back axle with no lift, the ARB will have been designed to cope with full droop - or should have been.

I have certainly seen droop limited by ARBs but as I said, really only where a lift has been added and no additional length put into the ARB.

Not sure if you have any lift there Matt - this is just general advice.
 
Less roll is exactly the result you should have expected , its a very poor way to measure it but you can say very definitely removing the bar adds at least 5% articulation . Off road its all about keeping the wheels on the ground and body roll really doesn't matter . a better test would be to find out how high you can lift one front wheel while keeping 3 others firmly planted .
 
Well I'm not sure Shayne I mean it's an anti roll bar after all, lol, so one would expect more roll without it. Man I havn't got into chassis engineering for 20 years, I'm going to dig out the ol books and find out wtf is going on.

Chris- I don't actually know if my truck has had a lift or not. I am beginning to suspect it has a long time ago and the springs are sagging. I took a measurement from the bottom of the front rim to the bottom of the fender flare and got 735mm.

AdventureWagon- is your truck standard hieght? If it is could you do me a favor and take a measurement from the bottom of the front rim to the bottom of the fender flare?

Thusly:
ride_heights_image-min_1.jpg
 
The bar fixes body to suspension keeping it level while cornering on road , remove it off road and the body will sit as flat as it can because its heavy and suspension is independent of the body .

Long travel IFS exaggerate things so maybe you can see it better here
 
Ah right it's a communication error. The test was at 40 miles and hour round a bend on the road and it rolled less, which is the puzzle.
I concur with the off road situation and less body roll at low speeds.

Interestingly I watched that vid the other day which got me thinking about it all :)
 
Great video Shane. It puts the Strata Florida bombhole into perspective.
 
Sorry if you saw my last post. Didn't sound right then I realised it was partly on a slope. Duurrhh!

Anyway here we are on a level surface.

740mm front, 733mm rear. Stock on 265/70R16. Shocks have been changed to Tough Dog ones but no lift.
Car has done 382,800km.
 

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Sorry if you saw my last post. Didn't sound right then I realised it was partly on a slope. Duurrhh!

Anyway here we are on a level surface.

740mm front, 733mm rear. Stock on 265/70R16. Shocks have been changed to Tough Dog ones but no lift.
Car has done 382,800km.
Well I'm not sure Shayne I mean it's an anti roll bar after all, lol, so one would expect more roll without it. Man I havn't got into chassis engineering for 20 years, I'm going to dig out the ol books and find out wtf is going on.

Chris- I don't actually know if my truck has had a lift or not. I am beginning to suspect it has a long time ago and the springs are sagging. I took a measurement from the bottom of the front rim to the bottom of the fender flare and got 735mm.

AdventureWagon- is your truck standard hieght? If it is could you do me a favor and take a measurement from the bottom of the front rim to the bottom of the fender flare?

Thusly:
View attachment 166226
Sorry if you saw my last post. Didn't sound right then I realised it was partly on a slope. Duurrhh!

Anyway here we are on a level surface.

740mm front, 733mm rear. Stock on 265/70R16. Shocks have been changed to Tough Dog ones but no lift.
Car has done 382,800km.
@Matt Vee mine is 775mm rear and 770mm front on 265x70R16 boots. I have a late narrow body Collie no lift but does look to sit high so probably doesn't help. It is still standard 1880mm high overall.
 

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Mine is a 'wide' body so I guess the cladding will make my measurements a bit smaller. Mine is a 2000 model made May 2000.
 
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