Tundra TRD Pro + Rear Sway Bars

I was watching videos about Tundras on YouTube and ran into one of the guys that I'm sure many of you have watched before which is TUNDRADUDE.

In one of his videos he explained that he made a mistake of installing the rear sway bars on his Platinum and went on to say that even Toyota recommends not putting a Rear Sway Bar on trucks that has the Fox Shocks (which I'm assuming the TRD Pros) because it prohibits the travel whatever that means. I'm no suspension expert nor am I a mechanic and that is why I'm asking if there's any truth to his video. Or is that just one person's experience?

Any of you guys who installed a rear sway bar on your TRD pro, what do you guys have to say?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhpbx5LFNhA

 

Travel: in this case how far the wheel can "hang down" or move vertically without bottoming out. That's why you have the reservoirs; to continue to fill the shock with hydraulic fluid when it gets to the point a regular shock would bottom out. It sounds like a sway bar would restrict this thus defeating the purpose of the fox shocks to begin with. They have that extra vertical travel. If you're not an "off roader" or an "overlander" then you probably can use a sway bar. You would improve on the body roll but limit the potential of the fox shocks on uneven high terrain, "off roading." That's my take...I may be mistaken.

 

That's a good explanation and easy enough for me to understand...Thank you Sir!

 

I was wondering the same thing. I have a PRO with the Bilstein and was concerned with the amount of body roll. I wish I could say I tested it, but after I replaced the tires, my sidewalls were much stiffer and the body roll was greatly reduced. I still feel roll but the rear sway is not as much of a concern.

 

If you don’t plan on doing heavy off roading the sway bar is a great addition to the truck. Straight as an arrow on the highway and minimal body roll. I’ve had them on every tundra I’ve ever owned. My father got a 2020 pro and he wanted one once he drove my truck and loves it now on his. He does a lot of off roading in logging roads in northern Maine. If you were rock crawling and needed a ton of suspension articulation then no, but for most of us it makes a huge difference

 

Thank you Sir for your input!

 

Totally different truck with the TRD front and rear sway bars, glad I did it. Need to go off road/ crawling....unbolt the links and go.

 

There really needs to be some sort of quick disconnect for the rear.

 

This might work in a metric dia.......
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SHLFBF...&pd_rd_r=c194da40-509c-4e34-b0da-d7b88767736e

 

The sway bar reduces the frames ability to rotate relative to the axle (body roll). Suspension flex/articulation is the same thing, so now the sway bar is fighting the suspension flex and can reduce it to some degree, and additionally you now have increased (what I refer to as) cross talk since if one side hits a bump the sway bar is now trying to load up the opposite side of the truck to try and level it out. On the other hand, your true raw suspension travel is NOT decreased. If you were to jump the truck, hit a whoop or speed bump straight on, so the whole axle is just traveling up and down you would notice no difference with or without the sway bar since the axle/frame have not rotated relative to each other.

Summary:
-Possibly less "flex"
-Your actual suspension travel does not change
-Better on road handling

Everything is a trade off, every high performance off-road vehicle runs away bars (besides moon buggies), granted the Tundra sway bar is not setup for offroading but adding a sway bar may have more pros than cons in your case and it certainly won't destroy your off-road capability (at most it'll slightly diminish it).

 

So would the rear trd sway bar help when towing a travel trailer?

 

Could be wrong, but I was under the impression the reservoirs are to keep the fluid from getting too hot and fatiguing their responsiveness when driving fast on a bumpy surfaces - like baja racing. However, the sway bar will improve on road handling at the cost of off road articulation.

 

@woofhauler you're absolutely right. Thank you for correcting me.

 

How can you tell if you have a front sway bar? When I look under the truck the skid plate covers that section.

 

You have the front sway bar front the factory... standard. It's painted / powder coated black. The beefier one, powder coated red, is a custom replacement that's much heavier. In case you're looking for a red bar under the skid plate.