Talk me into rear sway bar.

whats the benefits? I don’t do much off road, just my hunting property. I do plan on a rear 1” lift will it still work?
Give me your thoughts.
Thanks

 

Just do it. You’ll thank all of us later. In my opinion, unless you are regularly off-road, there’s really no reason not to have one. Even then, light off-roading would be fine.
As for the 1” lift it should fit just fine. Worst case, you might have to rotate the sway bar 1/4 turn.
There are a lot of threads here about the sway bar. There is a reason why so many people run them.

 

It helps make the truck handle better. I waited awhile before I got one then wished I had gotten it sooner.

 

I like mine. Handles much better on road than it did before. It really controls the body roll in this 3 ton beast. It'll work on a lifted truck.

 

Definitely helps with the body roll. If you're offloading a lot and upgrade your suspension, then you probably don't want it because it will reduce with the rear suspension's ability to articulate and do what it's meant to do.
For road driving, the rear sway bar is great!

 

If you like a stiff uncomfortable ride do it

 

Not to mention, it adds 15hp

 

Just do it, you won't reget it.

 

Don't ask me. I take sway bars of my cars. Adding one that wasn't there to begin with seems like going in the wrong direction to me.

 

Do it!!! All the cool kids have them.

 

Everyone is going to have a different opinion on this. I bought one a number of months back to reduce the sway. However, it increases the stiffness of the ride in the rear and I didn't care for the choppy ride so I took it back off and sold it. Ironically, when I removed the bar the truck rolled a lot less than I had remembered.

My $.02

 

Hi,

We don't know each other and may probably never meet, but you should get and install a TRD rear sway bar.

pleasure talking to you

k9shag

 

Hahaha

 

Thanks everyone four your input.

 

A rear sway bar makes all the difference in the world if you want the truck to handle better on pavement.

 

100s of posts on here about the same question...it reduces body roll.

B/L: get one. It will be the cheapest best-bang-for-buck mod you can do.

Lifting the rear 1"? Pop in a set of Sumo Springs and be done. I added them for hauling my boat and they work great.

 

Didn’t even think about towing my trailer with 2 quads.

 

Only if what you want is a stiffer suspension and less grip. Which some people DO want.

But it's not like it's not without a trade off. On rough roads you will have a harsher ride. On uneven surfaces you will have less traction.

Essentially, offroading/rough roads, will be worse. Pavement will be better. There is a reason people do sway bar deletes and sway bar disconnects.

It also effects cornering on soft surfaces.

With a front only sway bar you front end breaks grip first, letting your rear wheels push you forward....otherwise known as understeer.

With a rear only, the opposite happens.The front keeps grip, while the rear breaks and swings around, oversteer.

With front and rear sway bars the balance between and your weight distribution determines the break. But as a rule, the stiffer the sway bar, the sooner that axle will loose grip and begin the skid.

Understeer is more predicable. Your vehicle just keeps going in the direction it was pointed, even if the road is going in a different direction.

Oversteer can be dangerous....or useful if your doing it on purpose as you can change direction quickly and keep control on a loose surface while power sliding. Some people run weak front sway bars and stiffer rear....or rear only for this reason on AWD vehicles.

And if you're just trying to crawl your way over uneven surfaces you will have MUCH better traction with no sway bars.

It just depends on what you're looking for. There are reasons why vehicles designed with any kind of off road performance in mind have weak or non existent rear sway bars.

And also reasons why people with top heavy loads, trailers etc, go for as much anti-sway as they can get.

Of course the ideal set up is front and rear sway bars with disconnects so you can play in both worlds.

 

The rear sway bar helps my tires stay in contact with the road, traction is improved.

Cornering is much more precise, and predictable - no skidding or body roll on high speed corners.

 

Sort of.

Sway bars actually lift the opposite wheel away from the road, reducing traction. In extreme cornering a rear sway bar will actually lift the inner wheel completely off a road. (the vehicle tries to roll to the outside, compressing the outside suspension, which lifts the sway bar and pulls the inner wheel upwards towards the frame of the vehicle)

However, they do this by pulling the body of the vehicle down..compressing the suspension and lowering the center of gravity...which DOES improving cornering, as long as you are on a high traction surface. On a loose surface you will loose grip much more quickly and go into understeer straight off the road.

Multi link IRS suspensions will take advantage of this, changing toe and camber progressively with suspension loading to assist in steering. A solid axle simple loads the suspension... on both sides when cornering, instead of merely the outer side.

It is indeed more predictable and feels like a better corner....unless you take it too far and realize how much less traction you have.

This is a good photo showing what happens in extreme cornering with a rear sway bar. As you can see, the rear tire is not off the ground because of body roll, you can see that its actually pulled up tight into the wheel well, so much so that its been pulled off the ground by the sway bar from the heavily loaded outer wheel.

With no sway bar or a weaker sway bar there would be more body roll, but both rear tires would still be on the ground.

 

Street driving. Towing. Hauling.

A rear sway helped me in all 3 of the above areas. Wished I had added the Hellwig 7700 sooner.

It also keeps my inside real tire in contact with the pavement on slow 90° acceleration turns. A real benefit on wet roads.

 

Bud. We are not ‘Fast and Furious’ here. BTW, my hands were in that movie.

 

Yeah, I'm not on a track... but then again the American roads & highway system are my track. Anyway, I drive fast but not so fast that the tires break loose or lift because I believe keeping all four tires in contact with the road surface is best. I also don't like to break things, because I don't have a pit crew with repair parts.

 

And lets be honest, the rear suspension on these trucks is not designed to corner well. The truck would need a more sophisticated rear suspension that did not use leaf springs if it was to fly around corners. That said, the rear suspension on these trucks can be set up to corner much, much better than a stocker and the rear sway bar is required for that.

 

One thing I avoid (in the Tundra) is a high speed turn into deceleration.

 

Appreciate the extensive explanations.

Its all about application. Since he said he doesn't do much off roading, I figure he's probably like me, and I have both TRD sway bars with the SUMO springs and I have exactly what I need.

For example: I do a little off roading when duck hunting and towing, but for the most part I am a pavement pounder...stock wheels and tires with super charger as a "gap"-filler because I didn't want to pay the premium/need another Duramax. Based on my use, I don't have a need for swaybar disconnects and nor do I want to crawl under my truck to disconnect/reconnect them.

That said, I agree, swaybar disconnects are great if needed.

 

The design has it's limitations, and a man needs to know his limitations.

 

The track is were sway bars do the most good.

I loose traction constantly.....usually at speeds below 30 miles per hour, but that is because of the roads I drive on.

Think of it this way. The job of a suspension is to keep your tires on the ground even if that ground is uneven.

The job of a sway bar is to keep your tires the same distance from the body of the vehicle, even if the ground is uneven.

If the ground you drive on is smooth and flat the sway bars will help keep your vehicle riding smooth and flat.

If the ground in uneven, the sway bar will still try and keep your vehicle riding smooth and flat, which means it will crash into bumps, and be airborne over dips.

A sway bar is exactly like adding stiffer springs, except it only adds stiffness if one side of the axle is higher or lower than the other. Hitting a speed bump head on it does nothing. Going over a pot hole, or hitting a bump with just one wheel, it acts like a stiffer spring, with the negative effects you would expect from a stiff suspension.

Wether you want more stiffness, or more suspension, is completely dependent on the roads you drive on.

Everything in suspension is a compromise. This is why high tech trucks have driving modes with variable suspensions that can change the suspension characteristics to match the driving you're actually doing.

 

Sort of.

Not all tracks are smooth and flat.

 

I like a tight precise turn on flat roads. Pre-swaybar the 02’ would wobble around a turn. On wet turns from a stop, the inside wheel would spin a little. No longer with the swaybar.

I also like the lane change feeling at higher speeds that a swaybar achieves.

I avoid pot holes and try to hit speed bumps straight on, rather than suffer the consequences of stiffness.

You have very challenging driving conditions in your area which most of us do not.