Torsion Bar strength


badbronc92

badbronc92

15+ Year Member

Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
117
Points
3,101
City
Colorad Springs, CO
Vehicle Year
2003
Transmission
Automatic
Will the torsion bar hold up to trail riding, i.e. slow driving with a lot of flexing, if I crank them up about 2 inches? I haven't heard a lot of stories about this at all but I saw a guy out on the trails yesterday and he snapped is Driver side T-bar in his XTerra and that made me think a little more about doing the t-bar lift. I'm planning on doing a 2 inch TT and 2 inch shackles in the back with 33x12.50s. How much do replacement T-bars or aftermarket's run?
 
cranking the t-bar doesnt change the force that the bar sees...so a cranked t-bar is no more likely to fail than a stock one.

that said, regularly putting the full weight of the front end on one bar (you will since IFS doesnt flex worth a damn), is bound to increase metal fatigue in the bars. how much is impossible to say as there are just too many variables.
 
FWIW, I have yet to see a broken torsion bar on a Ranger or Explorer. Seen plenty on the 97-02 F-150's though.
 
ive seen an exploder with a broken torsion bar....normal street driven rig too.

luck of the draw.
 
Wicked_Sludge said:
cranking the t-bar doesnt change the force that the bar sees...so a cranked t-bar is no more likely to fail than a stock one.
Click to expand...
Cranking the t-bar does not change the force for the most part. However, it does allow the t-bar to be twisted more during full or near full upward suspension travel and that does cause more stress on it which could make it more likely to fail than at stock height. With that being said I have been running my t-bars cranked up 1.5" for around 70K miles with no problems. Some of those miles were moderately heavy off-road duty.
 
Why doesn't somebody make a no torsion bar drop kit for the Ranger like Chevys? Or do they?
 
gw33gp said:
Cranking the t-bar does not change the force for the most part. However, it does allow the t-bar to be twisted more during full or near full upward suspension travel and that does cause more stress on it which could make it more likely to fail than at stock height.
Click to expand...

X2 just like coil spring bind


anouther thing that will cause a Tbar to fail is a knick,mark, scrap etc, causes a weak spot.For lack of better words, it makes a stress riser.
and other times, they just get worn out like a coil/leaf spring.


for the 4wd drive T bar truck's, superlift makes a drop bracket kit that reatains the T bar's.Or atleast use to.

RCD also make a lift kit, that's a drop bracket kit.But swap out the T bar's for what they call coil overs, but in reality are more like struts.

The dixionbro's kit is a high end kit.made for high speed antics. you get new upper and lower arms, and is set up for real coilovers.no drop brackets on this kit.
 
you cannot flex a torsion bar above lifting the opposite tire...which you can obviously do in a stock height truck. cranking the t-bar doesnt not increase your suspension travel, thus it doesnt increase the torsion the bar sees.
 
Also something to be said....

When you crank the bars, you lessen the amount of down travel that you have...droop if you will. Take the sway bar off and have fun.

Got my #1 bars from ford for about $120 total.
 
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