Rear sway bar

[85_Ranger4x4]

It should be noted that @85_Ranger4x4 sometimes has a large slide-in pop-up camper in the back of his Ranger. That adds significant weight and changes the center if gravity if the whole truck/camper combination. Therefore, it is advantageous to have a good rear anti-sway bar on his truck.

That's the point. It is optional equipment. Whether you need it or not depends on your I dividual truck and how you intend to use it.

Even with just the topper it handles a lot better though. I don't have the camper in that often.

Probably a bigger factor is that to go offroading I have two drive across two states in any direction to get anywhere.

You already have it, drive it for awhile both ways and see what you think. You are not out anything but your time to switch it back and forth.

 

[sgtsandman]

I'm a little confused, you added the sway bar in back but other people are taking them off, it seems. Is this because of the model, it didn't have one to begin with? You are leaving it on for off-road?
I do have the rear sway it either came w/ the model or was part of the handling package. For min (97) what I understand is I probably am ok to just take it off and it will drive 'ok' on the street and better off-road.
Once I get this truck sorted the first thing I am going to do is real mild off road since I am not at all experienced in it then later I can try the mods whether temp or permanent.

It depends on the type of off roading you do. Some types, the rear sway bar is a hinderance. Others, not noticeable.

Sway bars do limit travel and how easily they travel. So, if you are crawling over rocks as an example, they can hurt more than help. Anything that requires a lot of suspension articulation, you don’t want sway bars.

 

[superj]

But on road, sway bars are more fun. Go autocross with the sway bars attached and than try with them disconnected. Watch how much your times get worse.

I will never voluntarily remove sway bars. I have had to add them to vehicles, or get larger ones, so i could takes the turns faster.

 

[gw33gp]

I have done autocross and a lot of high-speed driving schools on closed circuit racetracks in my 1970 2800 CS BMW. It initially had a lot of lean in corners with the stock front anti-sway bar. It had none in the rear. I upgraded it to a thicker front Bavaria anti-sway bar and that improved the lean a lot but made the ride a little bumpier. Those older BMWs tended to have oversteer, so I didn't add a rear sway bar. I got some improvement with the thicker front bar, but it was still not neutral. I prefer driving a car on the edge with just a little oversteer anyway. I just learned to reduce my speed before entering a corner and lightly accelerate around it.

Running an autocross with no anti-sway bar(s) and no stiff springs would be a nightmare. Flopping back and forth in the corners would make handling a handful. All that quick weight shifting would certainly increase your times. Then again if the track was wet, disconnecting the anti-sway bars would give better grip and could be beneficial. Disconnecting with rain on course is pretty typical with race cars.

 

[gw33gp]

I finally took some photos of the disconnect I designed. This first one shows it connected. The bottom part has a rod the extends up inside the top tube. With the nut screwed onto the bottom, everything is tied together and the anti-sway bar works as it should. You can see the cable I installed to make sure the anti-sway bar would not lift enough to allow the rod to slip out of the tube. Barely visible are the threads just under the tie rod on the top tube that is used to store the nut when disconnected.

The second photo shows it disconnected. If the suspension was flexed enough, you would be able to see the bottom rod extending out of the top tube. You will just have to take my word for it. I didn't feel like messing with it to get the right flex. You can see how the nut is stored on those threads I discussed earlier. You can kind of see the flange on the top tube above the lower threads on the bottom piece. That is what the nut clamps on to tie everything in place when connected.

I was asked what I would change to improve it. The main thing I would change is to make the threads a little longer so they would engage easier when connecting on uneven ground. I would also make the hex a little wider on the bottom. I actually had those features in the original design but my German machinist made some changes to make it easier to fabricate.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

For sure not perfect for offroading, not horrible either though.

I am empty with explorer springs and that is the steepest drop-off I could find quick.

 

[lowspeedpursuit]

Turns out my biggest local u-pull-it has suddenly gone full-service only, apparently for insurance and liability reasons. They now want over $100 to pull the swaybar I was gonna grab, which would have cost ~$25.

Any of y'all who mentioned pulling your '90-'97 (I think that's the cutoff) rear swaybars+links and still have them sitting around genuinely interested in sending them over my way?

I can paypal you shipping + whatever you want for your trouble. Shoot me a PM.

 

[superj]

Dude, that sucks having that type of junkyard. We have a few you can pull and a few they pull places and i dont go to the they pull ones

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Turns out my biggest local u-pull-it has suddenly gone full-service only, apparently for insurance and liability reasons. They now want over $100 to pull the swaybar I was gonna grab, which would have cost ~$25.

Any of y'all who mentioned pulling your '90-'97 (I think that's the cutoff) rear swaybars+links and still have them sitting around genuinely interested in sending them over my way?

I can paypal you shipping + whatever you want for your trouble. Shoot me a PM.

Eh, in the rust belt $75 might not be bad to let someone else have the fun of pulling them.