sway bar pros and cons

[big_rusty]

hey every one just desided im tired of slash rolling over in corners so im thinking of a sway bar so for the ppl that use them do they cut down on roll overs ?and whats the best one

[Randopolis]

I can't say what the best ones are but they did help reduce roll overs and handling in general. I think I bought the Hot Racing set.

[Federally]

stiffer suspension will do a good job of reducing rollovers without negatively affecting cornering ability like a sway bar will. Oh and driving better, it's an of road truck that requires ground learance and not a super low race car so you have to slow down to turn

[nunster]

sway bars round 4 or 5 now? oh well, did you do a search on sway bars? hahaha just joking. But we have had gone in debth about sway bars in the past. If you haven't put sway bar into the search .
I am running a frt. sway bar at the moment and it helps the back tires to stay on the ground while turning. And does make my truck more predictable.

[El Sob]

I agree. My sway bar helps my slash to stay planted on the ground during turns. It really makes a huge difference.

[FSTR4X4]

put 45wt oil in the front and single hole shock pistons. hardly any body roll at all. the truck handles totally different, and to me it seems faster than my friends with sway bars.

[Federally]

put 45wt oil in the front and single hole shock pistons. hardly any body roll at all. the truck handles totally different, and to me it seems faster than my friends with sway bars.


That would be because sway bars increase vehicle stability while decreasing the vehicles ability to turn.

[nunster]

45wt. single hole. Suspension is not doing much then. Might as well have a sway bar. What if the track has a lot of jumps?
Mine with a sway bar turns better and a lot more predictable than with out.

[Federally]

I'm using 40 wt with rpm's dual stage pistons. Truck has no issues absorbing jumps or taking corners.. Hard to tell which of our setups would be faster tho. Lot of it is personal preference and driving style tho

[Casadetrevino]

Weight Oil do guys suggest for front and back? Same or different?

[Federally]

when I was running stock shocks/springs I was using 50wt in the front and 60wt in the back. The back has more weight so it needs a little more. Now I run the same wt all the way around but I use different sets of the rpm dual stage pistons in the front and back to get the same affect

[FSTR4X4]

45wt. single hole. Suspension is not doing much then. Might as well have a sway bar. What if the track has a lot of jumps?
Mine with a sway bar turns better and a lot more predictable than with out.

actually, i spent a lot of time using different oils and pistons to figure out which would give the least amount of body roll and handle good over the bumps. and 45wt with 1 hole piston took the win. it just keeps it from rolling fast. if its a long sweeping corner on asphalt it starts to lean. but over the bumps it doesnt "smack" the landings or jumps.

dont go past 60wt with single pistons. bad things happen. it feels like you dont have any travel.

[Casadetrevino]

I've got some 50wt on hand, I'll try that all the way around. How many holes are in the stock pistons?

[FSTR4X4]

stock are 2

[Out of Sight]

I don't run swaybars, since I only race my Slash on a very loose low grip surfaces, I need more weight transfer to make the tires dig and grip when cornering hard. However on high grip surfaces, swaybars are advisable to allow less weight transfers, so the truck remains level when cornering hard.

It all depends on what you run on, how you drive, what tires you're running. You can't simply add swaybars and expect your truck to handle better in the corners.

[Federally]

dont go past 60wt with single pistons. bad things happen. it feels like you dont have any travel.

That would be because you don't have any suspension travel. The oil does not compress, so trying to shove 60wt oil through a single piston hole doesn't work out. Causes the shock to not soak up any impact, might as well have just put some camber links in place of the shocks they would have been just as effective.

[Tobey]

That would be because sway bars increase vehicle stability while decreasing the vehicles ability to turn.
Not really; that's too generic of a statement. Sway bars are just another tuning aid. In the dirt, they would be most belpful on a really bumpy track. You could soften the suspension to soak up the bumps, and the bars would help stiffen it up when cornering.

Frankly, I'm not a good enough driver yet to worry about them for racing. For bashing, I just don't care that much.

[OffRoadRC86]

I agree i would let the 1 piston and heavy oil go. And jut lower the truck on the mounting holes that took alot of roll of my truck. And i run a 35wt in both for now. And im going to be trying a 3 piston next. It always comes down to a preference. Everyone drives differently. Try making a setup sheet then get a starting point and going from there. And a softer sway bar might be a great thing to try.

[Federally]

Not really; that's too generic of a statement. Sway bars are just another tuning aid.

And like with every tuning aid you give up something to get something. You just have to find the right mix of sacrifice and gain. Personally I hate sway bars on off road trucks but hey that's me

[hsks99]

A lot of people think they are changing amount of weight transfer when they change something that reduces roll or pitch. Its not the force that changes; its the stiffness, such that the roll or pitch angle is reduced (this is assuming the CG isn't moving relative to the contact patches). The only things that can affect total side-to-side weight transfer are width and cg height. The only things that can affect fore-aft weight transfer are length and CG height. What you are really changing is balance (front or rear end supporting more of the roll forces) and rate of weight transfer. If your suspension were completely rigid, you'd have instantaneous weight transfer which is good for responsiveness but not good for traction. Am I making any sense? Anti-roll bars are useful if you want to tune roll spring rate independently from ride (up and down) spring rate.

So, to the OP who wants to reduce rollovers...
Try lowering the ride height. You may need to use more damping and higher rate springs to minimize bottoming-out.
If the problem is caused by the outside edge of your tires grabbing ruts or potholes, etc, you could try more negative static camber or more camber gain so the tire can slide through/ over the obstacle easier.
I've also found my truck to be more prone to roll-overs if I have air in my shocks, so check that your shocks are working good.
I would only use anti-roll bar(s) as a last resort... CG height and springs/ dampers first.