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sway bar mod?

12K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  Gravity 
#1 ·
Hello,

I am new a new owner of '13 X. Also new to the 4WD world . I am of the opinion that sway bars are for pavement cornering, but are an anti-supension system in the dirt. They work against the suspension - by trying to make the body follow the vertical movement of the wheels. So, I am hoping that there are available some aftermarket sway bars which can be disconnected (in center) for off road. Is such an accessory available for the XTerra? I am also open to recommendations of good transfer case and engine pan skid plates / protectors.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
Not sure if this is still true for the newer X's, but most of us just toss the rear sway bar. It does does almost nothing to help body roll and can actually bend into your rear passenger shock which is as bad as it sounds. Removing it will obviously prevent damage of that shock and also provide you more wheel travel in the rear when offroad.

A for the front sway bar, there are sadly (to my knowledge and searching) no quick disconnect options for it. However, simply taking it off for on road driving will result in a big increase in body roll. Also, it doesn't benefit much having it off for offroading nor does it hurt having it on when offroading.

In short:
Save your $$
Trash the rear sway bar and keep the front on full time.
Have fun :D
 
#3 ·
Get rid of the rear,it's useless.
I ditched the front as well and yes it makes a difference off road.
No front sway makes it a pig on road though.
 
#6 ·
Pitch the rear sway bar. Keep the front one for the street. Just have to remove two nuts on the s 2nd Gen to disconnect the front sway bar. Easier than the 1st Gen. Take you all of two mins to disconnect and connect. Contrary to what ThompsonXTerra says; the front disconnected makes a noticable difference offroad. Most people are to lazy to diconnect it for much better wheel travel. I tested it out. Went from the front end lifting a tire a good bit to crawling with all 4 wheels touching over the majority of the easier stuff.
 
#8 ·
All 4 wheels touching??? ..where's that picture??
You might want to think about what I said about easy stuff. Here is the front pic of the pic you were trying to be smart with. SAS will not even flex that much.




Here us easy stuff with all 4 touching. You would not be able to do with the front sway connected.











In those pics; I did not max out the front travel over the easy stuff.:D
 
#9 ·
Contrary to what ThompsonXTerra says; the front disconnected makes a noticable difference offroad.
Sorry for the confusion, I meant that it doesn't make much of a difference offroad (especially if you have front lockers). Yes, you get more travel up front which is AWESOME. But it is a pain to always be connecting and disconnecting it if the X is your DD too.
 
#10 ·
The last pic was with my locker. There is no way in **** I would run my front sway bar connected with my lokka. Leaving the saw bar connected is good for breaking more stuff since you have to give it more throttle due to less travel. Seen quite a few break the bolts or the tab off the LCA keeping the front sway bar connected. Lokka works better with the front disconnected so I can keep both back tires planted to give me even more traction. Lift one front and one rear is just sit and spin wit open diffs. Lift one front and one rear with lokka up front is just one front wheel doing all the work. More traction =less throttle =less breakage. Simple as that.
 
#11 ·
You might want to think about what I said about easy stuff. Here is the front pic of the pic you were trying to be smart with. SAS will not even flex that much.




Here us easy stuff with all 4 touching. You would not be able to do with the front sway connected.











In those pics; I did not max out the front travel over the easy stuff.:D
Yeah I was just teasing.
 
#12 · (Edited)
1st and 2nd gens are different as far as the REAR bars go.

IE: Neither rear does much to prevent sway, but they re-positioned the SHOCKS on the 2nd gen so they DON'T get broken by the sway bar...but its the 2000 - 2004 that DO have the REAR sway bar break the passenger side shock.


The FRONT bars make a world of different ON the road....as far as handling is much sharper.

Off road, the front bars hinder travel but transmit force across the diff, sort of a poor man's live axle...with poor travel.

The fronts also make the ride on, and off, the road, harsher.


Overall, for a DD, leaving the front bar on is OK, but, ditching the rears is all but mandatory.

There's a write up you probably don't need on how to do a quick disco for the FRONTS.

All it involves is replacing the end of the current link with a wing nutted version at the end of the bolt.

You undo the wing nut, and you are disco'd....put it back, and your connected again.

5 minutes of looking at the end links and you'll see all you need to unless you have flippers where we all have hands or something.

>:D




Here's examples of the tires able to stay on the ground with no sway bars:
















Essentially, the X (disco'd) with IFS, has the same front wheel travel as a stock Jeep Wrangler, with a live front axle...but not disco'd.

Adding aftermarket UCA to the disco'd IFS makes the X have MORE front wheel travel than the stock wrangler does when its disco'd. (Of course the wrangler can also change it's control arms/add longer shocks and so forth, and its game over) >:D


So, while a live axle is simply better in rocks, etc...unless you want to spend a ton of money replacing your front end...the X's IFS is actually pretty usable off road.

:D
 
#13 ·
Sorry for the confusion, I meant that it doesn't make much of a difference offroad (especially if you have front lockers). Yes, you get more travel up front which is AWESOME. But it is a pain to always be connecting and disconnecting it if the X is your DD too.
I DD my Xterra. Takes more time to lower my tire pressure with a speed deflator for all four tires than it takes to disconnect the sway bar. Unless laying on the ground while connecting and disconnecting is a pain for you. I see no pain at all in it. Showed one of the guys that rides with me how easy it is on his DD Xterra. He does the same as me.
 
#15 ·
I took my rear sway bar off 2 days after I bought my Xterra. I just recently took the front sway bar off and haven't noticed any difference but my shocks are completely shot and generally don't take turns too fast. Once I get new shocks I might put it back on and test it out. Either way this Xterra has more roll then a sailboat in a hurricane.
 
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