Take Rear Sway Out?

[Gwjvw]

My 99 had the rear sway bar was taken out (dont know why)My 04 still has it on,should i take it out.The rear doesnt flew all that great. Does anyone have any input on this?

[Jerry Bransford]

The rear antiswaybar should remain in place. Leaf spring vehicles do fine without their antiswaybars but the coil spring TJ does not. Removing it does not increase usable flex or articulation like some think it does. Removing will decrease how well the suspension performs in both onroad and offroad situations. Really.

Proof in the pudding is that most hardcore TJs run some form of F&R antiswaybars. John Currie won the US national rock crawling championship series with his Antirock antiswaybar on both the front and rear. The rear OE antiswaybar is a smaller diameter than the front is anyway, and is very close in its twisting strength to the Currie Antirock antiswaybar made for the rear.

All I did to my rear antiswaybar was to install longer antiswaybar links to match the suspension lift height. Up front, a Currie Antirock antiswaybar does extremely well... and it never needs disconnecting either.

Leave it in.

[peteyg]

I wasn't happy with my AntiRock, but it had nothing to do with it's offroad capability. Offroad it worked flawlessly, but of course I don't run sway bars anymore, so I sold it a long time ago.

When I still had links in the rear, my rear swar bar would constantly tear out the sway bar bushing on the passenger side. This was due mostly to the massive squat I had by running my short arms at too steep of an angle. I would torque hard to the right-rear on take off. It was a lot like having massive axle wrap.

I'll be honest, I never really noticed when the rear sway bar was disconnected. But at that point, the Jeep wasn't really all that on-road friendly, anyway.

[Gwjvw]

I guess if it makes no difference i will leave it on,i really dont notice anything different from my last jeep with it off except my axle flexed alot more,and that jeep had a short arm kit?

[maddmike]

x2 to jerry.

i've never had mine off and can't say from experience, but heard from many others that it actually hurts off-road performance to remove it, as it no longer acts to keep the rear of the vehicle level, therefore increasing your chances of a roll-over at a lower side slope angle.

i can vouch for the fact that with the rear sway attached, a good amount of flex is still achieved without getting the tires "stuck" in the air like would happen if you leave the front sway bar attached over a large obstacle.

i'd leave it on.

[Gunnys TJ]

When I bought this jeep, among the rather long list of things not done right by the previous owner, was the fact that only one of the rear links was there on the rear sway bar. Effectively disabling the rear sway bar.

The first time I pulled out of my apartment complex was quite a shock. Took the turn a bit quick from a down grade into a slight upgrade...the left front tire climbed about 2 feet in the air
I had fun pulling one tire "wheelies" in the parking lot at work while the links were in the mail but I would never think about running without it again though.

[Materdaddy]

I had my rear sway off for about 3 weeks when I did my lift. The jeep felt a little more squirrelly than when I put it back on. Not much, but a enough to notice.

I did not take it offroad with it off but I've heard tons of back-and-forth on this topic. I tend to lean on the 'leave it on' side of the argument as I'm not wheeling JV Hammers. Like peteyg said, his Jeep is barely road worthy anymore anyways so it didn't matter to him. I've found that most (but not all) of the people on the 'take it off' side of the rear sway bar argument are the ones who do JV every weekend and don't have street driven rigs anymore.

[Gwjvw]

I would never think about running without it again though.

And this was with the front connected?

[Elusive]

I have also found that there is no reason to remove the rear sway bay on a TJ. It drives better but wheels no worse with it.

[Gunnys TJ]

And this was with the front connected?

Yes, the front was connected.