Sway Bars. Do they do what they are supposed to do?

[jakebullett]

Does anyone have any input on sway bars and if they actually do anything? It's my understanding, when you take a hard turn and compress the turning side, the opposite side of the sway bar is supposed to push that tire down. Do I have that right? If so, why does the left rear tire lift a bit when I raise the right rear tire by hand? Should that not force the left rear tire down? I'm noticing this on my Losi DB Pro. I'm almost ready to remove the sway bar all together. All together I say! Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[olds97_lss]

It spreads the load when the weight shifts. The weight of the truck is compressing the right side when you turn left and the chassis rolls that direction. The sway bar uses the spring on the left side to try to minimize the body roll and keep all 4 tires down. They aren't solid, they just add more spring. But, when you land a jump flat, both arms move the same amount and don't use the sway bar itself.

FullForceRC had a sway bar setup for the t-maxx 20 years ago that was a solid mechanical link, no spring. It was very hard on itself and the mounting points when bashing... but if you were on a track, it would be more prone to sliding when turning than having a lot of body roll and flipping over. Funny to think they used to have a MT racing class...

I removed the ones on my outcast... got tired of working around them in the beginning when I was replacing diffs on a regular basis. If I raced on a track, I'd probably not do that. As a basher, that is the least of my concerns.

 

[WickedFog]

Like Olds said, the sway bar is meant to keep your car flatter in corners. When the outside spring is compressed, the sway bar tries to mimic this on the inside wheel. So the inside spring gets compressed as well. This tries to flatten the chassis and unload some of the weight that is transferred to the outside wheel.

The strength of the sway bar itself will determine how severe the inside wheel lifts. They are usually spring steel, with varying strengths of the sway bar rod. They can work great if you have the different strengths to tune them to how you drive and what terrain you drive on.

I personally wouldn't use them on a basher unless they were fairly weak. If you are running it on a track, hell yeah.

 

[TRAT]

What I can say and I respect the wicked one that what he said very true. In real life throwing down 600 to 800 HP is no joke and for you to Handel that on hills turns ect. It will help if you off road poop it’s not in ur favor.

 

[RustyUs]

Remove them altogether I say as well.
Seriously though, if running on rough terrain, I'd take them off.
I run my RCs on a rough track, and the first things I did on my ET410, EB48 2.0, and Kraton EXB platforms... took them anti sway bars off. Sure, during the build of the mini truggy, and eBuggy, I put together the kits as per the manual just to get a feel for everything stock. After a few packs, I just decided to let the suspension at each corner act on their own.

From JConcepts:

 

[jakebullett]

I love all these replies because they all make sense. And thank you all for the great explanations of what they are supposed to do. I agree with you Heavy, on rough terrain they are somewhat useless. I do not intend to race this DB pro on manicured tracks so off they go. Maybe I'll try removing the rear sway bar but I'll leave the front just to see how that set up feels? I'm so glad this forum hasn't moved to a social media site like other forums I used to belong to like my Conquest forum did. I hope this one stays right where it is. So many smart fu@ing people on here it makes me sick lol!! I love it!

 

[olds97_lss]

I love all these replies because they all make sense. And thank you all for the great explanations of what they are supposed to do. I agree with you Heavy, on rough terrain they are somewhat useless. I do not intend to race this DB pro on manicured tracks so off they go. Maybe I'll try removing the rear sway bar but I'll leave the front just to see how that set up feels? I'm so glad this forum hasn't moved to a social media site like other forums I used to belong to like my Conquest forum did. I hope this one stays right where it is. So many smart fu@ing people on here it makes me sick lol!! I love it!

I have to say, I had zero interest in facebook for many years, but over the past year or so, I visit the RC groups I've found there and skim through them pretty regularly. The search/filter on facebook is horrendous for finding anything, including past info I've posted on various threads, but still enjoyable to scroll through the various RC groups to see what people are doing.

I much prefer forums though. A lot easier to find info and "talk" directly to others with information/photo's inline and whatnot.