SG Mason

I have been thinking about pulling off my rear sway bar. From what I have been reading it is not needed unless you are towing. I don't do any real towing, but I may pull a light utility trailer with a lawn tractor or yard waste from time to time and occasionally a 16' aluminum tiller steer boat with a 20 hp motor. It is not like I plan on towing cars from place to place or campers to camp sites, so do I really need my rear sway bar? Also any of the light pulling I would do would be under 10 miles each way and not on the highway.

The front will have disconnects before spring really hits.

My XJ specs as it sits right now

1998 Sport
NP231
Chrysler 8.25 rear
AW4
3.55 gearing
Open diffs
Zone 3" lift
6x2 rockers
235/75R15 tires (yes they are small for the lift, but the price was right and they are bigger and more aggressive than the 225/70R15s highway treads that were on it)

Will be going to either 31s or 33s if I decide to cut and adding lokka lockers front and rear hopefully before the end of summer

Brandonrcm

Ditch the rear and never look back. Up country suspension xj's didnt even come with the rear. It doesn't make much of a difference especially after you're lifted and not on saggy worn leafs. I run no sway bars personally but the fronts a whole nother game for ditching then the rear.

SeriousOffroad

Only needed if you're doing a lot of towing....heavy towing.

jmm0122_

I don't run either sway bar, though I don't recommend that with a DD. Ditch the rear and call it a day.

t_long

Agreed with everything above. Never even felt the difference when I got rid of my rear. Then one day I thought I would see what all the hype was about no sway bars at all. That lasted about 1 trip on the street. I definitely prefer to keep the stability of a front with quick discos on a DD.

ehall

I felt some difference when I pulled mine off with the stock springs. New leafs tightened it up again.

Really just depends on what you want. I plan to put one back on when start some construction and dragging a trailer around, just for better control when braking. I don't do a lot of heavy off-road driving, so being able to disconnect when needed will be enough for me. When that time comes I will get an Addco or Hellwig sway-bar and figure out some discos.

Bluelight

I got rid of mine. Didn't make a difference with no trailer attached. Didn't make any difference with a trailer attached.

BrawnyDog

But without it how will i be able to do this?

DJeXeCute

Use the link mounts on the u-bolt ends as bar pin eliminators for your shocks lol

drhoward1988

I'm a safety **** when it comes to modifying any vehicle I own as my family/friends safety is most important. I was iffy about removing mine as it was mostly on the street at the time. Well when I was replacing the fuel filter I decided to remove it to test how important it was. I didn't notice any difference in cornering or vehicle away on the road. I'm with Serious on this; if you tow heavy loads or tow often I'd keep it, if not just remove it. Just keep the bar and if you ever decide you wanna tow somthing throw it on for piece of mind

SG Mason

I have this for doing that sort of thing



And no it is not connected to the old rusty car trailer and the most the XJ will ever do with that is move it empty in my brothers yard. That trailer takes up more than half the Xj towing capacity

unidentifiedbomb

Ditch the rear, front is personal if you ask me. For the front; with a softer shock/spring combo it can be hairy but with a good spring/shock combo you shouldn't feel much of a difference at least I don't. Probably also depends on the driving environment, are you on windy/hilly back roads or flat roads without much wild turns? Like I said, all personal to me.

SG Mason

I will never ditch the front bar. While most of the roads around here are gentle with no sharp bends, we do get deer, dogs and kids that like to dart out on to the road when there are large heavy steel things coming down the road. I will never haul large heavy loads with the Jeep either, so it looks like the next time I can get the Jeep in the garage or we get nice enough weather to work on it outside the rear bar is coming off

I am working hard at getting back to knife making right now. Just need to find a way around what took me out of knife making in the first place. Iif I ever do figure it out I might just pound the old bar into guards or something and make a XJ line of knives

ocs1667

I read all the information about why you do and don't need it. I love mine. After I installed the rear sway bar I noticed handling improved when negotiating curves. It tracks extremely well, and by that i mean it feels like it's on a track.

I drive on a lot of different byways, but I wouldn't give it up for the quality of ride and the safety it affords.
Dennis

Ianf406

Your ride quality is dependant on all parts of the system.. not just one. If your coils are stiff and you have a decently valved shock, cornering is not significantly going to impacted by having/not having a front sway bar. If they are soft, they will.

The same goes for the rear via shocks/leaf springs.

In 160,000 miles on this XJ alone, I have not had a rear swaybar for even 1 mile. I have obviously had to slam on the brakes and dodge dumb drivers, deer etc. in that time frame and have not had an issue. Ive pulled boats, atvs, logs and even 5000lbs in a uhaul trailer from Louisiana to Montana. No swaybar caused issues.

Last summer I removed my front swaybar while in Moab. I never put it back on as I lost one of the pins for my JKS. To be honest, I had done it in the past and found it terrifying but now I believe that was just in my head. I notice no significant difference in handling with them connected vs disconnected. I live in the mountains and have passes every direction I go (steep/Winding/sharp corners)

My stock XJ still has them... it is still an XJ... haha.

Almost all of the decently sized kits come with longer links for the front. None come with the rear that I know of. Yes I would jump off this bridge with everyone else. The water is plenty deep!