sway bars

Hey Max! I was curious if there was an "easy" or not to complicated way of figuring out what size sway bar one should use. I am in the process building a tube frame for my 70 c10 truck and I wanted to start thinking ahead by doing my homework. Thanks

Josh

Well, that is really a tough question. There are so many things that would alter the need for more and less swaybar. First off, keep in mind that a swaybar actually diminishes the traction at the end of the vehicle that it was installed. That is why all of the American trucks have a really large swaybar in the front and little or nothing in the rear. For a safety precaution, it is always safer for the vehicle to loose traction in the front than it is to loose traction in the rear. So, because the swaybar is a tuning tool and not a magical "bolt a big one on and now you can handle like a racecar" thingy, all of the rest of the suspension needs to be taken into consideration. Rollcenter, spring rate, center of gravity, roll-resistance, shock valving...

Your best bet would be to stay light on the sway bars and then you can take one off or install a larger one if you need.

Thanks Max for helping out. I kind of new i would need the roll center and center of gravity and some other info to figure it out properly. I guess deep down i was hoping for a simple answer. For the future use is there a formula to figure out how much resistant is needed? Speedway Engineering has 1 1/4" hollow sway bars from .095 to .250 wall. I was thinking about starting out with the 1 1/4 .120 hollow sway bar. Any comments would always be much appreciated. Thanks alot for you help

Josh

I like parts similar to the Speedway stuff because it allows you to make major changes without redoing everything. And if you do your homework, you will find that having several different mounting points for the links you can fine-tune the effectiveness of the bar.

Without know how to properly use all of the vehicle parameters in an equation (which I don't) I don't think that any of us are going to much better than a best guess.

-If the roll center is high (like a 4-link with the upper bars triangulated) use less bar

-If the spring rate is high (bags over axle) use less bar

-If you are using stiff shock valving, use less bar

-If the vehicle is heavy, use more bar

-If one end of the vehicle wheighs considerably more than the other, use more bar on the heavy end

Once the vehicle is on the road...

-If the vehicle pushes really bad in corners, use les bar in front

-If the rearend looses traction first, use less bar in the rear

That is the kind of info i am was hoping to get. Thanks alot

Josh