Aftermarket Swaybars for LX570 - Anybody? (2 Viewers)

[Heckraiser]

Have any MUDders tried aftermarket swaybars on their LX (or AHC-equipped LC)?

Quick googling shows there are a few varieties out there:

Nolathane: Looks like they make front and rear bars. Never heard of this brand
REAR:

Nolathane REV011.0164 Rear Sway Bar 30mm; Fits Land Cruiser & LX570 200 Series | eBay

Nolathane's sway bars are principally designed to reduce body roll or sway. By reducing body roll, lateral loads are spread more evenly across the tyres thereby increasing cornering grip and improving outright performance. This Nolathane 30mm fixed position sway bar = more grip = better handling...

www.ebay.com

FRONT:

Nolathane REV003.0164 Front Sway Bar 33mm; Fits Land Cruiser & LX570 200 Series | eBay

Nolathane's sway bars are principally designed to reduce body roll or sway. By reducing body roll, lateral loads are spread more evenly across the tyres thereby increasing cornering grip and improving outright performance. This Nolathane 33mm fixed position sway bar = more grip = better handling...

www.ebay.com

Whiteline looks like they make a REAR bar, but couldn't find one sold in USD. Good aftermarket brand.

https://www.part-box.com/product/whiteline-sway-bar-33mm-lexus-lx570-toyota-landcruiser-btr89x/

Achtuning (cute) Another brand I've never heard of, but looks like they have a front and rear:
REAR:

SuperPro RC0029R-33 33mm Rear Non-Adjustable Sway Bar Kit Lexus LX570 and Toyota Land Cruiser

Performance parts and tuning for Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, and Porsche in Redmond WA

www.achtuning.com

FRONT:

SuperPro RC0029F-39 39mm Front Non-Adjustable Sway Bar Kit Lexus LX570 and Toyota Land Cruiser

Performance parts and tuning for Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, and Porsche in Redmond WA

www.achtuning.com

Just curious if anyone has tried these out. After fitting my 35's, the wife has complained of a wobbly ride at speed, and I've noticed quite a bit more body roll and steering input required compared to the stock-ish setup on there before. Of course, that's to be expected, but even in "sport" mode it feels a little sloppier than I would like. I thought this might be an easy way to bring the on-road handling back closer to stock. It might feasibly be easy enough to make swaybar disconnects if offroad performance is hampered too much.

What say ye, MUD? I guess other than "AHC is awesome and flawless and why would anyone ever want to mess with Toyota engineering perfection." I know you guys

 

[stedhorse]

I am on 35x12.5 toyo at3 E rated and had to make sure my pressure was high enough that body roll wasn’t too much. I also kept the sensor lift to a minimum, just the front. No experience with the sway bars.

 

[grinchy]

agree you should start with tire pressure. and then let's discuss mileage and year, you might be on the path to accumulators.

 

[Heckraiser]

2010 LX with 155k. Just did the AHC fluid service (ride did not change, but the old fluid was definitely old and dirty). I did do a front sensor lift, but barely got any height out of it. Might be worth setting back to stock. Rides great and handles tight in sport mode on 275/55r20 load range E. Put on 285/75r18 load range E and the ride was overly harsh (tire shop inflated to 40+), took the pressure down to about 35 and the ride improved drastically, but handling went sloppy. By sloppy I mean approximately equivalent to my 80 with a worn out 340k mile steering gearbox and 315/75r16 at 28psi cold.

 

[TeCKis300]

I don't believe this is a sway bar issue, therefore upgrading sway bars may only do so much.

Like others, I suspect it's the tires or fitment related to tires. Can you give us details as to your wheel specs?

 

[Heckraiser]

Tundra TRD 18" with 1" bora spacers. The tires are used and do have some camber wear. Outside tread was more worn than the inside, I flipped them to put the more worn part on the inside. I can see how this would contribute to increased steering input, but don't see how it would dramatically affect body roll.

 

[grinchy]

just do an experiment - put 5 psi more in the tires.

 

[TeCKis300]

From my seat of the pants with road racing experience, the roll deflection is not coming from the suspension as it keeps things rather flat. The AHC dashboard that shows suspension deflection per corner confirms this, even in harder turns. It's hyper active engaging damping and firmer front spring rates to control roll.

With 35s on an 18" tire, you've added way more sidewall. Elevated the COG on a heavy SUV. While only having stock width tires, going up to a 75 aspect ratio, and on a .5" narrower wheel. Every change there is going to exacerbate roll, especially the tires themselves.

@grinchy makes a great point that you should try to play with pressures more. Even 1-2 PSI can make pretty big differences.

For comparison, I'm on a 35x12R20 tires. Even that affected roll enough at RCTIP (35PSI), that I'm happier at 38-40 PSI with respect to cornering performance.

 

[Heckraiser]

just do an experiment - put 5 psi more in the tires.

Yeah, did that. Harsh ride, every bump in the road sends a shudder through the whole minivan. Even at 34-35psi, it almost feels like the suspension can't keep up and smooth things out. Like maybe the increase in unsprung weight is more of an issue. I would say it feels a bit like blown shocks, but it doesn't feel like that with the small tires on.

I'll play around some more with tire pressures. I get the feeling that I'll end up unhappy either with the ride quality or the body roll.

From my seat of the pants with road racing experience, the roll deflection is not coming from the suspension as it keeps things rather flat. The AHC dashboard that shows suspension deflection per corner confirms this, even in harder turns. It's hyper active engaging damping and firmer front spring rates to control roll.

With 35s on an 18" tire, you've added way more sidewall. Elevated the COG on a heavy SUV. While only having stock width tires, going up to a 75 aspect ratio, and on a .5" narrower wheel. Every change there is going to exacerbate roll, especially the tires themselves.

@grinchy makes a great point that you should try to play with pressures more. Even 1-2 PSI can make pretty big differences.

For comparison, I'm on a 35x12R20 tires. Even that affected roll enough at RCTIP (35PSI), that I'm happier at 38-40 PSI with respect to cornering performance.

I get that all of those things contribute to the wallowing of the tire itself. But by way of comparison, I have 315/75r16 on 8" wheels in my 80 and tire movement feels predictable, pretty minimal and controlled, even when somewhat under-inflated. I ran 33x12.5x15 on a 6" wheel in my FJ62 (take that tire-spec charts!). That's more what this feels like.

 

[TeCKis300]

Yeah, did that. Harsh ride, every bump in the road sends a shudder through the whole minivan. Even at 34-35psi, it almost feels like the suspension can't keep up and smooth things out. Like maybe the increase in unsprung weight is more of an issue. I would say it feels a bit like blown shocks, but it doesn't feel like that with the small tires on.

I'll play around some more with tire pressures. I get the feeling that I'll end up unhappy either with the ride quality or the body roll.



I get that all of those things contribute to the wallowing of the tire itself. But by way of comparison, I have 315/75r16 on 8" wheels in my 80 and tire movement feels predictable, pretty minimal and controlled, even when somewhat under-inflated. I ran 33x12.5x15 on a 6" wheel in my FJ62 (take that tire-spec charts!). That's more what this feels like.

Is the harsh ride only on the freeway or on local roads too?

With the added unsprung weight, especially with higher tire pressures, you'll likely need to keep the damper setting in Normal or even High. This will add more damping to control the heavier tires. It may be counterintuitive, but the added tire control will smooth out the ride.

It could also be your accumulators may need attention, or a bit of both.

 

[grinchy]

I'm heading over to the accumulator camp.

 

[highfructose]

I have a 2011 with 93k miles…I almost always felt uncomfortable over around 65 mph (only had it a couple years)…felt a bit squirrely. For that and various other reasons, I spent $700 or so replacing all accumulators and fluid. It’s a very very very easy job…I’m a terrible mechanic and it didn’t stress me at all.

The car no longer feels squirrely.

If your car is 10+ years old and you’re experiencing any suspension issues, I’m of a mind that the accumulators need to be replaced if they’re original.

 

[Heckraiser]

Is the harsh ride only on the freeway or on local roads too?

With the added unsprung weight, especially with higher tire pressures, you'll likely need to keep the damper setting in Normal or even High. This will add more damping to control the heavier tires. It may be counterintuitive, but the added tire control will smooth out the ride.

To the former: ride was harsh in both local roads and freeway, but probably more pronounced at 50mph or less. Body roll most pronounced at speed.

And to the latter, this turned out the be a hot tip! I dropped the PSI a couple more down to 32ish cold (some weirdness here as half the truck has been baking in the sun all day) and left it in "sport" and this seems to be the best handling/ride compromise I've found since installing the tires a few weeks ago. I think it will take more tweaking, and I may well benefit from accumulator replacement as well, but the firm suspension setting along with lower tire pressure seems pretty OK on my local twisty + bumpy road. Will play with it some more.

 

[tbisaacs]

I'm heading over to the accumulator camp.

 

[Killacaviar]

This may be silly/already answered…was the truck aligned after the tire swap?

 

[drkdss]

Can some one provide a picture or two of the rear sway sway bar setup for non kdss lc200 or lx570 setup? Thanks. I tried looking but can’t find.

 

[TeCKis300]

Can some one provide a picture or two of the rear sway sway bar setup for non kdss lc200 or lx570 setup? Thanks. I tried looking but can’t find.

Here's a couple from my archive. Let me know if there's something more specific you're looking for.

Drivers side. LC's don't have this rearward bracket off the axle housing at all as the KDSS bar is on the front side. This might be just the ticket for DrKDSS to solve allowing LCs to use aftermarket options?

 

[empty80]

Can some one provide a picture or two of the rear sway sway bar setup for non kdss lc200 or lx570 setup? Thanks. I tried looking but can’t find.

I’m not stalking you. I’m just really familiar with this information at the moment. In the post below is a video that a great view of the mechanical setup.

Post in thread 'What have you done to your 200 Series this week?'
What have you done to your 200 Series this week? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/what-have-you-done-to-your-200-series-this-week.818471/post-14378868

 

[drkdss]

Here's a couple from my archive. Let me know if there's something more specific you're looking for.

Drivers side. LC's don't have this rearward bracket off the axle housing at all as the KDSS bar is on the front side. This might be just the ticket for DrKDSS to solve allowing LCs to use aftermarket options?

View attachment 3316793

View attachment 3316801

Thanks. That’s very helpful. If you can take a closer picture of the right side bracket and how it’s mounted to the oem trac bar mount would be even more helpful. Would you say the way the sway bar is mounted to oem trac bar mount is the same angle as the other side ( left side , or Driverside in U.S.) ? I’d imagine it’s has to be the same angle.

 

[drkdss]

I’m not stalking you. I’m just really familiar with this information at the moment. In the post below is a video that a great view of the mechanical setup.

Post in thread 'What have you done to your 200 Series this week?'
What have you done to your 200 Series this week? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/what-have-you-done-to-your-200-series-this-week.818471/post-14378868

This was 1000% helpful. Thanks so much. Yeah it’s not going to be a problem at all when I make this bolt on trac bar bracket for the lc200/lx. LC sway bar will still bolt the same way just 1/4” lower which is nothing.