HD front sway bar to reduce body roll?

[Hayes]

Been pondering a variety of suspension-related discussions, and got to thinking about one of the common highway-ride criticisms of the 80:

Body roll.

Seems like the most common solution is burlier springs--but that comes with downsides as well.
But what about using a burlier front swaybar instead? Fab up some hangers and just disconnect it for heavy duty wheeling.

Thoughts?

 

[Nay]

You can get a much higher spring rate without inducing harshness. An HD swaybar could make a difference, I suppose, but that isn't addressing the problem.

In my experience with two pretty modified SFA 4x4's, you want more spring and better shocks and less swaybar as you add lift, otherwise you end up designing a lot of snap into your suspension with the attempt to control excessive suspension motion with swaybars.

I think a proper design of a lifted 4x4 suspension has the springs and shocks providing near the control delivered by the stock swaybar for normal driving, so that the swaybar is providing a tuned feel and emergency handling support, but it not a principle component in handling, because again, with the major increase in unsprung weight of big tires, you may get a "snappy" result when the suspension is constantly allowing motion that the swaybar has to modify/correct.

The 80's swaybars seem to be pretty progressively designed, but I don't know how much going HD will affect this.

Bottom line: if my basic suspension (springs/shocks) is not performing, I would upgrade it.

 

[bustanutley]

lowering the COG and/or raising the roll center are the best ways to add stability to your modified suspension.

 

[Tapage]

sway bars . .. what's that . ?

Out of joke .. I not driving my 80 much fast usually .... but stiffer coils and correct shocks will make much more diference ( IMOP based on only my thoughts ) than HD sway bar . .

 

[LC80Ducati996]

The ultimate solution is to switch to a frame mounted sway bar system front and rear. The best way to do it is using a straight bar with splines at the end for the sway bar arms.

This system for heeps by ORO is what we need but to fit our 80 series.
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