Is the front sway bar on a 1/2 ton IFS setup necessary for regular driving??? I was thinking of taking it out just to see if i could get some more flex out of the front end, but wasnt sure if it serves a huge purpose. The rear seems to be doing all the flexing. The torsion bars have been cranked i.e a 2.5" skyjacker lift, so its a little tight up front, and wheels tend to come off the ground a little bit too easily. Any input would be greatly appreciated..thanks

I can try to explain this...here goes. The reason your wheels tend to come off the ground is because the T-bar cranking that you did used all of the DOWN TRAVEL of your suspension. In other words, you still have basically the same travel upwards, but when you cranked the T-bars, you pushed the suspension down, so that the truck would go up. This ate up most of your down travel. If you were to drive over a rise in the road at a high rate of speed with stock susp., the tires would stay in contact with the road. But with yours, the tires don't have as much travel, and now just hang, loosing contact, when you come down they still have the up travel to absorb most of the impact. If you come off the ground real high, you will hit, the susp. absorbs it, then the down travel cant keep up, and they leave the ground again, until the weight of the vehicle finally slows the whole process down and you continue on. Disconecting your swaybar won't help you. If you need more than the 2.5 Skyjacker lift then you are gonna either have to get a bigger lift, or, just learn to live with it. I have my T-bars adjusted up very slightly maybe a 1/4 inch, and it is not effected too bad, but I can see/feel just a slight difference. I'm thinking of going to 15x7 wheels in the future, but still don't know if I will. Anyway, hope this helps, and that it makes sense.

Oh, by the way, I lost one of the spacer bars that holds one side of my swaybar a while back, and I can't feel any difference.....it is still "disconected" on that side, and rides just the same.

I lost both of my sway bar links. I can't really tell a difference even with my 37's.

Laters, Ryan

1999 Suburban 6.5" Cepek Lift and 3" Body lift, 37x12.5x15 SSR's

unhook it and zip-tie (chicken band) the bar out of the way and give it a try. i don't like driving without one, but i imagine i drive a little harder. it keeps that outside suspension from packing up around a corner.

with my Sonoma and 31" tires, i couldn't hardly turn the steering wheel without power steering around a corner. the anti-sway bar made things a lot nicer.

"You know you're a yooper when the only way you can balance your tires is by cutting off lugs".

Wrath what are you talking about? Your power steering and sway do not effect each other. Also there is nothing to really zip tie up and out of the way. The front bushings on the sway bar will keep it from moving down. Just remove the sway bar links, the rods that actually connect the sway bar to the lower control arm.

Laters, Ryan

1999 Suburban 6.5" Cepek Lift and 3" Body lift, 37x12.5x15 SSR's

I certainly hope that they don't affect each other. However, having a sway bar makes turning easier on the user and having power steering also does.

OK, try going around a corner without power steering (and a little steering wheel). Now, imagine it with big tires (31x10.5r15 compared to 185x75r14) and no sway bar. The truck dives like there is no tomorrow, you've got wide tires that weigh a lot, and you don't have power steering.

I don't know about you, but I don't trust my swaybar bushings to hold it up while going down the road. I also know my bushings are pretty tired and I assume most people's are.

A sway bar doesn't make much of a difference if you drive like the truck is a dumptruck. And that's probably a good thing, because if they drove their truck without a swaybar like a car, it would handle like a dumptruck.

"You know you're a yooper when the only way you can balance your tires is by cutting off lugs".