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Has anyone unbolted the front sway bar while off roading? Curious what difference it made. I unbolted my links and it seems that the bar won't interfere with anything.
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I'm not an aggressive off-roader but I believe it really depends on what you are doing. If you find yourself with only three wheels on the ground it might put the fourth one down.
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You can watch this and decide after:
Note, the above is a Tacoma, 4Runner has a shorter wheelbase, so results will be different, but same logic.
Note, the above is a Tacoma, 4Runner has a shorter wheelbase, so results will be different, but same logic.
Curious as to how you went about disconnecting.
I recently disconnected during suspension work on the ground (no lift; just ramps, bottle jacks, stands). Slight slope widthwise in flattest lengthwise stretch of my driveway so makes sense sometimes to lift lower side. Did passenger side work first with only that side frame and rock slider supported. Not enough forethought about weight/pressure on driver side of sway bar. Was enough pressure on the link that the bolt caught/binded in link housing after threaded end backed free of the front side of its LCA mount. Required manipulation of LCA mount position relative to sway bar link to relieve pressure enough to free link bolt. Fortunately, no thread damage. Required finesse to get bolt back thru during reassembly with due caution for thead care. Luckliy got it without changing the jack stand situation.
For driver side, supported whole front end with frame and sliders on stands. Much easier to remove sway bar bolt that side. Bit of resistance from weight of passenger side wheel (which I had already put back on because it sat overnight). Considered taking passenger wheel off prior to starting driver side work but figured I'd see how much trouble first.
Did you raise/support the entire front end when you took your link bolts out of each side? Both front wheels off too? Seems like this is the way for both removal and reinstall.
I'm headed on a challenging off-road trail on Saturday and plan to experiment on Friday with disconnecting the sway bar link. Am thinking that I can disconnect the sway bar from the top of the link (see photo) on both sides and rotate the sway bar up - perhaps zip tie it to something to keep it out of the way. My question for you (and Climbandroll): is this the connection point you removed? Or do I need to remove the bottom of the link from the frame?
Given the comment from Climbandroll I guess I'll remove it with the whole front lifted and on jack stands. But looking for advice from anyone who has done it.
Don't have an answer to your sway bar question.I'm headed on a challenging off-road trail on Saturday and plan to experiment on Friday with disconnecting the sway bar link. Am thinking that I can disconnect the sway bar from the top of the link (see photo) on both sides and rotate the sway bar up - perhaps zip tie it to something to keep it out of the way. My question for you (and Climbandroll): is this the connection point you removed? Or do I need to remove the bottom of the link from the frame?
Given the comment from Climbandroll I guess I'll remove it with the whole front lifted and on jack stands. But looking for advice from anyone who has done it.
But I wonder what that orange/pink paint splotch is for ?
My 2026 ORP (non-hybrid) also has this in the same location and only on one side..
Don't know. But its got some similarity to the spring "splotches" in the photo. Am guessing its to orient the sway bar during assembly - indicating drivers side? And on the springs it gives orientation up and down and forward. (the spring "splotches" are same on both driver and passenger side IIRC).
Just a guess.
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Did you end up disconnecting them and securing the ends of the bar?I'm headed on a challenging off-road trail on Saturday and plan to experiment on Friday with disconnecting the sway bar link. Am thinking that I can disconnect the sway bar from the top of the link (see photo) on both sides and rotate the sway bar up - perhaps zip tie it to something to keep it out of the way. My question for you (and Climbandroll): is this the connection point you removed? Or do I need to remove the bottom of the link from the frame?
Given the comment from Climbandroll I guess I'll remove it with the whole front lifted and on jack stands. But looking for advice from anyone who has done it.
I disconnect my sway bar when I am on trails that have very rocky surfaces. Not gravel but a more technical trail that requires moving over rocks slowly. Not rock crawling either. Luckily in the TRD I can disconnect the sway bar with a button. It makes a big difference in the articulation.
I disconnected the single nut on the link. It took a LOT of force to remove - finally broke it free with a 10” steel pipe extension on my large craftsman 1/2” socket wrench. (The spec torque slightly exceeds the 150 lb-ft on my large torque wrench - 160?).
The links easily rotated out of the way but the sway bar did not want to rotate far enough in either direction to get anywhere near any others components motion during articulation (as far as i could tell). So I pushed the links down out of the way and went with it.
The next day on the trailhead it took me <10 minutes to remove both sides again (I now carry that wrench with pipe extension:>)
Had a great time on a challenging trail (search ”epic trip” or ”Potts Mountain” with my user name). 20 minutes on the backend to reattach. One of the links just didn’t want to line up at first - which has caused me to hesitate doing it again.
but there have been several times since then on challenging trails requiring lot of articulation where i struggled to get through and believe having the sway bars disconnected would have helped a lot - wish I had the SDM But not an option on my 25 TRD ORP.
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Trying it out today.
I disconnected this nut in the image on both sides. It was not hard to break. I was able to break it with under 110 lb. The nut on the top which is directly attached to the end of the sway bar is facing the engine and has no space for a breaker bar so could get that out.
Will be taking it into some ditches near my neighborhood to fully flex at different tires and combinations at a time to endure it doesnt come in the way.
You were right though, the sway bar is too rigid/ the rubber bushings under the belly are too snug for it to just fold up.
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Update:Trying it out today.
I disconnected this nut in the image on both sides. It was not hard to break. I was able to break it with under 110 lb. The nut on the top which is directly attached to the end of the sway bar is facing the engine and has no space for a breaker bar so could get that out.
Will be taking it into some ditches near my neighborhood to fully flex at different tires and combinations at a time to endure it doesnt come in the way.
You were right though, the sway bar is too rigid/ the rubber bushings under the belly are too snug for it to just fold up.
After removing these bolts, the sway bar would not budge. Took it into some ditches nearby by forcing one of the front wheels to droop at its maximum and the lower links came off, repeated it on the other side too.
I can already see it being annoying to put them back on if one is alone. If anyone has done this let me know!
As for articulation, I wish I had taken a before and after, however there have been some folklift tests done on youtube with and without the swab bar, and you can expense to gain a total of 6" in articulation.
Great info and photos!!Update:
After removing these bolts, the sway bar would not budge. Took it into some ditches nearby by forcing one of the front wheels to droop at its maximum and the lower links came off, repeated it on the other side too.
I can already see it being annoying to put them back on if one is alone. If anyone has done this let me know!
As for articulation, I wish I had taken a before and after, however there have been some folklift tests done on youtube with and without the swab bar, and you can expense to gain a total of 6" in articulation.
Since you disconnected the opposite end of the sway bar link than I did I have two questions:
1. Did you "tie" (like zip tie) the link to the sway bar to keep it from rotating around or was it stiff enough that it would just sit in the orientation in your photo?
2. what was the challenge in re-attaching? - was it lining up the link with the bolt holes in the bracket? How would a second person help? How hard was it? (I just may have to try and report back on which approach seems better but interested in hearing what your difficulty was before I do.)
BTW - Interesting that you saw disconnecting the link from the bracket as the easier path and I saw it opposite: disconnect the link from the sway bar. I had space directly below to get my ~20(?) inches of breaker bar and socket wrench to turn while just contacting the ground at the low point. I did have 35" tires on: my big tires are 1.1" larger radius** than our stock and I would not have been able to rotate the wrench with stock tires in the field (where I sure don't want to be jacking up the vehicle unless necessary.) Would need a shorter pipe than the one I happend to find laying around the garage.
**285/75R18=34.8" - 265/70R18=32.6". 2.2" diameter difference; 1.1" radius/ground clearance difference. Note that I have the stock on now, but had the big tires on a good part of the Spring and early summer while doing a lot of off-roading.
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