Off road with front sway bar unbolted

[dealsbarknife]

Great info and photos!!
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 way: 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 happened to find lying 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.

Thanks!
1. Although they are fairly stiff, they did move around with vibration. I will be zip-tying them. When I align them parallel to the swaybar, and full lock the wheels, they clear with about 2" to spare.
2. I think it's going to be a bit of a learning curve/challenge to put them back on. Definitely not something that can be done out on a trail. The lower part has flexible rubber bushing-type ends. They don't just slide back into that mount on the lower control arm. I tried to line them up and jack up the lower control arm but the bottle jack topped out. I will get a 3T high clearance jack and try with that, and I suspect that should do it. Alternatively, I will put ramps on opposite sides and ends and slowly line them up and drive up.

Yes, and you are absolutely right that the extra 1" must have given you the much-needed space. I was not able to line it up and did not want to go under the car. With mud flaps and rock sliders, it was not working out.

Sponsored

 

[MikeD]

1. Although they are fairly stiff, they did move around with vibration. I will be zip-tying them. When I align them parallel to the swaybar, and full lock the wheels, they clear with about 2" to spare.
2. I think it's going to be a bit of a learning curve/challenge to put them back on. Definitely not something that can be done out on a trail. The lower part has flexible rubber bushing-type ends. They don't just slide back into that mount on the lower control arm. I tried to line them up and jack up the lower control arm but the bottle jack topped out. I will get a 3T high clearance jack and try with that, and I suspect that should do it. Alternatively, I will put ramps on opposite sides and ends and slowly line them up and drive up.

Great info. Exactly what I needed.
I think I'm going to stick with disconnecting the link from the sway bar. Its important to me to be able to reattach in the field as I'm generally doing a bunch of highway driving to get to and from off-roading trails and I'm uncomfortable leaving the bar disconnected. (I did drive locally a couple miles with it disconnected - including around a state highway traffic circle - it was not terrible but was a bit .... squishy. I'd sure not want to take an evasive maneuver to avoid an accident with sway bar disconnected.)
What you describe as the challenges of reattaching the link to the bracket is what I feared and why I went the other direction.

If only the SDN had been available - or I'd gone with the Trailhunter which I kinda regret not doing. But I sure do like my (our) Heritage Blue.