Aftermarket Stabilizers/Anti-Sway Bars

[Rolo]

What brands did you get and why?

Who makes the thickest, for thickness is most important, yes?


[G'head Saki...]


I want to purchase a set simultaneously with the KW suspension and install everything at once.

TIA for inputs!

[IRPT]

Rolo, thickest is not necessarily the best, there are many factors. Check out this article about anti-roll bars

http://www.grmotorsports.com/swaybars.html

[Gear_Head]

Rolo, I put on the Eibach anti roll kit. The bars are larger diameter than the original bars. Eibach now offers an installation kit for cruisers without the factory bar. Adds about 80 bucks to the price of the kit but well worth it. The inst. kit uses the same urethene bushing material as the ones in the bar itself, and looks like the fitment for attaching the mounts to the (for lack of a better word) axle will be much easier to use. The eibach bars are 25mm front and 27mm rear if I remember. There are larger diameter bars available, from other mfgrs. The anit roll kit and the strut tower brace have improved the handling 100% on my cruiser. IMHO a good investment. BTW there is a pic of the bar in the thread called "Tailpipe Cutouts"

[Rolo]

That was a good article, IR. I wonder what our TLLTD is. It feels like understeer to me.

Mr. Head, nice llghts on the 1MEANPT. Ack! Red! Hmmm...hafta paint the Eibachs....hafta decide on a colour scheme, too...

[MichaelDay]

The PT understeers. Virtually all production cars are designed to understeer. The logic used by the manufacturers is that it is easier to explain why you drove too fast and plowed off the road headfirst than to defend why the rear let go and you spun out or went off the road tailend first. The pre 1965 Corvairs were criticized for having oversteer as a result of the rear independent suspension lift causing the tires to lose contact with the pavement on the inner part of the tread. With the rear end losing traction first, the rear end of the car would start to spin. Since the engine was in the rear and thus the weight distribution was significantly biased toward the rear the rear of the car would lead.

For most drivers (read unskilled at reading and controlling a car pushed to its limit of traction) understeer is "safer" and more predictable. Front wheel drive cars are even more difficult to get to oversteer due to the weight bias toward the front on the car. Cars that provide the best handling strive for a neutral balance so that they may oversteer or understeer depending on the conditions. The performance driver has a feel and practices to determine the conditions that will create each situation. The ordinary driver doesn't want to know and doesn't care, they want the car to behave the same all the time. I suspect that the true reason DC dropped the rear bar on the GT was to save cost but they were able to do it since the stiffer springs on the GT tended to reduce the understeer somewhat making the rear bar less "necessary" for the casual driver. I suspect that the reduced torsional rigidity of the convertible again increased the understeer and caused DC to reinstate the rear bar.

P.S. In 1965, Chevrolet redesigned the rear suspension on the Corvair with lower links to keep the tires flat on the ground when the rear end lifted thus decreasing the likelihood that the rear end would lose traction as quickly. Unfortunately, that resulted in the vehicle having a tendency to plow when the lightly loaded front tires lost traction. Hello corn field, goodbye road.

[2 TONE PT]

I was under the impression the '03 + had the rear external sway bar removed for an internal torsional bar in the axle (similar to the minivans). I'm sure I read that when the '03s first came out and DC still had a sway bar on there spec sheet.

Steve

[MichaelDay]

quote:Originally posted by 2 TONE PT

I was under the impression the '03 + had the rear external sway bar removed for an internal torsional bar in the axle (similar to the minivans). I'm sure I read that when the '03s first came out and DC still had a sway bar on there spec sheet.

Steve

Steve, that is the official Chysler line but I have not heard of anyone that has verified that there really is any difference in the rear axle of the GT and the NA PT or between the 2002 and the 2003 PT for that matter.

[Rolo]

That was a good explanation, Michael, thanks! That also makes sense why DCX "got away" with deleting the rear sway bar.

In addition to the cornfield, I think it would be easier to mantain control of an understeering car than to regain control of an oversteering one, yes?