Stabilizer bar disconnect on other models?

[BackcountryBirds]

Since I'm a desert racer and have a shelf full of trophies and a class national championship, I'll politely disagree that no sway bar helps absorb bumps at any speed. Suspension tuning absorbs bumps, it's the job of shocks and springs. A disconnected sway bar only minimizes slow speed side motion of the body which can be uncomfortable. At speed, you want control as you make quick steering corrections to maintain control and direction, and you want that sway bar. Yes, for exploring at lower speeds, a disconnected sway bar can be more comfortable, but not because of handling bumps, it reduces side reflex of the chassis. I'm going to bet that the IFS of the Bronco does much more of that on it's own compared to a strait axle car, with or without a sway bar disco.

I also take issue with so called hard core Jeepers who leave off a sway bar. This is the exception, not the rule, and some people simply have lower standards and expectations. Sure, if someone has a very stiff suspension, and they say it handles perfectly fine on the road, they don't say or even know that it rides like crap, especially off road. I challenge this regularly, as do many others, on Jeep discussion boards. Personally, I don't see a Wildtrack having a disco. If you want to run trails get a Badlands. Personal opinion here.

I think you may be getting your desert racing trophy panties I'm a wad. You yourself said "minimizes side rocking over bumps". That's exactly my point that disconnected it leads to a more comfortable offroad ride over bumps. Of course it's by allowing more side to side rocking that's the whole point of what the sway bar prevents for safety.

Also, I never said it was a common practice for jeepers to leave it disconnected but some absolutely due leave it off full time regardless of highway/speed. Not sure what part of that statement you can possibly take issue with as it's factual.

And yes as you said IFS should help with off-road ride comfort over a SFA, which goes back to my original post of wondering if it improves performance and is worth the badlands premium.

I agree it's not likely because it takes away from the badlands uniqueness but I think Wildtrack would certainly be a logical choice if Ford did expand to other trims as they would likely want to keep it a premium price feature. Sounds like we agree on most everything other than if it's valuable feature on a wildtrack.

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[Arokcrwlr]

Since I'm a desert racer and have a shelf full of trophies and a class national championship, I'll politely disagree that no sway bar helps absorb bumps at any speed. Suspension tuning absorbs bumps, it's the job of shocks and springs. A disconnected sway bar only minimizes slow speed side motion of the body which can be uncomfortable. At speed, you want control as you make quick steering corrections to maintain control and direction, and you want that sway bar. Yes, for exploring at lower speeds, a disconnected sway bar can be more comfortable, but not because of handling bumps, it reduces side reflex of the chassis. I'm going to bet that the IFS of the Bronco does much more of that on it's own compared to a strait axle car, with or without a sway bar disco.

I also take issue with so called hard core Jeepers who leave off a sway bar. This is the exception, not the rule, and some people simply have lower standards and expectations. Sure, if someone has a very stiff suspension, and they say it handles perfectly fine on the road, they don't say or even know that it rides like crap, especially off road. I challenge this regularly, as do many others, on Jeep discussion boards. Personally, I don't see a Wildtrack having a disco. If you want to run trails get a Badlands. Personal opinion here.

I absolutely agree with goatman. I don't desert race, but I have done a lot of hard core trails around the country in my EB. If you are familiar with the EB suspension, you know that the radius arms basically fight against each other as the suspension gets bound - basically the front end is one big sway bar. It wasn't until I hinged one of my radius arms that I could meet or exceed the suspension articulation of my wheeling buddies who drive jeeps.

Driving on the road with the hinged radius arm unlocked is not safe at speed - too much suspension movement. It's OK for driving short distances around town, but definitely not on the highway. This would be much less an issue in the new Bronco because disconnecting the sway bar doesn't appear to allow a huge amount extra articulation, but the point is at speed you want the sway bar connected for more control.

 

[Lazerus]

I always felt the e-disco for a SFA was a bit gimmicky. Manual discos are quick, easy, lighter and less likely to malfunction. In a wrangler I never really understood the need to repeatedly dissconect/reconnect when wheeling anyhow. You disconnect when you hit the trail and reconnect when you hit the pavement. Takes all of a minute or two and can be done whilst airing down/up. And -at least in a jeep- makes for a more comfortable ride on a bumpy track....
The e-disco makes more sense on an IFS as it will do a good job of minimizing 'rocking' by it's very nature and only needs to be disconnected on the more extreme terrain variations.

 

[SVTLightning]

I don’t see this ever happening. That’s the whole selling point of the Badlands trim

Right, like if I could have optioned out a black diamond like my badlands I would have especially if it saved me a couple grand!

 

[johndeerefarmer]

I only run SxS's but my front and rear have been disconnected since day one. No disadvantage unless you do high speed stuff which I don't. Ford put the 20 mph limit on it being disconnected so some dummy doesn't take a curve with it off and lose control.

IFS makes no difference as far as I can tell. Disconnecting it still makes a big difference in letting you keep both wheels on the ground.

As far as the Wildtrax and other models having it, just because the Wildtrax says "high speed offroading" doesn't mean that they won't be crawling on slow trails too.

 

[goatman]

I think you may be getting your desert racing trophy panties I'm a wad. You yourself said "minimizes side rocking over bumps". That's exactly my point that disconnected it leads to a more comfortable offroad ride over bumps. Of course it's by allowing more side to side rocking that's the whole point of what the sway bar prevents for safety.

Also, I never said it was a common practice for jeepers to leave it disconnected but some absolutely due leave it off full time regardless of highway/speed. Not sure what part of that statement you can possibly take issue with as it's factual.

And yes as you said IFS should help with off-road ride comfort over a SFA, which goes back to my original post of wondering if it improves performance and is worth the badlands premium.

I agree it's not likely because it takes away from the badlands uniqueness but I think Wildtrack would certainly be a logical choice if Ford did expand to other trims as they would likely want to keep it a premium price feature. Sounds like we agree on most everything other than if it's valuable feature on a wildtrack.

Yeah, I might been wadded up a bit. I didn't want future Bronco people to have the idea that it's common practice among Jeepers to not run a sway bar. Yes, some do, but it is not recommended and not common practice. And, I do agree that the disco sway bar would be a valuable option to offer with Sasquatch, since the point is to run trails. To be determined is how much better/more comfortable the Bronco is on rough dirt roads because of IFS than a straight axle Jeep even with the sway bar hooked up. I will say that I do a ton of exploring and rough dirt roads in two of my Jeeps and don't bother to disconnect the sway bar. I did recently because I was with a larger group of Jeeps and they drove pretty slow, so it was better disconnected. But, I normally don't drive that slow, picking up even a little bit of speed on rough roads and easy trails smooths things out quite a bit. I'm looking forward to having the Bronco with IFS and position sensitive shocks for this reason.

 

[BackcountryBirds]

Yeah, I might been wadded up a bit. I didn't want future Bronco people to have the idea that it's common practice among Jeepers to not run a sway bar. Yes, some do, but it is not recommended and not common practice. And, I do agree that the disco sway bar would be a valuable option to offer with Sasquatch, since the point is to run trails. To be determined is how much better/more comfortable the Bronco is on rough dirt roads because of IFS than a straight axle Jeep even with the sway bar hooked up. I will say that I do a ton of exploring and rough dirt roads in two of my Jeeps and don't bother to disconnect the sway bar. I did recently because I was with a larger group of Jeeps and they drove pretty slow, so it was better disconnected. But, I normally don't drive that slow, picking up even a little bit of speed on rough roads and easy trails smooths things out quite a bit. I'm looking forward to having the Bronco with IFS and position sensitive shocks for this reason.

No worries, I was wound up too after a long week didn't mean any offense. With your offroad experience I would love to hear your feedback once you get your bronco and try it with or without the sway bar disco. I'm a year to two out from ordering and not too impressed with the interior options so leaning basesquatch with after market bumper, rock rails and armor. The sway bar disco and front camera are the two features making me consider the badlands. I would love those two features available on all trims (but understand why Ford doesn't want to do that for their profit margin).

 

[Roll Sound]

Well done gentlemen.

 

[BroncoTodd]

They would sooner discontinue BD altogether and give you BL as your only rock crawling option.

 

[FlyingBronco]

I have owned multiple vehicles with sway bar SFA discos it helps absorb bumps at any speed. But yes at some point it can be considered unsafe (Ford already limits its speed due to lawyers). Some hardcore Jeepers disconnect them permanently and drive everywhere.


It would absolutely be nice feature to have on a wildtrack for faster off-road driving (not unsafe desert racing speed but certainly faster than rock crawling slow). I can see them possibly adding it as on option there since it's a higher dollar trim.

It definitely increases articulation but it also lowers the front end a bit since it's not as SFA. You get a bit of a V effect on IFS versus a straight line on SFA resulting in less flex and traction on IFS because the opposite wheel isn't being forced down. There are plenty of bronco vids out there were it improves traction a bit more but not a crazy increase. Which is why I would really like to see a few real world comparisons with and without sway bar disco. It's certainly a nice feature to have just curious to see how much it improves real world performance and if it's worth the badlands premium..

The SBD kicks on and off at 20mph. It is actually pretty amazing how effective it is when doing trail running like Moab. Some of the Pro drivers were running them hard and the Bronco took it all in stride.

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