Sway Bar

[Bug Maniac]

Please could somebody explain to me what a sway bar is and for what purpose it has, am I correct in saying that there is already a sway bar on standard buses and bugs etc. Does it have anything to do with the ride height, I see that there is an article on the forum for swaybars but I cannot access it for some reason, ,many thanks    

[Geoff]

A sway bar helps prevent the bus (or car) from sway or leaning in corners. Without it the van would be prone to leaning very hard to one side while turning. The sway bar also helps tighten up the suspension, If you add a rear swaybar to your bus as well it will feel much firmer in corners.

That's just the basics..

[silas]

it also improves stability when driving over rough surfaces.

[jim martin]

anti roll bar or sway bar.
best example is think of this , driving your car and you hang a long tight sweeper turn to the left.what happens is due to inertia your car still wants to travel straight even though you are turning left , so what happens is that your vehicle will lean outwards to the right .which if you are going fast enough would cause you to ROLL over .
so since the outer frt and rear wheels are being driven up into the fenders from the vehicle lean what you do is connect the left and right sides of the frt and rear suspension with a BAR .
so now when the outer wheel is driven up this causes the roll bar to move up with it , and since it's connected to the inner wheel as well this pulls the inner wheel up into the wheel well at the same time .this keeps your vehicle level in corners instead of ROLLING OVER.
so the bigger the bar the more leverage can be aplied to the inner wheel to aid in keeping the car level in corners.