REAL WORLD COMPARISON: OEM Anti-Sway Bar w/ Disconnects vs. Antirock Off-Road Sway Bar vs. SwayLOC Dual Rate Anti Swaybar System
- Thread starter Mr. Bills
- Start date
speeding_infraction
TJ Addict
So the Antirock, and similarly the Swayloc in the disconnected mode, provides a small but consistent sway bar effect that helps reduce body roll but without limiting suspension to the degree that the OEM bar does.
So it makes off-road use more comfortable and keeps the suspension feeling a bit more stable from the driver's perspective.
In effect, it's just a sway bar with a fairly mild torsional spring rate and very large range of motion.
The difference between the Antirock and Swayloc is that the Swayloc also has a stiff bar that you typically use when on the road so you can whip the jeep around corners like it's a Mustang without much body roll. The Antirock will have more body roll on the road than the OEM bar, but not as much as no bar. The Swayloc has less body roll (when locked in the stiff mode) than even the OEM bar.
The first post explains that.
One thing to keep in mind about why this bar is important is the fact that most people do not remove or disconnect their rear sway bar, which already has a fairly mild torsional spring rate.
With the front bar disconnected and the rear connected, the car has a tendency to preferentially tilt whichever way the rear axle is currently being pushed. So if you had say the front left and rear right wheels each placed on top of a 12" high cinder block and the other two on the ground, the jeep would lean fairly hard to the left because the rear is stiffer in that range of motion.
Add in the Antirock (or Swayloc unlocked), and there is a modest increase in sway stiffness in the front axle, perhaps not quite as much as the rear OEM bar provides. So in the same scenario, instead of the jeep leaning hard to the left, it only leans mildly to the left.
With the factory front bar connected, in that same scenario the jeep would lean mildly to the right since the OEM front bar is stiffer than the OEM rear. (In some cases with the OEM bar, you might not actually have all four wheels on the ground because it is too stiff for that much flex.)
Now imagine if you drive (at crawling speed) in a straight line over top of those staggered cinder blocks.
With the OEM bar connected, your jeep gets fairly violently thrown side to side as you go over. There is a good chance you'd have a wheel in the air at a couple different points.
With the OEM bar disconnected, your jeep gets (less violently) thrown side to side in the opposite direction from the previous case. But this time we're fairly sure all four wheels are on the ground, which makes it less sketchy.
With the Antirock (or the Swayloc unlocked), you have the least body roll of all three scenarios. And all four wheels are still on the ground, so you have the least pucker factor of all three scenarios.
With the front bar disconnected and the rear connected, the car has a tendency to preferentially tilt whichever way the rear axle is currently being pushed. So if you had say the front left and rear right wheels each placed on top of a 12" high cinder block and the other two on the ground, the jeep would lean fairly hard to the left because the rear is stiffer in that range of motion.
Add in the Antirock (or Swayloc unlocked), and there is a modest increase in sway stiffness in the front axle, perhaps not quite as much as the rear OEM bar provides. So in the same scenario, instead of the jeep leaning hard to the left, it only leans mildly to the left.
With the factory front bar connected, in that same scenario the jeep would lean mildly to the right since the OEM front bar is stiffer than the OEM rear. (In some cases with the OEM bar, you might not actually have all four wheels on the ground because it is too stiff for that much flex.)
Now imagine if you drive (at crawling speed) in a straight line over top of those staggered cinder blocks.
With the OEM bar connected, your jeep gets fairly violently thrown side to side as you go over. There is a good chance you'd have a wheel in the air at a couple different points.
With the OEM bar disconnected, your jeep gets (less violently) thrown side to side in the opposite direction from the previous case. But this time we're fairly sure all four wheels are on the ground, which makes it less sketchy.
With the Antirock (or the Swayloc unlocked), you have the least body roll of all three scenarios. And all four wheels are still on the ground, so you have the least pucker factor of all three scenarios.
Last edited:
speeding_infraction
TJ Addict