Rear sway bars?

[yellowxj]

A little wiggle in the bus tow bar towing the jeep at about 55-60mph. I'll check the front alignment BUT could I benefit from a rear sway bar?

Jeep, bus, repeat.

[milkmania]

Originally Posted by yellowxj

A little wiggle in the bus tow bar towing the jeep at about 55-60mph. I'll check the front alignment BUT could I benefit from a rear sway bar?

Jeep, bus, repeat.

Are you referring to the friction style anti-sway bar they use on travel trailers?
When I pulled a 32' travel trailer, I saw significant improvement after I installed mine.

Not sure how your tow bar is set up, but I had mine set up with the 2 5/16 heavy duty torsion bar hitch.

[Goatherder]

Originally Posted by yellowxj

A little wiggle in the bus tow bar towing the jeep at about 55-60mph. I'll check the front alignment BUT could I benefit from a rear sway bar?

Jeep, bus, repeat.

I'd think so. Don't know what kinda bus you got...but my E450 window licker has about a 1.25" DIA bar in the rear. I'd think it would go a long way towards stabilizing the ass end. I can see excessive body roll inducing an oscillation in a toad that could increase in amplitude under the wrong conditions.

As an aside: I have an XJ which I intend to be my toad, behind a 6.0L E-450. Any tips or suggestions might be helpful.

[superdave]

did you max out the tire pressure on the toad? if you can feel it back there something ain't right.

[yellowxj]

Ive got a short G30 chevy based 4 window with no factory sway bar.
My jeep tires were at 25-35 psi. They are 10 ply tires on the jeep. I think i could air them up to 55 psi. Even with the tires at 25-35 I kept checking to see if the jeep was still there. With the tcase in N and the trans in P the xj was great. Will the toad tire pressure let it wiggle? Hadnt thought of that.
We were towing the yellow jeep on 35" tires. The black one on 33"s will follow us west this summer.

Jeep, bus, repeat.

[superdave]

my friend towed a jeep all year, it would eat a set of tires in a year to year and a half. the less pressure will make the tires grab more. if you max them out [ round them out]there will be less tire on the road to grab. same principal as letting air out of your tires to get more traction.

[DoubleO7]

bigger fatter tires at a lower everyday road use pressure will allow the vehicle to move side to side. Or wander, higher tire pressure helps to reduce that wander.
Like riding on balloons, the load wants and can go to the side more so at lower tire pressures as it tries to roll sideways.

If your running expensive and/or soft rubber compound tires on the Jeep, you might want to get a cheap set of rims with high mileage life tires while toad.
A sway bar on the rear axle of the buss is really an anti-roll bar. It might help to reduce the tail wagging but really is made to reduce the body tilting.

[cowlitzcoach]

If you are using any sort of traction type tire on your mini-bus most of the wiggle you are feeling is most likely coming from your tires.

We experimented with all sorts of different tires and tire tread patterns on mini-buses. The more aggressive the tread pattern the more wiggle we got in the back of the buses. And that was without anything hitched on behind.

One of the best tires we found to use on mini-buses was a Cooper Discoverer HT3. It still has the snowflake so it is traction approved in the winter but it doesn't have the tread blocks that wiggle like what is found on a more aggressive tread design.

[yellowxj]

Thanks all!

Jeep, bus, repeat.