How Shocks Work - The Hidden Cost of Sway Bars, v2.5

#suspension #swaybars #tuning #FatCatMotorsports #FCMElite See Justin's no-front sway bar video here:    • Just Track it 9/25/2016 12' Sonata GLS  Ba...   Usually there is never a conversation about the downside of putting stiffer sway bars (also know as anti-sway bars or more properly, stabilizer bars) on a vehicle. There may be a reduction in body roll, improve contact patch and more confidence for the driver but you've now coupled two sides that would otherwise be fully-independent (in the case of most front suspensions especially). For the rear the situation is often worse, because some modern vehicles DO have independent suspensions but by force of habit (old school tuning philosophy) I've seen many customers automatically assume a bigger rear bar is needed. Definitely NOT when you work with Fat Cat Motorsports and FCM Elite! Our goal is to provide maximum grip and control. If your need is more toward the comfort side vs. performance, there's even more incentive to only use the minimum necessary sway bar to achieve a neutral handling balance. From years of my own experimentation I've come to find out - sometimes literally 'by accident!' - that sway bars are not a zero-impact modification. They carry a hidden cost in terms of comfort and ultimate cornering behavior. Photo of Mazda MX-5 suspension used in this instructional video credited to DrivingEnthusiast.net Nice summary provided by user 'angelos' from the Miata.net forum: "1. Sway bars couple the left and right suspension components and thus wheel positioning, rendering them less independent; the degree to which the independence is reduced / coupling is increased is proportional to the sway bar stiffness. 2. Given this inherent coupling "penalty" that sway bars incur, if we want to maximize suspension independence (which does loosely translate to "maximize grip" since a suspension that can behave independently can better react to loading changes by maintaining optimal wheel geometry relative to the pavement, particularly on bumpy pavement), we want to minimize the sway bar stiffness to no more than is needed to "fine tune" lateral roll and also to use as one of our tools in setting steady state front/rear grip balance (i.e., understeer/oversteer). 3. So with our design objective being to "minimize sway bar stiffness", but of course having a second design objective of "not wanting a car that leans like a ship in a storm", we would spec stiffer springs and corresponding dampers to control the spring forces. Controlling body roll while maintaining suspension independence (because: grip) is a classic design optimization problem, and, as such, has a continuum of possible design solutions: on one end is to use large sway bars to control roll and not fuss over springs/shocks at all and on the other is to put very stiff springs/shocks and run no sway bars at all. For most of us running our cars on the street, the "right" design solution is somewhere in the middle." === Very useful to note, and why the topic of 'How Shocks Work' related to 'The Hidden Cost of Sway Bars' (or properly, the Hidden Cost of Sta-Bars) is that the damper's inherent rebound vs. compression force bias will influence how dramatically the coupling effect becomes between the inside and outside wheels when in a turn, or when encountering repeated one-wheel bumps. This is a phenomenon rarely discussed but certain present in all situations when a) the sway bar(s) is an appreciable factor in the overall roll stiffness of the vehicle and/or b) the dampers have a strong bias toward creating either rebound or compression forces. In some NASCAR applications, there are couplings that allow the sway-bar to be connected during turning one direction but to create slack once the turn is completed. The same idea can be applied to active sway bars such as exist on various vehicles today. In conclusion, while the presence of a sta-bar / stabilizer bar / anti-sway bar / sway bar / etc. may be useful, their use is not without a hidden (or overt) cost. A savvy enthusiast or suspension designer will determine how much stiffness to allocate to each element of the suspension to achieve the required goal. www.the-perfect-ride.com www.fatcatmotorsports.com/ http://www.fatcatmotorsports.com/fcm_...