M998A1 Front sway bar

[trooper632]

Hello, I replaced the worn out pittman arm yesterday and decided to not reinstall the front sway bar. Just trying to see if it makes it alittle softer ride and a little more articulation. It doesnt get driven down the highway or any major offroading at all just driven on the ranch . Any pros or cons on leaving it off

 

[Autonomy_Lost]

I would not remove the sway bar from a vehicle that has a tendency to roll over.

 

[trooper632]

I would not remove the sway bar from a vehicle that has a tendency to roll over.

All vehicle have a tendancy to roll over offroad, I'm not doing any crazy stuff in this thing just wanting to know if anyone has taken one off before

 

[Autonomy_Lost]

All vehicle have a tendancy to roll over offroad, I'm not doing any crazy stuff in this thing just wanting to know if anyone has taken one off before

If you accept the risk then go for it, but your vehicle will be less safe especially when cornering at speed.

 

[Retiredwarhorses]

I would not remove the sway bar from a vehicle that has a tendency to roll over.

why do Hmmwv’s have a tendency to roll over? It’s has the lowest Center of gravity of probably any vehicle on the road.
But as far as removing suspension components? It’s ridiculous…if you need a vehicle that needs this “soft ride” maybe a hmmwv isn’t for you ?

 

[juanprado]

why do Hmmwv’s have a tendency to roll over? It’s has the lowest Center of gravity of probably any vehicle on the road.
But as far as removing suspension components? It’s ridiculous…if you need a vehicle that needs this “soft ride” maybe a hmmwv isn’t for you ?

I think you meant to say highest center of gravity.

 

[Retiredwarhorses]

I think you meant to say highest center of gravity.

huh?

 

[Autonomy_Lost]

why do Hmmwv’s have a tendency to roll over? It’s has the lowest Center of gravity of probably any vehicle on the road.
But as far as removing suspension components? It’s ridiculous…if you need a vehicle that needs this “soft ride” maybe a hmmwv isn’t for you ?

I seem to have ruffled some feathers, I am not an expert but I have observed some things that indicate that humvees have a high rollover risk. The first thing is this sticker which is on every humvee I've seen:



Also a quick google search will show a lot of rolled over humvees:









The military has even developed a "humvee rollover training simulator," and I'm sure they had a reason to spend the money on it.

I wont even get into the recent video that was discussed here because that seems to be ruffling some feathers too.

Granted, many of these rolled humvees are armored which will raise the center of gravity. And some rollovers may be attributed to spindle nuts, tire failures, or operator failure. However, the purpose of a sway bar is to reduce body roll and without it you are at a higher risk of rolling over, period.

The more humvees roll over, the more likely the government will think twice about continuing to sell them to the public.

 

[juanprado]

huh?

Vehicles with high center of gravity are prone to rollover as they are higher mass off the ground. Low center of gravity brings it closer to the ground and more stable.

 

[Retiredwarhorses]

Vehicles with high center of gravity are prone to rollover as they are higher mass off the ground. Low center of gravity brings it closer to the ground and more stable.

First off, you know better, 2nd is that 99% of those photos are of IED and land mines, so good try..the rollover issue ONLY applies to Up armored trucks with GPK and OGPK’s, a short trip to the AMGeneral website will reveal the incredible approach, departure and side slope angle of the truck, so famous as to be in the sales brochures.
This is the truck that your referencin, the Mall crawlers 99.9% of what owners have here is not the issue.

 

[Coug]

uparmored trucks have the "rollover" warning decal (that clearly states "Armored" on it)

unarmored trucks, especially soft top trucks; the center of gravity is amazingly low for the size of tires and amount of ground clearance it has.

Was parked next to a suburban over the weekend that was running 37" Wrangler MT tires on it. Suburban was at least a foot and a half taller than I was, and obviously a lot higher center of gravity.

Most civilian trucks, by the time you put the same size tires on them, will be a LOT more prone to roll over.

Mostly though, it's about not driving like an idiot.

 

[Autonomy_Lost]

uparmored trucks have the "rollover" warning decal (that clearly states "Armored" on it)

unarmored trucks, especially soft top trucks; the center of gravity is amazingly low for the size of tires and amount of ground clearance it has.

Was parked next to a suburban over the weekend that was running 37" Wrangler MT tires on it. Suburban was at least a foot and a half taller than I was, and obviously a lot higher center of gravity.

Most civilian trucks, by the time you put the same size tires on them, will be a LOT more prone to roll over.

Mostly though, it's about not driving like an idiot.

I don't disagree with any of this. But also consider that the humvee does not have air bags. So in the event it DOES rollever, even if less likely, its not going to be a fun time for the occupants.

Additionally, humvees don't have stability control and most don't have antilock brakes. So when you panic brake and swerve to avoid a collision, you are going to want your sway bar to be installed! The sway bar doesn't just prevent rollovers, it also helps keep weight on the inside tire, giving you more traction and control.

 

[Coug]

it's 1980's technology, and built to government contract, so expecting it to be anything else is dementia on the part of the buyer/user.

 

[Mogman]

How did we ever survive the pre 80s with no traction control anti skid brakes and such,,, WE LEARNED HOW TO DRIVE!!!

 

[Coug]

How did we ever survive the pre 80s with no traction control anti skid brakes and such,,, WE LEARNED HOW TO DRIVE!!!

That is the biggest problem I have with all the current "smart" technology.
It decreases the amount of attention required, and thus the operator never actually learns any skills.

Back as a teenager I put my parent's F150 down a small embankment right outside of my high school.
spun the tires at a light, fishtailed, and over corrected, going off the road.

After that I spent a lot of time playing on loose gravel to get a feel for how it felt and reacted to low traction.

With a modern vehicle it won't allow me to do any of that stuff without disabling a bunch of electronic controls.

I don't remember the name of the test, but there is one that involves taking a vehicle through a series of corners/obstacles and how fast it can go through without issues is the higher the score.
Newer vehicles have so many electronics to fight with for that test that they perform much worse than older vehicles of the same basic type simply because the vehicle won't allow it to happen.

 

[Autonomy_Lost]

Vehicle fatalies have actually been on a steady decline since the 80's:

Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Mogman]

Vehicle fatalies have actually been on a steady decline since the 80's:

Motor vehicle fatality rate in U.S. by year - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

There is no doubt that the safety equipment installed on new vehicle have saved many lives, but there would be MANY less deaths if we actually spent the time to teach folks to drive, the first thing at least 75% of the drivers do when faced with a situation is slam on the brakes because that is what they teach them to do when most of the time it is the wrong thing to do, add all the idiots that think they can drive and text etc. (there are folks reading this that think they can, hint no you can't) and we really need the air bags.
My instructor in, oh lets just say way back actually forced us to drive off of the shoulder and how to recover without over correcting, that accounts for probably 50% of the single vehicle accidents and most of the rollover accidents in this country.