KDSS vs. No Sway bars

It's been a short while since my last post as I have been busy mapping for OnX Offroad full time now. Funny enough, a few weeks back, I had posted a note on Instagram asking folks for topic ideas. One suggestion was to write sway bars vs. none, and I had my reserves on this as I had never driven the 4Runner without and heard mixed responses and feedback regarding the subject. While I had considered it, as I know the off-road handling is far superior from past experiences with different vehicles, I was concerned with the overall weight of my current setup as I run a bit heavier than most 4Runners.

So how did I come to the decision to ultimately run without sway bars? By a complete freak incident and a very concerning noise while I was out mapping trails. While in the Guadalupe Mountain Range, the 4Runner developed a very disturbing metal on metal creaking sound. While investigating, I utilized my GoPro to take some video of the front suspension as that's where it seemed the noise was coming from. The sound only matched the movement of one part, the static KDSS link on the front passenger side. While this wasn't the issue, and I wasn't even close after later discovering I had lost a nut from a rear upper control arm (had to hang my head out the door to pinpoint the sound..shocked when it was from the rear) and it was slowly killing the threads on the bolt, removing the sway bars not only gave me the opportunity to test the sway vs no sway, it also helped me discover that the 3 hour long investigation was in the wrong area...major facepalm!

Once the sway bars were removed and the actual noise causing issue was fixed, it was time to finish the trail I had started. Luckily enough once I started moving again, I noticed first off that there were no more ear-piercing sounds of metal on metal, but my ride was much more forgiving. Each corner seemed to work far more efficiently over the rocky terrain that I was on and took less throttle effort to clear the larger obstacles. Coming off the obstacles also seemed to be much smoother and I noticed the front was far less jarring. But this was on a rocky trail that I never exceeded 8 mph on, but I had a couple more trails to finish up and then the drive home at highway speeds.

After completing the slow-going, rocky trail where the sway bars were removed, I was back on a smoother dirt trail (service road for those that get bent over the word "trail") and moving a bit faster with speeds averaging about 20 mph. The dirt track had some small rock gardens scattered throughout, which while under the KDSS activation speeds are decent and more harsh over 15 mph, I noticed they were smoother all around at 20 mph. The small sections of wash-boarding on the road were almost not even noticeable and in deeper ruts the 4Runner just seemed to float right over them and again I could feel each corner working much easier and articulating to new angles.

One of the last trails I had done was a track named "Redwater", which is simply a dry river bed. Rock gardens and rocks in excess of 20", some being off-camber, even managed to pivot on the rock sliders on a couple. I don't want to imagine how jarring this would have been with the sway bars connected as I had done trails like this in the past and it was not the most pleasant experience, but still fun in the end. However, with the sway bars not connected, I was heavily pleased and impressed with how the 4Runner navigated through this trail as much of it was rockier with larger rocks than what's pictured above, I just failed to get pictures as I didn't want to be in an unfamiliar canyon after sunset. But the suspension just seemed to soak everything up much smoother and actually used the full range of articulation, compression and rebound. The last 2 trails I did in this area again reflected a much better working suspension setup, but now it was time for the drive home and after tracking 20 trails in this area over just a couple of days, I had zero desire to lay in the dirt again just to reinstall the sway bars.

So how did it do on the highway? Well, this was my primary concern with removing the sway bars as I had read feedback online that it made the 4Runner "mush", "tipsy", "like driving a boat" and "overly floaty and soft in the turns". So before departing, I did my best to clear my head and focus solely on my experience with no sway bars at highway speeds. Simply put, my sway bars are back on the 4Runner. I absolutely love the handing off-road, especially over large obstacles, but at highway speeds I feel that my setup is a tad to top heavy. Even through long sweeping curves I could feel the 4Runner lean, which wasn't horrible in itself, but then came the bumps, dips and other imperfections in the road. New Mexico roads/highways seem to be pretty much garbage and I don't find any fun in hitting one of these imperfections and the truck floating towards the shoulder or on coming lane. I found myself fighting the truck to remain planted as it seemed to want to wander a bit and overall it felt very unbalanced and unpredictable. While the ride quality felt smoother, I can confirm that it did in fact feel very similar to a boat in water with slight chop, but not white cap surface bad. If you know anything about watercraft, you will know the reference.

In the end I decided it was best to keep the sway bars as I do have to travel on the highways to get to anything worth mapping for OnX, and generally speaking, its 2-4 hours worth of highway driving...on crap roads with crap drivers. I have had to make a few avoidance/reaction maneuvers due to terrible drivers, road imperfections and larger animals and feel that without the sway bars it would only be a (short) matter of time before the ultimate damming maneuver would be necessary and end my 4Runner in a tragic accident. However, I did find something interesting on my 4Runner's frame and while the internet says it cannot be done, the threaded holes for the standard sway bars are in fact present. This tells me that a complete deletion of the KDSS system is not only possible, but would also allow me to develop my own quick disconnect. But I will dive into that later. For now, I will simply reflect on the smoother operation of the suspension without the sway bars attached and enjoy my smooth and responsive highway cruising while headed to the next trails.

Remember, if you see me out on a trail be sure to wave or flag me down. Hopefully soon, some major changes will be coming to the 4Runner (and my wife's as well) that will increase its capabilities, lower the COG and make it more efficient for longer runs as I begin to head north and eventually west. Get out and explore!