discovery 300tdi anti roll bars

[les baty]

hi all, can anyone tell me the rights and wrongs of removing the anti roll bars off  my disco? i know that some disco`s have them some dont and im yet to see one on a defender? also whats the legal requirements for an mot? PS i have removed them and nothing has changed on the road test

[boss]

for mot, if there there they have to be intact and in full working order if you remove them then there is nothing to test and therefore nothing to fail.

off road your disco will be a little better but on the road it will handle like a turd!

[mikiep1986]

yea agree with boss . . we took the anti roll bar off my dads 300tdi great off road more comftable and easier to drive . . but on road got a little bit more wobbly and more body roll but nothing major

[les baty]

" handle like a turd" no change their then, ha ha

[mikiep1986]

yep just wat mine is like lol  ;)

[clbarclay]

As well as reducing body roll. The anti roll bars on a discovery also reduce understeer.

[lambert]

how about take the arb's of then slow down a bit on road? mine does not have any and drives nice and flat and does not slide into ditches even in the rain, but equally i don't ask it to fly down the road like a porsche 911 turbo. just a thought.

[wizard]

Handling like a turd is a bit harsh..................

It really depends on what suspension you have fitted.
If you still have the original shocks and springs on a 10 to 12 year old Disco then yes it will handle faily crap once you take off the anti roll bars.

However if you have uprated springs and shocks you will only notice a slight difference when cornering on the road. It will wallow a bit but  it wont be excessive.
I took the front arb off my Disco because I kept snapping the mounting when "playing" And to be honest the only difference I noticed was the extra travel on the suspension. But saying this it does have heavy duty +2 springs and twin OME shocks on.

wizard

[Disco Matt]

" handle like a turd" no change their then, ha ha

Mine doesn't. I've kept the anti roll bars and it seems fine off road too. I'm just running Britpart standard height HD springs (cross fingers and see how they last!), de Carbon shocks and polybushes. Doesn't seem to be too stiff or harsh and it didn't bat an eyelid at some axle twisty bits on a lane last weekend.

Even on M/Ts it was able to reel in a Range Rover Sport a few months ago...

[Range Rover Blues]

You have to remember the ARBs were designed (in retrospect) for A STANDARD RRC, where they make alomost no measureable difference to the RTI.

As soon as you modifiy the suspension with say a lift, you have to condsider if the ARB will flex enough to keep up with the new, longer travel you have achieved.

I run plus 2" all round with ProComp shocks, I have 2 ARB at the back and I can still get the springs out of their seats.  The front end it a little too stiff though so I planning to remove the polybushes and go back to rubber, the softest I can fit in fact.

Later I plan to design and make some disconnects, that'll have to wait until I can get to the machines at my new job.

[wizard]

Later I plan to design and make some disconnects,

I see that the newer Jeeps have electrically operated disconnecting front arb's. Any idea how that works ?

wizard

[clbarclay]

I would expect they use a solenoid and it would either operate a locking pin or dog clutch etc. (sprung on, solenoid released)

[Range Rover Blues]

I wish I knew, the big problem with disconnects is getting them to reconnect again.  I know how to make an adjustable ARB but whether it would adjust enough to be as good as disconnected I don't know.

[lambert]

use a soloniod(sp?) as the drop link when charged the arb islocked when uncharged the bar is free?

[Disco-Ron]

There's a guy in the states that makes a pin with an R clip instead of a bolt for the arb's....... i thought about getting a pair and just re-fitting the rear one..... simply for road handling.....

[Range Rover Blues]

If that's the same one I've seen then I'm not impressed with it (do you have a weblink?)

The bolt endures a lot of twisting force that an 'R' clip will not be suitable for in the long run.

[kai]

There's a guy in the states that makes a pin with an R clip instead of a bolt for the arb's....... i thought about getting a pair and just re-fitting the rear one..... simply for road handling.....

I was thinking of doing somethins similiar.

But I was just thinking of grinding a flat edge down the thread of the bolt and drill a hole through the bolt to enable an R pin to go through. Obviously would use a washer but I'm not convinced it would be strong enough on it's own. Although my Disco does seam pretty capable off road with them still attached.

I'm running +2 springs and shocks and general grabber mt's and we rarely get stuck. 

[mobi]

is this what you guys are looking for? http://www.discoweb.org/disconnects/index.htm

[kai]

is this what you guys are looking for? http://www.discoweb.org/disconnects/index.htm

Looks like he's nailed it on the head.

However being a tight fisted squeaky walker I'm still going to try to modify my existing bolt to acheive the same thing, plus I already have a box full of R pins on the shelf.



Thanks Modi

[Disco Matt]

This wouldn't work on a Disco, but for a hypothetical 4x4:

What if you had hydro-pneumatic plungers that acted on the radius arms near where they fix to the chassis? That would probably do the trick and they could be arranged to retract out of the way for off road use.

[Range Rover Blues]

That's essentially what ACE does on the DII

As for the ones above, I'm not happy about the whole thing being secured by an 'R' clip, the original bolt tightens against a shoulder so that it can't twist when under load, I don't think that solution is good enough.

[Disco-Ron]

Yes guys, they are the ones i was on about, however on reflection, and new nut and bolt is just as easy, and better.....!!!

[clbarclay]

The drop links may be an obvious place to the ARB disconecting, though that is just one option. Another is to split the ARB into 2 parts where it goes straight from one side to the other and use a solenoid to operate a simple locking device to lock the 2 sides together. I've seen this type of ARB disconnect done using a manual free wheeling front hub, so the principal is tried and tested.

My comment about dog clutch was based on this type. Unlike disconnecting the links where you need enough length in sliding sections so that they doesn't seperate, with the a split ARB the 2 sections are just rotating around each other, so potentially the ends could end up 180 degrees apart without any problem. When rengaging, the solenoid would be turned off and the spring pushes the 2 parts of the clutch together and the 2 sections continue to rotate untill the clutch halfs are alligned and lock together. Its pretty much the same as the difflock in an LT230.

[Range Rover Blues]

That's very true and I'm not surprised that's how other manufacturers do it.  I'd only be concerned that the ARB as it exisits is spring steel and might not take kindly to being machined to fit a flange, otherwise that's a damn good idea, all you would need would be a cotter pin to lock 2 flanges together.

[clbarclay]

I wouldn't recomend welding to and ARB. Possibly the easiest way though would be to cut a short section out of the ARB and have clamp on flanges. No welding or machining to the ARB required.

One side effect I can think of though is that it would effectively shorten the ARB, making it stiffer.

[Range Rover Blues]

Hmmm, you got me thinking now.

I wouldn't worry about making it stiffer, I have twin ARB on the back of Blue and I remounted the axle brakcets to make it even stiiffer (the LSE has a much thicker ARB too) but if it disconects off-road then on-road it can be as stiff as you like (if they get too stiff you do get a harsh ride, but it has to be VERY stiff for that to happen).