[ForMoab]

So, this truck belongs to my daughter. She is in Brazil for 18 months and I am keeping it for her until she returns. While she was still here, we added a Rough Country lift and a Pioneer 4 channel amp with high level inputs and signal sensing turn on because she really liked the look of the factory deck. We replaced the front door speakers with some JBL GTO 6x9s and the back doors with some JBL GTO 6.5s. We added a trailer wiring harness and installed in the back bumper like everyone does on here. Added a CURT receiver hitch and had the bed lined with Line X. Attached is a pic of after the lift.

 

[ForMoab]

So, after driving the truck for a while I realized that everyone was right. The sway bar in these things is way oversized. I took it off and drove around the block. It was not what I was looking for. Maybe with coil overs and stiffer springs it would have been ok, but my daughter drives curvy mountain roads in Colorado and Utah and Idaho. I took dimensions to work and modeled the sway bar. I had to make some guesses on dimensions because it is really hard to get accurate measurements on some parts in the front end while the truck is still assembled. I modeled drilling holes every 1.5" all the way through the bar and another set of holes 90 degrees off from the first holes. Using finite engineering analysis, the bar was still dark blue even with all of the holes, so I drilled it out. Below is a picture of that work completed. I have called it sway bar 1.1. I put it back on and drove it for a week. It barely made a difference. Marginally more flexible but not what I was looking for.

 

[ForMoab]

Back to the drawing board with the sway bar. With the holes drilled I could find the wall thickness of the sway bar. This plus the overall diameter of the bar plus a good guess on the material gave me a good idea of the torsional stiffness of the sway bar. All of my calculations are based on 7.2" of travel because the next phase of mods for the truck will include 5100s and some SPC upper arms.
In order to get full articulation on the front of the truck with a stock sway bar, you need 3700LBS of force differential on the stock sway bar. Well, the whole truck only weighs around 4800LBS, so the bar is way too stiff. I wanted around 1000LBS of force differential to achieve full articulation. Oh ya, I should mention that I work for an aerospace company as an electrical engineer and have access to some really bright mechanical engineers and all of the software you can imagine.
So, we decided to cut the center section out of the sway bar and replace it with some DOM tube. The ID of the stock sway bar came in at .775", so we settled on DOM at .875" OD and with a .188 wall. That way when I turned it down in the lathe, the wall was still plenty thick to weld. We turned the ends of the DOM down to .774" which gave us a .001" slip fit. The DOM ended up being 20.625" long and we had 2" overlap on the joints at each end. Attached are some pictures of the fabrication work.
The ride is now amazing. The front suspension is truly independent now and body roll around corners has not increased to where you can tell unless you really drive hard and even then it is still tolerable. So, going straight down the road, it rides like there is no sway bar installed but cornering is really close to where it was with the stock sway bar.

 

[SauceBoss]

I never would have put that much work into something like this, but I guess if I had the knowledge, tools, etc, then maybe I would... Haha, pretty cool overall though

 

[Contra]

Where did you tap in to the speakers to amplify them?


Sent from my iPhone X using Tapatalk Pro

 

[MT Mike]

Back to the drawing board with the sway bar. With the holes drilled I could find the wall thickness of the sway bar. This plus the overall diameter of the bar plus a good guess on the material gave me a good idea of the torsional stiffness of the sway bar. All of my calculations are based on 7.2" of travel because the next phase of mods for the truck will include 5100s and some SPC upper arms.
In order to get full articulation on the front of the truck with a stock sway bar, you need 3700LBS of force differential on the stock sway bar. Well, the whole truck only weighs around 4800LBS, so the bar is way too stiff. I wanted around 1000LBS of force differential to achieve full articulation. Oh ya, I should mention that I work for an aerospace company as an electrical engineer and have access to some really bright mechanical engineers and all of the software you can imagine.
So, we decided to cut the center section out of the sway bar and replace it with some DOM tube. The ID of the stock sway bar came in at .775", so we settled on DOM at .875" OD and with a .188 wall. That way when I turned it down in the lathe, the wall was still plenty thick to weld. We turned the ends of the DOM down to .774" which gave us a .001" slip fit. The DOM ended up being 20.625" long and we had 2" overlap on the joints at each end. Attached are some pictures of the fabrication work.
The ride is now amazing. The front suspension is truly independent now and body roll around corners has not increased to where you can tell unless you really drive hard and even then it is still tolerable. So, going straight down the road, it rides like there is no sway bar installed but cornering is really close to where it was with the stock sway bar.

How much did all of that cost you?

 

[shift_RUSH]

Be a good Dad and replace the OEM headunit, too...or you'll/she'll never know what those watts and speakers can really sound like.
.02

 

[ForMoab]

I tapped into the speaker signal right at the end of the factory connector where it connects to the speaker, so I had to run a signal wire from each speaker to the amplifier (mounted under the drivers seat), then I ran a pair from the amplifier output back to each replacement speaker.

 

[ForMoab]

How much did all of that cost you?

30 dollars for the DOM at a metal supermarket, but my dad is a retired machinist so I have access to mills and lathes and band saws and welders plus all of the software at work. I had etching primer and a lot of different colors of rattle can paint. Went with hammered silver in the center section just to be different.

I know I got worked for the material but sometimes we pay for convenience.

Be a good Dad and replace the OEM headunit, too...or you'll/she'll never know what those watts and speakers can really sound like.
.02

I totally agree, but she likes the little spinning nissan symbol on the deck screen when you start the truck.

 

[MT Mike]

30 dollars for the DOM at a metal supermarket, but my dad is a retired machinist so I have access to mills and lathes and band saws and welders plus all of the software at work. I had etching primer and a lot of different colors of rattle can paint. Went with hammered silver in the center section just to be different.

I know I got worked for the material but sometimes we pay for convenience.

How much to ship a center section to 59602? >

 

[ForMoab]

How much to ship a center section to 59602? >

I will PM you next time I am headed to Utah. It would be cheaper if we got more people and I could get a 20 foot stick of the DOM. The other thing I worry about is what is the tolerance on the ID of the sway bar. I guess we could turn the DOM down to like .772 so you had some wiggle room.

 

[whistler]

I will PM you next time I am headed to Utah. It would be cheaper if we got more people and I could get a 20 foot stick of the DOM. The other thing I worry about is what is the tolerance on the ID of the sway bar. I guess we could turn the DOM down to like .772 so you had some wiggle room.

Yes, 20 foot sticks are a lot cheaper. Allowed one free cut. More they charge.
I know, I bought plenty!!
Nice job by the way!

 

[Passivaggressor]

Yah that is very cool. Shall we start a group buy??? haha

 

[Erics Idaho Frontier]

Count me in on a group buy. haha