Anti Sway Bars 101 (LXi and LX)

[cmillsap]

Thanks, David for the information. Tela and I suffered with a lot of bouncing on our initial trip from Florida (where we purchased the bus) to California. The bus rode and drove like an old truck. We knew we had to do something to improve the poor ride and driving characteristics of our new (to us) bus.

As you know, when we got home the first thing I did was to have new Koni shocks installed on my LXI. During the process, we went through a testing procedure trying to find the best combination of ride quality and drivability.

First we drove the bus over a 10 mile portion of I-10 with the old shocks and the anti-sway bar intact. It still drove like an old truck. Then we changed the shocks, checked that the caster was the same on both wheels (which it was). The second drive over the same portion of the road was vastly improved. The bounce over bridge abutments and dips in the roadbed were reduced to an acceptable level. Then we removed the anti-sway bar and drove over the same portion of I-10. The ride and drivability was more improved. The bounce was reduced to almost none and the softness of the ride over imperfections in the roadbed felt great.

Now we could truly feel the comforts of an air ride chassis.

There were no acute turns on I-10 but we made several low speed turns going to and from the interstate. I have to say that I did not experience any over-sway of the bus's body although we didn't travel around any curvy roads at a higher speed.

Given our experience, I just do not think an anti-sway bar is needed on an LXi. Obviously, with the anti-sway bar intact, the side-sway will be less than without it, but not much less. The LXi's center of gravity is pretty low which help limit the side-sway around curves even without the anti-sway bar.

So I guess it all boils down to personal preference but I agree with Morey, I will take the great soft and smooth ride we have now and live with a little more sway.

Chuck