[losfer]

I cant help unless you post pics in the nsw thread of the century ...

[vet 180]

losfer wrote:

I cant help unless you post pics in the nsw thread of the century ...

I am sure there is pics at least in a bikini on here and pf......

I have been driving this for the past week. Did a big trip on the weekend around 500kms mix of on road and off. A mate owns a tourism company here that we named after a few beers "Unveil Arabia". We were creating an off-road route for one of his packages so put on a few off-road kms, but mostly level sand, rock and dirt. Didn't take it out in the big dunes yet. I really think with a good set of shocks it would be perfect. Durring the trip I wanted to see how warm the shocks were getting and they where soo hot I burnt myself just touching them, would have been hotter than touching the engine or radiator. Not sure if that's normal? Maybe I need external resivoiur units. I do know I can barey walk now as my ass/hip is very sore from bouncing around .

[Gwagensteve]

Yes it's normal. A shock absorber turns motion into heat- that's its job. It's only a problem if you exoerience shock fade or the heat blows the seals out. Either way the car will feel like it has no shocks at all and will barely be drivable at speed.

[vet 180]

Gwagensteve wrote:

Yes it's normal. A shock absorber turns motion into heat- that's its job. It's only a problem if you exoerience shock fade or the heat blows the seals out. Either way the car will feel like it has no shocks at all and will barely be drivable at speed.

Stock Jimmy shocks a pretty useless at the best of times I guess.

[Gwagensteve]

The evidence they're not is because they're getting hot. They're doing their job by turning motion into heat. If they were useless they wouldn't be getting hot.

[shep]

I am on my 4th set of shocks in 50000km. I can't find anything that stays together in rough roads.
Have put much smaller lift in and trying OME shocks now, hopefully they last a bit longer

[sideways]

What shocks have you had shep?

[THE_DICTATOR]

Ora shocks, munro and kyb. All to suit 100mm lift. Would love some dobinson remote resovour shocks but even though they
advertise as making custom shocks they weren't interested in making me any.


^^^that is what shep would say if he logged on with the correct user name

[vet 180]

THE_DICTATOR wrote:

Ora shocks, munro and kyb. All to suit 100mm lift. Would love some dobinson remote resovour shocks but even though they
advertise as making custom shocks they weren't interested in making me any.


^^^that is what shep would say if he logged on with the correct user name

LOL

Yeah, my stock shocks are pretty bad already after 50,000kms also. A lot of that is high speed highway stuff. I can get remote reservoir units easy enough, its just the cost. I do a bit of high speed off-road work, by the end of a trip these days the car is bouncing all over the shop.

[losfer]

Im still on factory shocks in my 99 jimny but the furtherest offroad ive been is a dodgy muddy boat ramp in the backroads of jacobs well.

[Grags]

Hey mate...
Going back to the original question
If your car came from the manufacturer with a swaybar as standard fitment then removing it makes the car:
UNROADWORTHY... In which case it is also
UNINSURED even if you have insurance

If by some miracle you have not had an accident by flogging a Jimny at warp speeds and a Cop who knows his onions pulls you over
You will be busted fined, lost points and sent straight to machinery

So don't do it.
If you want to tune the handling and stay legal on public roads, you must have a sway bar 'of some sort' in place.

[losfer]

Grags , he lives in the United Arab Emirates ! im pretty sure your point is moot.

[losfer]

This is how stupid our laws are here . I can get a swift with 70 hp at the wheels i can turbo it and put the biggest turbo on it and make 250 hp at the wheels , get it complianced and roadworthy and insured and all is good. Yet you cant have nitrous at all in a street car (even without a bottle, you cant even have the lines plumbed in). when i put nitrous in my swift it made an extra 30 hp but it had a crapload more torque. Drove it on the street all the time didnt kill any babies. Even got pulled up by police on several occasions , race seats in front , stripped out interior ,nitrous bottle in back , i had compliance certificates for everything done except for nitrous and they let me off every time! The reason they let me off because they pulled me up in a routine check not because i was breaking the law. Only one a female officer said , your car isnt legal, i just handed her all the paperwork from the glovebox and she didnt say a thing !!

[Grags]

I need to go to spec savers, I saw Jacobs Well mentioned but it was another poster

[losfer]

Haha saving a seal were you , its all good . that was me mentioning jacobs well .

[vet 180]

losfer wrote:

This is how stupid our laws are here . I can get a swift with 70 hp at the wheels i can turbo it and put the biggest turbo on it and make 250 hp at the wheels , get it complianced and roadworthy and insured and all is good. Yet you cant have nitrous at all in a street car (even without a bottle, you cant even have the lines plumbed in). when i put nitrous in my swift it made an extra 30 hp but it had a crapload more torque. Drove it on the street all the time didnt kill any babies. Even got pulled up by police on several occasions , race seats in front , stripped out interior ,nitrous bottle in back , i had compliance certificates for everything done except for nitrous and they let me off every time! The reason they let me off because they pulled me up in a routine check not because i was breaking the law. Only one a female officer said , your car isnt legal, i just handed her all the paperwork from the glovebox and she didnt say a thing !!

This post is interests me

[GraphicX]

my experience with the jimny sway bar;
- stock suspension & no sway bar i found it wandered all over the road at highway speeds, didn't feel save & was very touchy when correcting. didn't like it one bit.

- ebay king spring/ultima shock suspension & no sway bar it was extremely jittery at highway speed & bump steered really badly.

- dobinsons spring/shock suspension & no sway bar was a massive improvement over having the sway bar in, very happy with it. car is predictable & feels safe.

pros of no sway bar were obviously more flex in the front but also more comfort when going over bumps. cons though are the car isn't probably going to go too well if i have to suddenly avoid something on the highway & make a sudden turn, will probably roll. it doesn't feel as though it'll do this with the dobinsons shocks, but certainly did with stock shocks or the ultima shocks. i also feel it's the shocks, not the springs, that are responsible for this as i had different spring & shock combinations & it was always the shocks that made a noticeable difference.

[vet 180]

Good input graphicx, just confirms what my bum feels.

I haven't put the sway bar back on yet, the wife has been driving the car every day at 120. I have told her to be careful obviously. She said at first she was a little worried as I showed her just how much body roo.it can have, but now she said " it feels fine you just have to go a little slower in corners".

I did take it to one of my favorite twisty mountain highways where I did a down hill pass at 140 where possibly and although you have to be alert it was possible to maintain that speed in the curves (not on the up hill parts obviously )

[GraphicX]

my big worry in your situation, or any for that matter, is if you come to something on the road & need to make an emergency manoeuvre you'll be a lot more likely to end up on your roof. in all honesty for you'd i'd be considering leaving it in & only removing it when you're ready to go off road. the tracks i visit are all within about 30 minutes of home & i'm the only driver of the car.

[zukenutter]

GraphicX wrote:

my experience with the jimny sway bar;
- stock suspension & no sway bar i found it wandered all over the road at highway speeds, didn't feel save & was very touchy when correcting. didn't like it one bit.

I found highway speeds were the big issue when not running a sway bar too. Throw a trailer on the back and some truck turbulence and it can get pretty scary.
Around town it's actually soft and comfy but gets a pretty good lean around corners. I choose to keep mine on and spend 5 mins removing it when going off road.

[vet 180]

So I did about 600kms in a trip into Oman this weekend. A mixture of high speed (140kph) highway, curvy mountain roads, sand dunes.

First time I have had in the sand dunes with it off and it's awesome. So much better on the transition at the bottom of the dune and also poping a wheel over the top of a crest. At low speeds it has more oversteer and feels more maneuverable.

Highway I had no issue doing 140kph for the couple hundred kms that was highway. Still feels stable, obviously more body roll but stable.

In the curvy mountain roads you have to be careful corner to corner transitions. I did find myself driving a little slower in these situations as mid corner adjustments can be scary. I find with the sway bar on I have no issue driving close to the limits of grip, but with it off I do not feel as comfortable. So the focus is on driving smooth, picking the lines and committing to a corner with very little mid corner adjustment and very smooth mid corner transition.

[GraphicX]

are you running stock suspension or lifted ?

[vet 180]

All stock at the moment.