anyone have any experience with one, the other, or both?

i specifically mean the 25mm SAWs versus the 23.4mm OMEs...

stock front bumper setup, but significant nosedive at stops...

 

I have the 25mm SAW on my truck. Cranked for extra lift, ARB bar and winch.

I took my sway bar off and noticed absolutly no diffrance, I can NOT bottom out the front end when flexing. (i dont have low profile pumpstops)

 

I used the 25mm saw's on my 89 runner for a while with stock arms. The ride was horrid. Flex was even worse. Say goodbye to suspension movement. MAYBE if you had a heavy bumper, but even then it is probably too much in my opinion. They work pretty well with the long travel arms, though.

I would definitely have gotten the OME's if I knew A) that they existed and B) how torsion thickness affected ride.

After ahving both stock bars and SAW's I have come to the conclusion, that either bar cranked kills flex. And as logic would have it, the thicker bars are tougher to twist. So if you crank the thicker bars, be ready for no flex.

You're t-bars are probably just worn. I would consider getting the ome's and bj spacers. Then run very little crank. That would provide a nice balance, I believe.

 

i have some nosedive going on now with the original tbars, and i'm moving up to 32" tires soon, but since i'm sticking with the stock bumper i worried that things would become too stiff with the 25mm SAWs...hence this thread.

thanks deathrunner.

 

I have Downey's 26mm Tbars, ride is good, but travel sucks. However, I did get a nice lift from 'em. If I had the $$, I'd crank down the T-bars 1.5" and install some BJ spacers.

Just my $.02, it's all I can afford right now.

 

I'm in the process of switching to coilovers, I'm curious to see the difference between them and my SAW's. I think our idea of a "soft" 4runner is pretty stiff. I'm also super critical of my ride....so waht seems stiff to me is probably fine.

I gathered this info and posted it in another thread, but here it is again:

Torsion bar thicknesses:

Stock 22.8mm
Old Mane Emu 23.4mm
Rancho 25mm
Sway Away 25mm
Downey 26mm

So effectively we have a range from 23-26 with basically 1 mm increments.

The only negative thing I have heard of the OME's is the coating, I guess they tend to rust...so painting them befor einstall is worth consideration.

 

i would try some airshocks up front if you have nose dive. at least with the airshocks, you have some adjustability

 

Theres a wicked 7th order equation that relates bar diameter to spring rate. (obiously its not liner)

Ive heard the downey ones are WAY to stiff.

I was not aware OME made bars, but based on there rear springs/shocks i have on my sec gen id get the torsion bars also if I was going to.

Crank on the t-bars affects preload, NOT spring rate.

 

This is going to open a can of worms so if anybody wants to discuss this, PM me:

Actually, if you run a free body diagram you'll find that it does not affect preload.

 

I am running the SAW's on my '91 with an ARB winch bumper and I think it is too stiff. I have since started looking at the OME because it seems to be the best of both choices. I will be switching mine soon. Since I am an OME Dealer I gotta try what I sell. We had a group buy on these a while back and still have a copuple sets that I will still honor the price on. Here is the link.

 

Well I read/researched a lot about the different torsion bars and the Old Man Emu's seem to be the perfect size...better/stronger than stock, but not overdone.
I found way too many complaints about the infamous SAW's.

I know theres a couple members running the OME t-bars so hopefully they'll add something to the thread. I bought them myself (including what you see in the pic) from trdparts4u.com at a good price and should have everything installed soon.

 

Dude, did they have anything else for your truck.....hahahaha

I'm one to talk.

Looks sweet. I think you're gonna be happy with those bars. I don't know why companies like sway away make a range of bar thicknesses, I mean you can get all kinds of spring rates for coils, why not torsion?

 

i'm glad i opened this thread...hearing strap22 say that his SAWs are too stiff with an ARB is exactly what i was afraid of. i like my downey rear coils (they're not too stiff) but i have had a lot more time to think about the tbars; the downey 26mm seems like a big jump up from the stock 22.8.

Napoleon; my edelbrock shocks are brand-new, and i really like them, so i'm sticking with that for now. good thought, though.

thanks for all your opinions! and congrats on all your new goodies Rocket. i wish i had just went straight to the OME SS, in retrospect. i don't like the additional bracket my skyjacker unit requires.

speaking of...strap22: how about that link?

 

Sexy picture.. As soon as I finish the exhaust on my 3.4 I'm ordering those from strap22

 

Great past time read. Should keep this going. I was going to do OME on my 86 4runner but am very worried to even touch them now..

 

In my search for a suspension improvement I ran some analysis to see what was what for the front end load capacity on my 2nd gen runner. There are four pdf files attached to this response with the OEM torsion and and stock A-arms as a base line for a calculated load capacity at various ranges of the wheel travel over 8 inches. Then I did the same analysis with OME, SAW and Downey torsion bars while running modified Blazeland A-arms for the suspension with 10" of wheel travel. The holy grail is that the OEM load capacity can be almost re-created with the addition of the SAW 25mm bar with about an inch of lift over the OEM height when the A-arm are in fairly close angular proximity for a ride height setting with the addition of the Blazeland. The slight curvatures to the load capacity plots can be attributed to the foreshortening of the a-arm as it sweeps through the range of angles which make up the wheel travel of the suspension. I have OME's on my 4Runner at present with Blazeland arms and a T-100 anti role bar which is working fairly well. But I really am looking forward to installing the Sway-A-Way's when they come off back order status as that will increase the load capacity and perhaps tame the added weight from the All Pro bumper and X-Bull that are on the front end!