Originally Posted by
Gerrit Loubser
I have no anti-roll bars on my Troll and it has been that way for a while. In that time I have run the vehicle laden and empty on tar and dirt roads and have towed a heavy off-highway caravan.
I am firmly of the opinion that anti-roll bars on a vehicle with beam axles have a much greater roll to play in improving the passengers' perception of safety than in actually improving road holding or handling.
Humans seem to find roll angles quite disturbing in a vehicle; kind of like an indicator of impending doom, even though those angles and hence also the lateral displacement of the center of gravity are rather small (even without the anti-roll bars).
With beam axles the tyres' camber angles are always relatively constant and are determined by the axle housing, unlike the case with independent suspension, where the camber angles can vary with suspension deflection and where an anti-roll bar can make a difference.
Anti-roll bars can have an effect on the over or understeering tendencies of vehicles on the limit, but in the case of the Patrol, the leading arm front end is so much stiffer in roll than the rear that it is only ever likely to understeer on the limit, with or without the anti-roll bars.
