BBQ_HotDogs said:
You were underthinking this...
Are you willing to bet your life and others around you on this?
I can't speak for Al, but I would be. Keep two things in mind. First, many (most? all?) Explorers don't come equipped with a rear sway bar to begin with. Installing one, even if it's not as effective in one mounting direction as the other, is only going to increase the stability of the vehicle. Second, it's simple physics. Torsion bars don't give a rat's behind about their mounting direction or orientation. The resisting force is based on the angle of twist and the force per degree of angle of twist. It doesn't matter if you mount the bar upside-down, right-side-up, or clamp it to a wall and pull it horizontally, if you twist the bar X degrees, it will provide YYYlbs of force against the link. Believe it or not, it really is that simple. The only thing that *could* affect it is how it attaches to the end links. Example: On the front sway bar, the connection point to the end links is at an angle with respect to the sway bar. If you were to flip the bar, the end links would pass through at roughly double that angle, but in the opposite direction. That could cause the end link or sway bar end to snap at the extreme ends of their travel. That was why I asked for some pics of the end links and their connection to the bar before generating my opinion on the matter.
Install it correctly or die, bottom line... I almost killed myself, my daughter and others whom I didn't know... PLEASE don't take that chance, ever. When you need that sway bar the most and it is not working "properly", you may not get a second chance...
I missed this story, so I can't comment... can you elaborate, please?
edit: Found that story... forgot about it, that's all. It's been a while.
I fail to see what the rear sway bar failed to prevent? Unless the bar or links broke, the rollover was inevitable. Had you not equipped the vehicle with a stabilizer, maybe it wouldn't have happened? Maybe if your tires hadn't been so grippy, it would have skidded sideways instead of rolling? It sounds like the Honda you hit 'tripped' the vehicle, and I fail to see how that's the fault of the stabilizer bar?
For the record, that's the number one cause of rollovers in SUVs: tripping. The vehicle skids, hits a curb or other object, and simple physics takes over. The biggest, fattest stabilizer bar in the world isn't going to stop an SUV from rolling. Rollovers are caused by a whole lot of factors, and whether or not it's equipped with a stabilizer is just one of hundreds of factors to consider.
