Help me understand the use of a rear sway bar

[Alex]

I do not really understnad the use of the rear say bar and here is why:
A high performance beetle is a heavily oversteering car. Adding a rear swaybar actually increases it. To have less of an oversteer you need to add a front sway bar to get more understeer. If you get an adjustable front swaybar you could dial it in.

So why use a rear sway bar?

Alex

[CPRcubed]

Years ago (late 70's) when I upgraded to a 3/4" front bar, the car tended to "plow" in hard cornering w/acceleration. I then added the rear bar to compensate for that. The result was much better overall (less body roll) handling compared to just a stock setup, but a similar oversteer. Cheers!

[Chris Percival]

Personally I would rather effect the handing by changing the weight distribution, rather than anti roll bars.. I think the front back anti-roll bar ratio needs to be maintained, for correct functioning of the suspension.

However, it would certainly be worth a play...

[Supa Ninja]

I have recently installed both a front and rear sway bar. I did the rear while I was waiting for the front to arrive and had a almost uncontrollable amount of oversteer. I then installed the 7/8" front sway bar from Topline and now the Supa feels very balanced in the corners.

[MattKab]

The rear anti-roll bar is only safe to use when the front has been uprated. An uprated front arb alone gives rise to perculiar handling characteristics I found, adding the rear stabiliser made the car feel much more balanced whilst skanking round bends

[MattKab]

Originally posted by Alex
I do not really understnad the use of the rear say bar and here is why:
A high performance beetle is a heavily oversteering car. Adding a rear swaybar actually increases it. To have less of an oversteer you need to add a front sway bar to get more understeer. If you get an adjustable front swaybar you could dial it in.

So why use a rear sway bar?

Alex

How does an adjustable front swaybar work? The torsional rigidity is governed by material and diameter. Or am I missing something?

[Steve C]

Hi

There are two completley different adjustments on front bars.

The 1302/1303 bars have adjustable caster, useful when you have lowered your front as the wheels get pushed backwards affecting caster, these are not adjustable for stiffness.

The front bar for a beam front end bug can have adjustable connection points to stiffen or loosen the bar. My rear whitline bar has adjustable stiffnenss and I have also fitted rose joints (see attached pic) as well.

To answer the original question, you need both bars to limit body roll and one to have adjustable stiffness to get it just right

Steve C

[Andy]

In my experience with my 1303 fitted with uprated anto rolls bars front and rear, oversteer is the same, but the roll when cornering has significantly decreased, allowing me to corner far better.

You should never fit just the front anti roll bar to a Super Beetle set up as handling will be terrible even dangerous, it shoud say this in the intructions.

[MattKab]

Thanks Steve, so there isn't an adjustable front bar for the '02/'03. I might try those eccentric bushes oneday.

The Kerscher rear ARB has no adjustment. To me it looks like a standard 944 part with hardware to attach it to the Bug.

I wish I'd gone for the adjustable type, more adjustment = more fun under the car!

[Alex]

Thanks for the pic Steve.
Looks very interesting. If I get a rear sway bar I have to look for 944T ones. the I have to figure out how to mount them to my torsion bar.

Alex

[Steve C]

Hi

I often have ideas that I dont act on, maybe Im lazy or I just dont have time.

I thought that I could make an effective adjustable front bar for a 1302/1303 by using an adjustable bar similar to the rear, it would need to flat, unlike the usual rear bar on a bug, maybe something off another type of car. Then mount it on the chassis say around where the M/C is the have the sway bar arms running forward to link up where the original front bar mounts to the lower control arms, this linkage you could make adjustable for stiffness, you could also mount the bar in a similar way but have in mounted above the chassis under the fuel tank.

Hopefully some enterprising VW person might like this idea enough to give it a try.

Steve C