nicks90 Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 Slightly strange topic and not LR related - but it is for a 4x4!!! My other car is a jeep grand cherokee, and whilst its a lovely vehicle to drive and does everything my old D2 does without the build quality and rust issues - it does tend to be a bit rattled by poor road surfaces, cambers and tight corners. A very popular mod by GC owners is to fit an uprated HD rear anti roll bar from addco. This pretty much sorts out the handling issues and turns it into a very nice composed road warrior. However the price and availability of these anti roll bars is not for the faint hearted!!! So my question is this - is ARB material some magic formula of unobtanium, or is it just standard mild steel bar? The rear arb on the jeep is a standard C shape, no funky kinks or bulges or anything like that - so would it be possible to get a bit of 1" bar (same as addco uses) and bend up a new one, drill a hole in each end ot accept the bolt that attaches the link arms to the axle and jobs a good'un? I have a variety of poly bush blanks that i could make replacement arb mounting bushes out of - or ream out the existing bushes to accept a 1" bar instead of the original 9/16 - so mounting it should be simple too. any advice appreciated! Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miketomcat Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 Could you adapt one off another vehicle say transit etc. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 As far as I am aware it is just mild steel, I see no reason why you couldn't make one however unless you have a forge flattening the ends could be fun, so as above I would try and find one from something else. Jason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Frimodt Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 I had a Cherokee that I made purely for offroad so removed the roll bars. You could have'm for free, but I live in Denmark.. But I would suppose you could find some from somebody who removed theirs too for offroading. Surely they wouldn't be a straight swap from a Cherokee, but wouldn't think would too much fiddling to get them fitted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtydiesel Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 An anti roll bar is not just mild steel, its spring steel of some description. A mild steel one would snap in a few hundred cycles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 it has to twist too, so it's a spring steel torsion bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyw Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 Where's Simon R? He'll know plenty of tech on materials, having produced the X eng ARB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retroanaconda Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 I believe the X-Eng offering uses a standard Land Rover half-shaft as the actual main twisting portion. Good idea too, since they're designed to accept twisting loads like that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyw Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 But I believe Simon has them re heat treated in some way, so not quite the same as an original half shaft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve b Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 I'd look for one off a vehicle of similar size and wieght and make mounts to suit to chassis and axle , 110 would be a start or D1 , I suspect one from a transit would be too stiff . cheers Steveb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 Torsion bars are essentially mild steel, sometimes high strength steel, but always tempered / heat treated to make them more springy! If you can adapt a standard bar, that would be the best option. P38 Range Rover Front are about the stiffest Land Rover types available if that's any help. A half shaft is a reasonable option too as they are tempered. Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicks90 Posted December 22, 2012 Author Share Posted December 22, 2012 Thanks for all your help. Next job is to get some rough measurements of the arb and start trawling scrappies for something thicker and roughly the right size. So second question... The arb links are currently perfectly vertical, do they have to be like this or is some lateral variation allowed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disco_al Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 don't know if it would work or not, but years ago i remember a friend having a mk2 escort mexico, and that had two anti roll bars on it. they were clamped together somehow to uprate the stiffness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicksmelly Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 The rear axle of a fairly recent Transit RWD van is very similar to Heep Cheeriokie axles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bm52 Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 have you checked ebay? there are a few on there but not sure if they would fit your version. example http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JEEP-CHEROKEE-3-7-LIMITED-AUTO-ESTATE-2001-2004-3-7-ANTI-ROLL-BAR-REAR-/251136050366?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3a78e004be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoltan Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 You can make anti roll bars from EN16T. You won't cold bend them though, use Oxy and hot bend where you need to. The drop links ideally need to be vertical otherwise you will deflect the bar instead of promoting twist in it. Been making them like this for racing for nearly 20 years and not had a single failure (touch wood) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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