I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com and this is my review and installation of the Rough
Country Front Sway Bar Disconnects fitting all 2007 and up JKs.
These are available for two and a half inches of lift and there's a second set available
for three and a half to six inches of lift, so it just depends which lift kit is on your
JK.
Today we're gonna talk through the installation of these sway bar disconnects which is a very
simple one out of three wrench installation.
You're gonna be able to get these installed in about an hour with just your traditional
hand tools but we'll talk more about the install in just a second.
We're also going to talk about the construction and a few of the features of these sway bar
disconnects.
Disconnecting your front sway bar when you're off road has a lot of benefits.
If you have a lift or even if you have a factory suspension on your JK disconnecting that front
sway bar is going to give you a lot more front axle articulation, which simply means you
get to keep more tires on the ground at the same time providing more traction in getting
you over those tough obstacles.
Now you can certainly disconnect a factory front sway bar but you're gonna have to have
some tools on hand and you're going to have to have some bungee cords or some zip ties
to keep that sway bar up out of the way so it's not going to bind up in the suspension
when you're on the trail causing you to bend something.
What this kit allows you to do is have your sway bar links connected with a very quick
and easy to disconnect pin so that you can, in the parking lot before you hit the trail,
pull the pin, disconnect the sway bar, swing the links up out of the way, and the kit also
includes a spot to store those links.
So, you can pop them onto this bracket, again making it very, very simple to disconnect
and then to reconnect your sway bar.
Now this kit is going to be fairly inexpensive, however there are some other kits on the market
like the Teraflex one that are going to be right around the same price and don't require
you to drill to install this storage bracket.
So if you're not interested in drilling a couple of holes in your frame in order to
install that bracket but you do want to have the functionality of that storage bracket
I would recommend taking a look at the Teraflex brand.
As far as construction goes these links are going to be very similar to a factory sway
bar end link.
They have a tie rod end style ball joint on one end, they have a rubber bushing on the
other end, the difference of course is that this is going to be adjustable.
This link has a threaded rod and a stop nut so that you can adjust the length a little
bit.
There is a way to get your sway bar end links adjusted properly so that the sway bar is
at the proper angle when you're about halfway through your suspension travel, but most of
us will just eyeball the length of your sway bar and link.
You can get the sway bar to about parallel when the Jeep is sitting on the ground.
So, this kit is going to include those two-adjustable links.
One thing that I'm not crazy about on these links is that they're not greaseable.
If they were you'd be able to get a little bit more life out of not only the tie rod
end at this side but also the bushing at the other side, but this set is not going to be
greaseable.
Also, included in this kit is of course your quick disconnect pin.
This is going to take place on the bolt on the bottom side of your sway bar end link,
that's going to be on the axle side.
This allows you to very quickly and easily slide the bushing end over top of this and
connect it with the included pin, and of course, to reconnect it very easily as well.
The other thing that I mentioned earlier is that this does come with a storage bracket.
So, when you swing that sway bar end link up out of the way you have somewhere for it
to stay so it's not going to get bound up in the rest of the suspension.
Now the only downside to this bracket is that it does require you to drill a couple of holes
in the frame of your Jeep and use a couple of self-tapping screws to install the bracket.
Teraflex, as I mentioned before, makes a similar kit to this one however their storage bracket
goes on your front body mount so there's no drilling required.
If drilling is something that you're not comfortable with doing I would recommend taking a look
at the kit from Teraflex.
If you're okay drilling a couple of holes this kit is going to be a good fit.
As I said before, the installation of this kit is a very simple one out of three wrench
installation.
You can get these bolted onto your Jeep in just about an hour.
All you need to do is first remove your factory sway bar end links.
You'll be able to remove that end link from the sway bar itself and from the axle side
of its mount.
After that you'll be attaching your new end link, and this is the time when you want to
adjust the end link.
This end link is not double adjustable so you do have to have one end of it disconnected
in order to make that length adjustment.
So you can take a look at whatever sway bar end link you currently have on your Jeep and
adjust this one to be right around the same length using the stop nut to tighten it down.
After that you're going to attach the pin to the axle side of you sway bar end link
mount and then it's really just a matter of swinging the sway bar onto that pin using
the retention pin to hold it in place.
And the final step is going to be disconnecting the sway bar as you would on the trail, swing
the end link up out of the way so that it's parallel with the frame, and see exactly where
you need to mount this bracket.
You can really just hold the bracket up and see where it lines up, mark those holes, use
a center punch, drill the frame then install the brackets using those self-tapping screws.
Again, if you're not comfortable with drilling there are some other kits.
Teraflex, for instance, that has a very similar kit around the same price but doesn't require
drilling into the frame.
So as far as tools, you're going to need those traditional hand tools.
You are going to need a drill with a good sharp drill bit, you're going to need a center
punch, but other than that overall a very easy install.
Both of the front sway bar disconnect kits, the one for two and a half inches of lift
and the one for three and a half to six inches of lift, come in at right around $60, which
I think is a fair price for what you're getting.
I would like to see a sway bar end link that is greaseable to add a little bit of life
to it and to make sure that it remains quiet.
And I'd also like to see a bracket that doesn't require you to drill into the frame like some
of the other brands on the market.
But overall this is going to be a functional kit and it's going to be fairly inexpensive.
So if you have a lift on your JK, you'd like to go off road, and you'd like to get the
most suspension articulation and travel for the most performance out of your Jeep having
a set of sway bar disconnects is going to make it very easy and quick to both disconnect
and reconnect your sway bar.
This kit in particular is going to be fairly inexpensive and it's gonna get the job done.
So, that's my review of the Rough Country Front Sway Bar Disconnects fitting all 2007
and up JKs that you can find right here at extremeterrain.com.