Have you come across people airing down their tires and messing with their front suspension before going off-road? If so, you might be wondering why they would want to go through all that trouble, yet they could head out with their four-wheel drives. They not only check their car’s functioning, but they ensure their vehicles are in an excellent state to head out on the dirt. They do this by:
-
Airing down their tires
-
Disconnecting their anti-sway bars from their front axles
This practice is essential if you want to go off-road. Read more and educate yourself on letting air out of the tires and disconnecting the sway bars.
Airing Down Your Tires
As the name suggests, airing down the tire is simply letting out or reducing the amount of air in your car tires. When driving around on tarmacked roads or paved ways, the required air pressure is often much higher than the one you will need when heading out on the dirt. Generally, the standard air pressure for your tires ranges between thirty to forty pounds per square inch. However, this will differ from your producer’s recommendations and your car’s tire type.
High tire pressure ensures that your drive on the streets is comfortable, and it also comes in handy in ensuring that your tire’s sidewalls stay rigid when making sharp turns. Regardless of the benefits of your tires having high air pressure, they are unnecessary when you go driving out in the sand and on rough and rocky roads. That is where airing down your tires comes in because when driving your Jeep with high air pressure, you will feel every pebble and rocks you drive over, making your journey uncomfortable.
By letting air out of your tires, your vehicle can absorb the bumps and rocks better because the tread will slightly take the shape of the rocks and ridges. As a result, you will smoothly roll over the bumps hence having a better driving experience. The best part of airing down your tires is that your tires will have more grip on the rocks you drive over, especially when rock crawling.
You might probably be wondering the amount of air you need to let out of your tire when off-roading. You will not want to release so much air that you leave your tire flat. You may want to keep a moderate air pressure on the trail depending on the type of tires you are using. You can effectively let out air using a tire deflator that you can get from an auto shop near you.
You attach it to your tire’s valve stem, and with a few twists, air comes rushing out, and you measure the amount of pressure using an in-built gage, and once you achieve your needed pressure, you can stop the deflating process and you will be ready to go.
One crucial aspect to keep in mind is the airing up process before getting back on the paved streets.
Disconnecting Your Sway Bars
Disconnecting your sway bars is one of the standard practices when planning on going for a Jeep run. Anti-sway bars are fixed on axles of a 4-wheel drive to prevent it from swaying and ensure your Jeep is stable when making turns. Typically, there are sway bars on all your axles. However, you only detach the sway bar on the front when going off-road. The anti-sway bar comes in handy in stabilizing your vehicle, and it also helps guard the Jeep’s frame to both sides of the spindle.
You do not want the sway bar stabilizing your vehicle when off-roading, particularly if you like rock crawling; you will enjoy your Jeep if it is as flexible as possible. You can do this by disconnecting your front anti-sway bar. And how do you do that?
If you drive a Jeep Rubicon, then all you have to do is just push the button on your dashboard, and that’s it. However, if you operate other models, you have some work to do. Most four-wheel drives have the anti-sway bar bolted to the axle through connectors that contain ball joints to enable them to move a bit when riding. The recommended method to disconnect the bar is by installing after-market anti-sway bar disconnects devised for easy bar connection and disconnection.
On the other hand, if you consider not using the disconnect kit, you can still detach your anti-sway bar by removing the bolts attaching the sway bar to the axles, and then you can swing the bar up and tie it with zip ties, and that’s all.
Enjoy The Remarkable Off Roading Experience
If you are a rock crawler or you enjoy going off-road from time to time, then you can use the given methods to air down your tires and disconnect your sway bars to have a remarkable off-road experience. It will help if you air up your tires and connect the sway bar back to the axles before getting back on paved ways.
