Thread: Controlling Body Roll - Spring & or Shocks?

A sharp turn, like a swerve, will cause body roll (lurching) that good shockies will help control. A slow turn like a long sweeper bend will be controlled more by stiffer springs or more specifically, stronger swaybars. Swaybars reduce off road ability so some people have used swaybar disconnects for dual use. It all depends on your driving style.

IMHO, initial "tip in" feeling of body roll can be reduced by fitting stiff shocks but "steady state " actual body roll is controlled by the springs and stabiliser bars.

I recall fitting Bilstien sport shocks to a 5 series BMW I had and the sports shocks made the steering "tip in" much sharper, but the ride was atrocious at all but really high speeds. Many people rave about their sports Bilsteins reducing body roll but IMHO, they are talking about turn in.

Remember that if you fit harder springs , then you upset the balance front to rear of the stabiliser bars. I found my RRC to be very tail happy when I put heavier springs on, and now it is excellent with no rear bar but the stock front bar, as the rear roll stiffness has been increased by stiffer springs.
It depends what emphasis you want for the car as on road benefits from high roll stiffness and stiffer shocks but off road requires the opposite. It is all a compromise.
Selection of shocks depends on personal preference for ride. IMHO the best ride is given by stock shocks , with all aftermarket shocks being stiffer to give the buyer the satisfaction of noticing a change.LOL

Regards Philip A

The stiffer you make it the worse it will perform off road. If it is just on road manners that you want then the answer is both shocks and springs but if I had to change just one then it would be the shocks first.

I've been looking at one of these for the back end.

X-eng High Performance Off-Road Engineering

Looks tidy on how it can calm down the road manners and when you want the full hit, just disengage.

If wanting to control body roll fit a sway bar if non fitted or a thicker one.But this will limit wheel articulation.