Hey guys. I know this might sound stupid, but I am not exactly sure where my torsion bars are on my 99 trooper. Do you guys have any knowledge of knowing where they are in the front? Also wondering how much stress would I be able to put on them if I get a lift?

P.S. was considering getting heavy duty torsion bars.

they are the long straight bars that go from your front lower control arms back to just under the driver/passenger doors.

lifting doesn't increase the stress on your t-bars in any significant amount IMHO, moreso, just reindex's where your truck rides within the suspension travel it already has. more weight (ie winch, heavy duty bumper, etc.) will probably do more to add stress to the t-bars than any amount of lifting.

-Rob

Rob's info is correct...I would add that the name "torsion bars" is misleading because they are nothing more than straight springs. They often use them on 4WD vehicle suspensions because coil springs would get in the way of the front drive axles.

Is it possible to reset/re-index torsion bars so the vehicle will ride at the same height as if they were cranked or tightened? Will this affect suspension travel?

Thanks!

I'm not sure I understand your question. "Re-indexing" is simply a way of re-clocking the torsion bar adjustment arm so it has more room to swing (and therefore to adjust ride height). Re-indexing is only necessary if the adjustment arm
has run out of room to swing. The arm is just pulled off the torsion bar end and rotated a spline or two to gain more swing room. Apparently the factory was fairly casual about where the adjustment arm was placed on the torsion bar...of course they weren't anticipating folks raising ride height by 3" or more. But re-indexing is only occasionally necessary for some vehicles, most don't need it.

"Cranking" torsion bars refers to turning (cranking) the ride height adjustment bolt, which pulls or pushes on the adjustment arm, rotating the arm, the torsion bar, and the lower control arm at the suspension, thereby changing ride height.

Whenever ride height is adjusted, total suspension travel is unchanged. However, the resting point within that range of travel does change, so if you adjust ride height upward by cranking the torsion bars, you are exchanging available downtravel for uptravel. Continue to lift the vehicle ride height and at some point you have so little downtravel left that ride quality and safety are unacceptable.

Does that answer your question?

Answered all my question <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />