Magneride and Swaybars

I want to start a discussion on Magneride and how it affects sway bars.

With Magneride becoming more of a lower-model option in the 2018 car, it seems like it may eventually (5, 10, 15 years?) become the standard as more and more manufacturers use it over standard shocks. Eventually a company would be "left behind" if they didn't offer it as standard.

Secondly, and more the point of this post:

Can or will Magneride ever make sway bars redundant?

In the ever-growing push for cheaper manufacturing (since the dawn of mass-manufacture), lower NVH, and fuel efficiency / lightweighting (more recently) it would seem an obvious solution, to remove some parts (weight and complexity) from the design if their function can be incorporated into another existing component.

Sway bars literally bind (constrain, in some way) two wheels together, in a fairly crude attempt to reduce body roll and the associated control problems it creates.

Magneride could electronically reduce body roll, while still providing better comfort and performance.


Thoughts? comments? Does this sound feasible? Do you think this will happen? Is it a crazy idea? Is is already happening?

I'm not an engineer of any kind, but I THINK I understand what active/magnetic shocks offer. Aside from the cost to replace them if they are damaged or fail, I don't see any negatives to them.

In fact, the Magnaride shocks on the 2018 Mustang were one of the main reasons I was going to wait until the 2018's came out and not buy a 2017.

Until the steering rack on my previous daily-driver went. When a $900 part fails on a car worth $3K, and it's like the 3rd major repair bill in a year, it's time to get rid of the car.

Which is how I wound up with my 2017 GT and not a 2018 GT 6 months from now.

I see these active shocks (is that the correct term for them?) becoming standard equipment on all cars eventually, and I can see them replacing sway bars and various other bolt-on doodads that the aftermarket makes a fortune on, today.

Anything is possible in the future, I guess. I haven't experienced a performance car with magnetic dampers but I have experienced them in a GMC truck and it didn't seem all that magical. The way I understand it (and I may be wrong) is the mag dampers allow a broader usable range and not necessarily better than a traditional damper in a specific range. For example it rides soft until it needs to stiffen up but around a track where a quality stiff damper would shine it may not have that much of an advantage. I remember reading somewhere that GM benchmarked their magnetic stuff against bilstein. Don't get me wrong I would love to have them on my car, but I don't expect stock 18 cars to embarrassing JRZ equipped cars around tracks everywhere. The aftermarket will live on because people will trade a broad use tool for a more specific tool to better suit their needs or preferences. Perhaps in a few years we'll all be paying for damper "tuning" instead of completely new units, but believe me we'll still be paying for something.

Guys can you adapt magnetize to a regular s550

You've got to understand what shocks, springs, and swaybars actually do.

Shocks (active or not), dont limit how much body roll you see in a steady corner, but they do change how quickly the body roll changes. For short transitions this can limit the body roll (because there isnt enough time) but for long sweepers, the roll angle of the car is determined by those springs and sways, not so much the shocks.

Sway bars are still needed to limt body roll beyond what the spring rates allow, and they arent going away because someone found a way to adjust the shocks on the fly.

mustangv6magn said:

Guys can you adapt magnetize to a regular s550

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It's kind of intergraded system but not to say Ford Racing cannot come out with a kit. System already there that monitored car pitch, roll, braking and acceleration . Cannot see why it can't be plug and play getting it's info from that system. Then Magneride can do it's job...........But I could be wrong

There is at least one place that does magnetic shock installs. It does require a new computer controller, associated wiring, and tuning just to manage the magnetic shocks. It can be done, but its far more expensive in the aftermarket than the Ford factory option. Maybe it will be plug and play on 18+ cars, but its not so easy on the 15-17s.

NightmareMoon said:

You've got to understand what shocks, springs, and swaybars actually do.

Shocks (active or not), dont limit how much body roll you see in a steady corner, but they do change how quickly the body roll changes. For short transitions this can limit the body roll (because there isnt enough time) but for long sweepers, the roll angle of the car is determined by those springs and sways, not so much the shocks.

Sway bars are still needed to limt body roll beyond what the spring rates allow, and they arent going away because someone found a way to adjust the shocks on the fly.

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You're right; For some reason I was forgetting that the shock isn't the spring.

The system would need some kind of electric spring to emulate the sway bar.

West TX GT said:

The way I understand it (and I may be wrong) is the mag dampers allow a broader usable range and not necessarily better than a traditional damper in a specific range. For example it rides soft until it needs to stiffen up but around a track where a quality stiff damper would shine it may not have that much of an advantage.

Click to expand...

I liken the Magneride to the DOHC VT&L that can deliver smooth idle (like plush shocks / springs) with big-cam performance (performance suspension). It's a technology that offers much less compromise on the two, generally opposing goals that they have.