Been reading the gazillions of posts on ARB's and was wondering the difference it makes.. I've read posts saying it makes handling the wet with the ARB like driving it in the dry before it was fitted (if you know what I mean).

In terms of driving in both wet and dry... how does it effect the car's behaviour, reduce understeer, can you feel that it is more stiff?

No need to mention the differences between brands as there are a million posts on which ones are better, I guess I'd just like a generalisation...

What I find is it makes the rear more stable. Even driving over rough surfaces u would notice the difference. When pushing hard into a corner the back stays a lot more flat than before.

I notice that coming out of a corner on the power that as the car straightens up the back end feels like it step out the slightest little bit then snaps back straight again.

Would a rear ARB reduce this effect? Just wondering really as it isn't an issue really, just feels a bit odd as it happens as the front is straightening up.

The roll bar just takes the twitchyness alot further up the speed range before you feel it (much more stable) it also helps turn in response.

Whiteline are probobly the best value all round ARB as under £150 and has 4 points of adjustment. The first 2 are for std suspension or cars with std frt roll bar, the other 2 are for increased turn in and oversteer in std car, or if had shocks and frt bar fitted it balances the car out for a more neutral drive while still giving increased turn in and less roll.

Don't be fooled with products that have large OS bars as these are usually not solid bars and are not as good or no different to smaller stiffer bars while charging more for them.

Buy one you will never regret it

I have a whiteline adjustable on mine and it does indeed make the car feel a lot more stable, especially when caining it.

A lot less wallow through bends as well

Malc

I know this is a bit of an ancient thread, but was looking for info on the RARB. I take it everyone is in agreement that fundamentally it reduces lift off oversteer? To me, this seems the complete opposite of what I want to do. Reducing lift off oversteer will only help to increase understeer and adjustability. Perhaps I'm just happier with the car moving around more than most. Any further clarification would be great

I know this is a bit of an ancient thread, but was looking for info on the RARB. I take it everyone is in agreement that fundamentally it reduces lift off oversteer? To me, this seems the complete opposite of what I want to do. Reducing lift off oversteer will only help to increase understeer and adjustability. Perhaps I'm just happier with the car moving around more than most. Any further clarification would be great

I thought the general vibe was that it increased lift off oversteer especially on the highest setting.

OK, maybe I'm reading things wrong then. It would make sense that it would increase oversteer since stiffening one end of the car generally improves it's response but decreases the overall grip. Finding the correct balance is pretty difficult to do and depends a lot on driving situation. There is a point sometimes though where the increase in roll stiffness can have odd effects, particularly if the chassis is particularly floppy, which the Octavia is compared to a current generation car. I should probably do some more research into it myself really and dig out my vehicle dynamics notes from Uni. I know that torsion bar rear ends behave slightly strangely when compared to the relatively simple to understand multilink/double wishbone setup.

Heres your post

Heres my head .............................lol

Sorry I'm a little lost:O

Sorry. I'm thinking out loud! Automotive Engineer geekyness.

To paraphrase.....if you have a chassis that is completely stiff (impossible in reality, but a single seater is close):

-Fitting an anti roll bar to the back if previously you haven't had one will increase oversteer.

-Fitting an anti roll bar to the front if previously you haven't had one will increase understeer.

By this I mean ultimate overall grip at each end, not the feeling you get as a driver. Because you cut out roll, the lateral acceleration will be higher initially because the body rolls much less giving the feeling of a more responsive chassis. In a steady state corner like a long motorway sliproad though, the car without the anti roll bar will generate a higher peak than the one that does have one. In a constantly changing corner though like a slalom the car that has the best balance of anti roll and grip will be fastest since the weight transfer will be less.

In reality though, because it's hard to make a big saloon car very stiff, it will twist quite a lot. This makes it much tougher to get the suspension to do what you want. What may actually be happening when you fit an ARB to the back of an Octavia is that it's stopping the rear of the chassis flexing. This will probably then help keep the inside rear wheel on the ground and hence increase grip at the back reducing oversteer. I would imagine this may well be the case since the vRS has the cross braces behind the seats which suggests that they knew it was quite flexible. In fact, I would suggest it was a bit of a bodge since they would avoid something quite so obvious at all costs since it massively compromises loading space.

Hope that makes a bit more sense!

can you say that again diden't get it lol:rofl:

im a big fan of my whiteline kit :orb_raisi

i think you def notice it, or it gives you that extra reasurance ?

im sure i can def chuck it around abit more than b4,

after ruining it with gert rims

def worth the investment, and certainly better than nothing

suck it and see, theres always ebay if you dont like it

:orb_laugh