As far as the turning placement goes, my bars are all over the place, and it usually depends upon what I'm doing at the time.
On stuff where I'm "thrashing" punk-like more I tend to have the bar out of the way, but if I'm doing some super tight controlled work, it's either close at hand, or I keep it in my hand if it won't stay in place.
As far as bar travel, depends. My "stangs" all have the vibrato bar almost a whole 2.5-3 inches off the pickguard so I can get these HUGE bar dives, on the Jaguar and Jazzmaster, I'm only about an inch and a half off the pickguard, I find that's the optimum point. My Jaguar's bar is bent up a little at the end to allow some wider travel when needed.
Doing Dive Bombs on the Jag and Jazz is usually done in drop tuning, double Drop C is almost locking vibrato-like, I can get the strings limp enough to touch the pickups depending upon the particular guitar.
