Do y'all's trucks ride rough?

[superj]

I mean really rough?

We just got this 04 edge and it reminds me of when I had tightened the torsion bars a little too much on my trooper2 or frontier.

It flexes about 1/2 an inch of you push on the front fender or bumper. It's really solid. How tall do you guys who are stock with stock tires sit to the fender from the concrete?

 

[Uncle Gump]

Turning up or down the torsion bars really does nothing to change the spring of the bars. It simply anchors the fixed end of the bar in a different place which changes the movable ends loaded position. The problem is that by raising or lowering the lower control arms takes away either up (compression) or down (rebound) travel of the arm. There isn't much travel in these suspensions in the first place. If the ride height has been altered on your truck... you have lost travel in one direction or the other. If to far from spec... the complaint is typically a harsh ride. The ride height of these isn't measured from a body line to the ground... I believe the measurements are taken from the crossmember to a couple of points on the control arm and the distance between them has a spec it should fall within. It's done that way on 4WD trucks and i believe it's the same for the 2WD versions because they use basically the same set up.

Let me see if I can find the illustration that details this measurement.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I found a post with the spec and illustration for 2WD trucks...

how to measure factory ride height, 1998+

for a 2wd it's 102mm/ 4.08" 4wd, new parts 113mm/4.52" 4wd , original (I guess that means well broken in) 101mm/4.04"

www.therangerstation.com

 

[Curious Hound]

How much pressure in your tires?

 

[superj]

That's the same way you check proper height on a first gen Nissan frontier.

The tires are probably lower than they should be, ha ha ha. I normally don't really keep on eye on tire pressure unless I happen to be near a machine and think about checking them. I can check though since I am trying to get this truck ready to carry my bicycle to the Shiner GASP bicycle ride.

(And they call it a ride but the time frame to finish the 100 miles is riding at race speeds so I call it a race.)

I will check to see if it's within spec versus the linked thread. I am going to sew up that seat edge that is torn from people getting in and out really quick, too

 

[superj]

Found one problem.... It is sitting on the front bump stops.

So maybe it's to rough because someone loosened them not realizing what they did?


And number two is I am in ants so I have to move

 

[Curious Hound]

Hope they're not fire ants.

Riding on the bump stops is definitely rough.

 

[superj]

Well, I need another person to hold the other side of the string to pull for measuring but I raised the front a bit off the stops and test drove it and than adjusted it up a bit more till it was off the stops enough to allow compression but not ride horrible.

It's wayyyyy better now. And they are those little red fire ants who survive another couple days because I have no powder to put down.

I also got to check my first tank of gas in the truck, 14.5mpg for only driving in town traffic

 

[19Walt93]

I'd get the front end aligned by an experienced tech, the ride height is the first thing checked after ensuring there are no loose parts and checking the tire pressure. Ride height changes the angles. I'd also ask for a printout and request that everything be set to preferred. A front end can be set with everything in the allowed range and still chew up tires- for example, if the camber is at the negative end of allowed and the toe in is set at the toe out end of allowed, the 2 combined will wear the inside edges of the tires real fast.

 

[superj]

Ya. That's a good idea.

 

[19Walt93]

By the way, my 351/C4 swapped 93 Ranger averaged 16 mpg all last summer but I'm not sure it's a fair comparison. You said "in town" and I think Corpus Christi would qualify as a city in NH, Canaan doesn't have a traffic light.

 

[superj]

I bet that's a blast though. I know the 302/c6 in my wrangler was way more fun than the stroked 4.5 i6, ha ha ha. And those v8s sound wayyyyy better.


I still call corpus a one horse town because I grew up in socal. Corpus is actually a fairly large city, over 300k. It's actually the 8th largest in Texas but was poorly planned and poorly managed.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

I put V8 explorer bars and 1750lb leaf springs in mine with bilstein shocks.

Yes, it rides rough.

Do squats. Make your butt cushion the ride.

 

[Shran]

My 4 cylinder truck rides a LOT rougher than my V6 truck of the same wheelbase... Literally the only major difference is the engine and model year. I've tried all kinds of little things like shocks, various tires, tire pressure, weight in the back, etc. Some are just that way. Looks like you found part of your issue though!

 

[Curious Hound]

"Do y'all's trucks ride rough?"

Depends where I'm driving. Found a couple rough spots at Badlands.