Rear end skips sideways on bumps

[alwaysFlOoReD]

The lightness of the rear/factory spring pack combined with the crown of the road makes the rear skip to the right on wash board. IMHO

Richard

 

[Tonka]

....you can make an explorer axle a bolt in solution

How?

 

[RangerManxlt98]

I call it wheel hop and just shrug it off.

^ same here

 

[bobbywalter]

The lightness of the rear/factory spring pack combined with the crown of the road makes the rear skip to the right on wash board. IMHO

Richard

this is true to an extent...but with properly valved shocks on the same side positioned correctly the truck will handle like a totally different machine. to be clear...take your truck and only re position the proper valved shock in place of the oem configuration....


the trade off is space will not be available under bed for certain fuel options or spare tire...and exhaust routing is potentially hampered.

Originally Posted by stickshift

I call it wheel hop and just shrug it off.

^ same here

its wheel hop in a sense...but not the classic definition of "under heavy power" wheel hop.

How?

hmmm. i looked for a picture of one of my setups as this comes up alot. i dont have one.

you can simply buy a flip kit..a piece of channel, and use the stock explorer sway bracket axle mount to mount shock..

i have done a few variations...easy to use 1/2" flat stock and some perches in place of a flip kit.

since you need new u bolts anyway, atleast if your and running 1/2 inch type ubolts...

you can buy square over spring types to facilitate particular needs or goals.

say you want to reuse the sploder spring plates so the lower shock mounts are at optimum location and angle...

the square spring u bolts allow this easily....by simply relocating the passenger mount to a position similar to the drivers side you have a great setup...better is some channel overhead as it allows you to easily play around with spacing to tailor ride characteristics.

on the pinion side there is a factory combination to allow that no matter, though it can be very difficult to track down the pieces with limited time or resources


they are a bolt in swap if they need to be, i know, i use to regularly destroy the ranger/explorer axles. in the rain/blizzard 1500 miles from home or 15 miles from with a full load on and the need to replace an axle due to failure you do what you have to when you dont have fat pockets.

 

[ES894x4]

^lol i dont think the op is going to go buy some 2.0 16's and revalve them till he can run over bumps with out the rear hopping.

x2 on fail rebound of stock style shocks, and the fact that no road slopes towards the middle. Even if you dont see it roads are never level, they have to be able to drain, and people the build roads know this. My 08 kicks to the right(hasnt done it to the left yet) something scary at times and theres always a crown in the road.

 

[Tonka]

Your 08 does the same thing. Geez, you'd think Ford would have figured it out by now how to put both shocks on the same side of the friggin' axle and still have room for a gas tank & a spare tire.

I got my axle off today, an unrelated matter. My rear end is supposed to be a 3.45 but it's got something even taller than a 3.08 and it's terrible. No power, & speedo says 55 when I'm really going 64. I gotta go to Autozone anyway for a diff cover gasket cuz I'm gonna change the gear oil. I was wondering, ... am I supposed to replace the U-bolts that hold the axle to the leaf springs? I didn't replace them in 2004 when I put the "mystery axle" on that the junkyard gave me instead of the 3.45 I asked for. (Destroyed original diff, high-centered on gravel road with deep tire ruts) The u-bolt nuts were a knuckle-busting PAIN IN THE ### to get off this time and I KNOW I used anti-seize in '04 cuz I always use it on stuff I know is going to rust.

I still haven't put the high voltage transformer on my tool box yet, so I'm still having to spend 3 hours wandering around yelling "WHERE THE HELL IS MY ####ING (insert name of tool here)" and I had to use a 3/8" drive socket on those nuts, with a cheap Craftsman ratchet. (I swear, I'm gonna booby-trap that tool box somehow. I lost the key for it years ago so I can't lock it.)

I'm not gonna bother replacing the anti-sway bar's U-bolts because they're not critical for safety but I'm wondering about the ones that hold the axle on the springs. They look ok, a little rusty. But the nuts were tight all the way off, even after wire-brushing and oiling the threads of the bolts. I'm thinking if I get new ones I'll be able to tighten them properly without 90% of my arm torque going into simply overcoming the friction in the threads.

 

[User Name missing]

man I get that in my 96. Its scary as shit goin down the highway, hit a bump and it throws your ass around. I've noticed it helps a bit to take your foot off the accelerator. I've also noticed that when I got the front leaf spring bracket fixed, it didn't do it that much. HOWEVER, I've only driven it a few times on the highway since and most of that was with a load of couches.

 

[84stealthranger]

mine does it too but all my shocks are wore slap out and im too cheap to buy new stock ones if its gonna get lifted anyways lol it might have something to do with the famous ranger lean and the gas tank

 

[gjm4l]

I'll eventually lower mine with an exploder axle and put my shocks to the rear then, nice idea bobbywalter, thanks. They are the cheap shocks on mine but I'll live with them until it comes to lowering time so I dont spend money twice. The other 3 rangers I had didn't have this problem but I never drove them in charlotte with these hole filled roads. On my work commute I know which lane to be in and when to avoid they majority lol. They all did it on the acceleration/braking bumps on gravel roads up in the mountains but everything does on that crap with an empty bed. Before I moved I wanted to get the truck up a little for clearance now I want it to go down a little for handling and if I'm lucky a mpg bump. Yep I live with it everyday and it's not a giant deal but it's more like it gets shoved sideways than it skitters sideways (aka in typical little truck fashion w/empty bed) which is what made me so interested in this thread.

 

[Mac]

I think the main problem is with the high load rating of the springs. Notice in some of the posts that the problem goes away when loaded. Ford first start using the staggered shocks way back in '69' for the high powered manual trans cars. Gas tank was of no concern. Even today, they can put that plastic tank anywhere and design around a good suspension. The '05' and newer Mustangs have a gas tank of a saddle bag design that straddles the driveshaft.
Dave of the HOT Nord

 

[bobbywalter]

^lol i dont think the op is going to go buy some 2.0 16's and revalve them till he can run over bumps with out the rear hopping.

x2 on fail rebound of stock style shocks, and the fact that no road slopes towards the middle. Even if you dont see it roads are never level, they have to be able to drain, and people the build roads know this. My 08 kicks to the right(hasnt done it to the left yet) something scary at times and theres always a crown in the road.

i dont understand what your saying? my point was not to get bling shocks to cure it....it will always hop around unloaded with the oem spring rate/spring with the staggered fore / aft shock configuration.

a guy can use stock shocks on one side and improve the situation....but wont eliminate it with the setup we are working with.

x2 on fail rebound of stock style shocks, and the fact that no road slopes towards the middle. Even if you dont see it roads are never level, they have to be able to drain, and people the build roads know this. My 08 kicks to the right(hasnt done it to the left yet) something scary at times and theres always a crown in the road.

fail huh???


i know all about crown, and these trucks kick left or right...and there is a reason they bias to right.. and will do so most of the time even on flat surfaces.....and yes there is a reason for that too.

roads are not supposed to dip to the middle...but they do...and they pond in the rain horrifically too...and there are sections of flat fire road as well that will send you all over the map at speed.

there are indeed roads dipping/crowned left .....all hiways and roads are supposed to be crowned and many drain right and left, whether simple two lanes going one direction or 6 lanes... especially where it snows.....

we have in majority of the time particularly shitty roads in many parts of mi, especially detroit, though they have redone all the majors the last 6 years and they are great to drive on for the moment....moment being the key word there..

opposing roads not crowning to the middle is common fact and sense...but this suggests you dont get the truck kicking out left because roads dont crown left??? and alluding to that making me full of shit is pretty sad. ...i dont know how you talked yourself into posting that but every ranger i have ever driven kicks out....mostly to the right especially unladen. its improved with proper shock locating....non bling shocks work ok....center mounted pig really helps too.



mac, i am not sure what your saying either. though like the ranger many of the hi powered cars with leafs were not center pin dead flat setups either. of course that was more to control wheel hop and still have good load capacity and great ride....fore/aft shocks not so much.


with the ranger in particular, the combination of the spring pins being offset, the pig being offset, the springs being intended to carry loads- with the fore/aft shock combo promotes the side stepping....

any truck setup like this will have this issue with no load unless you do something about it. usually all that is needed is some weight... for most of us its a non issue, for some it is worse then others and actually can be scary....thats a new truck right off the lot..just depends specifically the road conditions you are driving on.


the rake and rate of the spring in relation to the way it works with the axle along with shock placement is something i have EXTENSIVELY WORKED ON WITH THIS PLATFORM. in the worst of road conditions, with high variability of loads.....

it is clear what works best.


i am not pulling this out of my ass. its not an idea i read somewhere...i offer it because i know it is repeatable and well tested.





i dont fully understand the science that is behind it either as i am uneducated so i guess that none of this will mean shit in some light.

 

[grey]

I got used to the side stepping after about a week... Even on washboard roads, it only steps out so much. Only a slight correction is ever needed I found.
Bobby there has listed the possible causes of it...
If its really bad, drop a 50lb bag of sand in the bed on the passenger side.

 

[06RangerXLT]

maybe because the roads are slanted to the right to let water run off. any time i light my tires, it always kicks right as well.

 

[Earl43P]

My 2000 SCab 4wd 3.0 4.10LS Off Road didn't skitter like the OP describes. EVER.
And I was balls-out with that truck.

My 2000 2.3 2wd 4.10 open diff skitters like described. Scary.

This truck has no rear anti-sway bar and new rear shocks.

I think the swaybar makes the difference.

 

[legoms013]

two $3 bags of 60lb concrete fixes it real quick. My truck did this too,, but now I have some weight in the bed and Skyjacker springs with bilstein 5125's and is no long a problem. Stock was pretty noticeable though. Shocks still staggered