Sloppy feeling...

[James86]

I was coming home from the airport in Minneapolis (about an hr away) and I noticed on the way home that the rear end felt sorta, well, sloppy. Like when youre breaking tires loose, or fighting crosswinds, but it was a fairly calm day and only seemed really noticeable above 65-70mph. All my shocks are less than 5,000 miles old, so Im sure thats not it. The leaves have probably never seen much abuse as the truck looks like its jacked 2 inches (more with the toper off), and the bushings all seem OK. I do mostly highway driving so on the rare occasions it rears its head, I'm going around 70 and if a wind gust pops up or a semi passes, it's REALLY noticable. Is this a trait of owning a light pickup that seems to sit high (its a 4x4 with fibreglass topper) or is something amiss? I've had this thing for about 2 years now and honestly I'm just curious if its normal or not. I know my cherokee was light enough in the backend that the rear wheels loved to lock all the time in rain and whatnot and the ranger is the same, but I never had that 'running in the wind with a sheet of plywood feeling' with that truck.

 

[strvger]

my 1983 isn't that way. i just towed our tent trailer from Cloquet to Elk River, Mn. and just felt minor sway when a semi passed. not sure what your problem is there. mine has the stock springs but could use new shocks, which i have but haven't put them on yet. did you check to see if you have sway bars installed? if not, that might be an option for you. good luck.

 

[James86]

you mean like that bar that runs parallel to the axle right? cuz thats there. otherwise I'll ask around some more I guess. Thanks.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

check the bushings in the end of the sway bar links , front and rear. you could also try putting a couple hundred pounds onver the axle in the bed, but i would think with a fiberglass topper you would already have a good load on it.

 

[triumphrider-1]

Whats your tire pressure at?

 

[James86]

My tire pressure is about 32-33psi. the door says 31 cold for both axles so thats close. Then again, i havent checked it in a week or so. One day when it was reall bad, the front ones were around 20psi and rears were around 28, whihc is odd b/c theres no way id simultaneously have all tires leaking, esp. since they're newer. Granted the weather seems sorta fickle temperaturewise lately. Of course theres a lot of stipid teens around that do stupid shit in the parking lot. I work the 10pm-7am shift at the local walmart and have found my tires low/flat before. but anyhow, they should be close to where they should be for pressure. I'll look at the bushings on back cuz I just hall balljoints/etc done on the front less than a year agod and havent taken it off road since.