Front wheel bounce

[nhall80]

Need some help diagnosing a strange front end bounce. When I hit even small bumps on the road at any speed, my front wheels seem to bounce like crazy. The body isn’t bouncing, but the wheels seem to be over responding to the bump. I can feel it inside the truck for a few seconds after the bump.

About 6 months ago, I installed OME stock height springs with oem shocks. I drive on washboard dirt roads 90% of the time and thought the oem shocks would offer a softer ride. The truck has some roll and bounce too it, so my suspicion is that the oem springs are too weak for the OME shocks and that could be causing the over exaggerated wheel bounce in my front end. Thoughts on that?

FYI: in the past month, I’ve replaced tie rod ends, adjusted wheel bearings, installed new tires, new steering dampener, new front sway bar bushings and hardware. (All things that needed to be done but never fixed the bounce...I wasn’t just chasing the problem).

Everything in the front end is tight when I’ve jacked it up to inspect...except for a small amount of play in the caster bushings.

I don’t want to change shocks and/or caster bushing unnecessarily. What else should I be looking for? Are the shocks too weak? Are the caster bushings to blame? Other ideas?

Thanks for any help.

 

[ppc]

There should be no play with the caster bushings. Did you install the new shocks and are the bushings on those properly tighten? Other than that you should be checking all front mounts for play, cracked welds etc.

 

[shocktower]

Need some help diagnosing a strange front end bounce. When I hit even small bumps on the road at any speed, my front wheels seem to bounce like crazy. The body isn’t bouncing, but the wheels seem to be over responding to the bump. I can feel it inside the truck for a few seconds after the bump.

About 6 months ago, I installed OME stock height springs with oem shocks. I drive on washboard dirt roads 90% of the time and thought the oem shocks would offer a softer ride. The truck has some roll and bounce too it, so my suspicion is that the oem springs are too weak for the OME shocks and that could be causing the over exaggerated wheel bounce in my front end. Thoughts on that?

FYI: in the past month, I’ve replaced tie rod ends, adjusted wheel bearings, installed new tires, new steering dampener, new front sway bar bushings and hardware. (All things that needed to be done but never fixed the bounce...I wasn’t just chasing the problem).

Everything in the front end is tight when I’ve jacked it up to inspect...except for a small amount of play in the caster bushings.

I don’t want to change shocks and/or caster bushing unnecessarily. What else should I be looking for? Are the shocks too weak? Are the caster bushings to blame? Other ideas?

Thanks for any help.

Where the brand new shocks ???

 

[BILT4ME]

What size / Brand / Type of tire are you running as well? A heavy tire can exacerbate this issue.

Are your tires balanced?

What tire pressure are you running?

 

[leonard_nemoy]

Check the welds where the panhard mounts to the frame

 

[rghouse]

Can you specify weather you have OEM or OME shocks springs? You interchange them above.

 

[ZackR]

Wow - washboard roads 90% of the time ... what air pressure are you running in the tires?

 

[nhall80]

Can you specify weather you have OEM or OME shocks springs? You interchange them above.

OME stock height springs and OEM shocks (new from aToyota dealer)

 

[nhall80]

Wow - washboard roads 90% of the time ... what air pressure are you running in the tires?
[/QUOTE

Yeah. Almost all dirt. I run about 25 psi

 

[nhall80]

What size / Brand / Type of tire are you running as well? A heavy tire can exacerbate this issue.

Are your tires balanced?

What tire pressure are you running?

New tires are a cheap Taiwanese tire...”Mudstar”. They are 285/75/16

Newly balanced. Running about 25 psi on the dirt roads.

I should say tho that I was having this same problem with my old tires. Same size

 

[nhall80]

There should be no play with the caster bushings. Did you install the new shocks and are the bushings on those properly tighten? Other than that you should be checking all front mounts for play, cracked welds etc.

I installed the shocks. They’re installed correctly. I haven’t seen any cracks or play anywhere (other than the caster bushing). Are there any common areas on the 80 Series where cracks can occur?

 

[BILT4ME]

Shocks have to resist "sprung " weight and "unsprung" weight.

The wheels, tires, and axles are unsprung weight. If you have an excessive amount of unsprung weight, the shock will not be able to resist the momentum of the wheel/tire/axle combination. If your wheel/tire combo is 110 LB, you are something like 35 LB more than the factory weight and the shock cannot resist the bounce as well because of the mass being forced up.

Washboards are hard to deal with anyway, especially in a solid axle vehicle.

Go faster, that way you don't feel the bounce as much!

 

[nhall80]

Thanks for the comments. I may consider a stiffer shock, and I may look into changing the caster bushings anyway (I’m pretty they’re original...290,000 miles).

Still open to ideas tho

 

[Cruzerman]

Air down more and go faster.