hammerma

I need some help diagnosing a problem I am having. I have a miserable ride and lots of floorboard vibration. I can hear and feel every little bump in the road and the floorboard where your foot sets vibrates. When I hit a bigger bump I get stutter in the front end.

Alright now for a little background of my problem. I put a buckstop bumper, leveling kit, and rancho 5000 shocks on in September and have about 5000 miles on them. I also have BFG AT 285/75-16 with about 15000 to 20000 miles on them. I had it aligned after the install of the leveling kit and they set these numbers. LEFT side Camber 0.1, Caster 2.7, and Toe 0.04 RIGHT side Camber 0.1, Caster 3.0, and Toe 0.06 .

I have tried a few things which include I tightened up the bottom shock bolts, any more and they will break. This helped a bit. This weekend I checked over every bolt underneath. The only thing I found was two slightly loose upper control arm bolts, both on the same arm, and both I tightened up. It didn't help.

I have the vibration all the time while on the road. It feels like the tire boucing on the road. It gets better or worse dependent on how rough the road is. But is there some all the time. I have it with the tranny in neutral coasting, clutch in and out, it doesn't matter. I'm thinking that the ranchos are junk but I need some opinions before I go spend money on new shocks. I'm thinking some bilstiens. I think I may also have a tire issue?

I really need some help with this guys so any response would be much appreciated.

TIMMY22

bad shocks aren't likely to cause vibration. try these...

tire balancing

driveline/drive shaft balancing

bad wheel hub

motor and tranny mounts

bad u-joint

try to get the vibration under control first.

my rattle was the shock bolts and/or the wheel well plastic being loose.

Mike Stowe

Check your balljoints. A common problem for both 2wd and 4wd.

turbo thom

And warped rotors. They will shake your teeth loose.

..Preston..

Danderson

My truck suffered from most of the symptoms you describe. They started with the installation the BFG's. I returned to Discount Tires with a complaint and they promptly road-force rebalanced all four. The balance guy showed me how they were "zeroed" out. Problem persisted until replacing the BFG's with Toyos of the same size. Problem solved,smooth as glass,no vibes. Most guys swear by the BFG's but they didn't work out for me. P.S. E-mailed BFG and their reply was to go through Discount which couldn't be persuaded anything was wrong. very dissappointed in both companies.

JVDodge

Yeah.....very familiar with this issue!

I've replaced ball joints, shocks, springs, tie rods, pitman arm, track bar (after market by Solid Steel), new stabilizer (BSS by Solid Steel), new control arms (pro comp), rebuilt and balanced drive shaft, replaced trans mount, have had several alignments and rebalance jobs and rebuilt the brakes with new rotors & calipers. And.....oh yeah, I have BFG's as well. The vibration continues.........

I'm close to needing new tires and have had a close eye on the Toyo's. If what "DAnderson" claims his success on going with Toyo's. I'm going to be very excitted.

I have a newly rebuilt truck and still have a vibra lounger at a premium cost.

Ha..............

hammerma

Thanks for the replies guys,

I forgot to mention a couple of things before, I do have new ball joints they were done at the same time as the lift. I check all of the u-joints, wheel bearings, mounts and everythings seemed ok.

I did see that on one of the motor mounts that the extra rubber lip was tore loose on one. This shouldn't make a difference should it??

Also I know my rotors are warped some as I have a braking vibration from them. Will that cause vibration even though they are not being applied??

I'm going to have my tires rebalanced and maybe try another set I have for a different truck on it. Does anyone know if 8 bolt Chevy rims for an 1986 will match the bolt pattern for the dodge? They are eagle alloy rims.

Thanks again