Front end bounces
 

Here latley, with all the potholes, I notice that my front tires bounce at speeds of about 40mph in fourth gear. It seems like when I accelerate to about 50, the tires still bounce, just not as bad.
I had the tires rotated and ballanced.
Thanks for any help with this.

after they were balanced does it still do this....your shocks are going bad.

Mine does the exact same thing...shocks are Rancho 9000 with less than 15k miles on them. I do have a passenger side lower ball joint with about 1/32" slop in it that I will be replacing soon. Is there a reliable way to test for bad shocks without removing them? They seem to damp out large oscillations just fine...but maybe the small ones are not being snubbed?

Go over some railroad tracks at about 40 mph, if the truck bounces more than three times replace the shocks.

HAHA, I like that method of accuracy above!! Real scientific!!

might be track bar. have someone with truck running turn the wheels back and forth only enough to move wheels slightly or slack in steering wheel and you look under the vehicle for any parts loose like the track bar. good luck

Mine felt like I was in a boat when I went over anything larger than a "bump". If I hit a hump or a dip in the road, man, It was like going over the wake of a battleship in a row boat.

Bilstiens and proper tire pressure took care of the problem. Also had load range "D" tires. Now with the "E" rated tires (stiffer sidewalls) and the new shocks, it feels great.

Good advice about checking for slop in the suspension. Get a crow bar, tire iron, or something similiar and start prying around looking for play/slop.

Good luck, Kevin

I had problems with a significant number of miles on the original shocks and trac bar. New shocks (doubles up front), springs, trac bar, and dual steering stablizers got everything nice and tight for the 35's I put on. Oh, and got it all aligned as well.

Bounce = shocks, wobble = trac bar mostly. Other things to look at would include the ball joints and steering box.

Matt

one thing to look at on the shocks is leakage. if the seals in the shocks ''blow-out'' shock oil will start to seap out from where the rod goes into the shock body- not allowing it to hold in the pressure. i run rancho rs 5000 shocks and i end up replacing them every year(life time warranty). my tell -tale sign is when i come to a stop, the truck will sit there and bounce- not sink down once come back up and level out.

I don,t think the shocks are bad, no leaking and at a stop, even hard stop, the front end does not bounce , just goes down and right back up.
I am wondering if the tires are bad. Mabey the sidewalls are broken or something. I washed the truck yesterday, and while cleaning the tires, I noticed dimples in the sidewalls. They were going across and the other way too on the tire.
Does this mean the walls are broken down.

Are you sure it is bounce and not wobble? Big difference! I would look at wheel bearings and tie rod ends first, could be balls joints, but they would have to be dangerously bad to cause bounce in the suspension. Probably not the tires or it would do it continuously........most likely bad shocks and out of round tire.

Most definetly bouncing. Just does it around 40 mph, after I can get it to about 50 and in 5 gear, it doesn,t bounce as bad, just feel it a little.

Hey!!! Thanks for the replys guys:D

My truck has a bucking motion to it when I hit 40 mph regardless of acceleration or deceleration. It always does it right at 40 then quits like 5 mph to either side of that. Sometimes my truck does a bad wobble when I hit the brakes but not always. It is odd that the wobble is not consistant but the bucking is an everyday thing. I dont have a clue what it could be.

I've got Rancho 9000's too and I have the same symptoms. They seem good on large displacement damping but lack something when it comes to small displacement oscillations.

Balancing tires will not correct for flat spots or egg shaped tires.

shocks are a common problem followed by the track bar.


If you have more than 50k miles on the stock shocks then you can be darn sure they are junk. Dodges need good shocks up front no question about it.


Jason