I'm fumbling my way through a recall campaign. So far I have submitted a complaint with the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. It should pop up on their web site in about 6 weeks. It's www.safercar.gov .

My problem, you may remember, Is a viscious wheel hop whenever I attempt to travel in deep snow or sand. The Chrysler rep said it was a charecteristic of that model. I say something big and heavy is gonna break if I keep using my 4 wheel drive in these conditions. Also I make very little headway while Fords, Chevys and Subarus go around me.

My request; Respond to this if you have had similar experience. Respond if you have never had your truck in sand or snow. Respond if you have made mods and had some success with taming wheel hop. Respond if you just feel empathy. I will copy these e-mails and start a file that I may have to present to NHTSA or others. If you need a better description of wheel hop do a search on this site.

I love my truck, but Chrysler is trying to weasel out of this one. If they learn that I am not just one person it may inspire them to fix this.

Thanks for reading this. You guys have helped me alot in the past.

 

I live in a snowy area and have experienced the wheel hop you describe... a couple of times it was vicious!

Ladder bars will prevent this... XLR8R makes some great ones!

 

I too have experienced the wheel hop issue. One time in particular I was simply tring to drive up my driveway with only six inches of fresh snow and experienced excessive wheelhop. There have been countless reports of this...

 

I get it also. Never had trouble moving though and it has mostly been in heavier deeper snow.

Hondo

 

I had it happen in sand. I was almost stuck while the other guys just drove on by. Aggressive mud terrains fixed the "always afraid of getting stuck" issue. But I've also had the wheel hop in snow. I thought for sure I was going to break something in the sand, but I had to get out.

 

I figured it was a manual transmission thing. Every manual tranny I've ever run had some wheel hop when driving in slippery conditions.

My Nissan did it,so did my Ford Ranger,my '76 Chevy and now my Ram.

Its not terrible though. Not something I ever thought about starting a recall for.

 

Mine is horrendous, been thinking about the ladder bars to fix it.

 

It is a leaf spring thing... more commonly known as "axle wrap"... the torque from the wheels causes the springs to "wrap" into an "s" shape instead of just going up and down. As the springs resist and then "un-wrap" it shoots the axle down, you hop and it starts again. The ladder bar on the axle only allows for up and down movement, not twisting movement and therefore prevents this.

 

I think you nailed it. It also does not help that Dodge has blocks under themfrom the factory. I had a '90 Chevy that I put a 6" lift on, had terrible wheel hop. I removed the blocks that came with the lift kit and replaced with new springs. Pretty much took away all the issue.

 

My dad has an 05 that has horrible hop in the snow, I can go with my 00 through the same thing and no hop. But I've got extra springs, VERY firm shocks and it rides like a lumber wagon unless I put 1000 lbs in the box.

 

I have never had it in snow, but in sand it was a bad deal, I had to drive in reverse to get out of the sandy area, couldnt go forward. Mine is an auto so it's not tranny related.

 

Somehow, between the Lorenz 2.25" system with Dual Purpose leafs, Carli long travel air bags, Toyo M/Ts, and XLR8R's LazarII traction bars, I don't have any problem with hop in any condition...now the problem is with my bank account!
--Eric

 

My truck has done it too in snow.

 

I have an 05 and at the time i was experiencing the wheel hop i had a 6 inch lift on but i noticed if i was trying to attempt a hill or something with partial throttle i would bounce up and down and thought i was gonna break something...if i went at it full throttle so the wheels would spin more i had no problem with the hop until i would start to slow down again. Does long arm or track bars help?

mine is a automatic and in snow, also now have a kore recon kit but didnt get to try it out in the snow

 

The converter in a slushbox helps to cushion the driveline a bit from torque-induced axle wrap oscillations... no such luck with a clutch, though - the leaf pack is the soft part.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for the recall - Hotchkiss rear suspensions are well-known to suffer from leaf deformation under torque for several decades.

3rd Gen blocks aren't very big - only about 1.25"
2nd Gen blocks, however, are 4.75" high

3rd Gen trucks have main leafs 4" longer than 2nd Gens, so they have a more comfortable ride w/o sacrificing load capacity... but they are easier to wrap as a result.

Hey Eric did you ever get your LazarLites installed?

We want pics!