Handling

[WING TRANSPORT]

I had my srt-10 out for a little 300mi ride and was not happy with how unpredictable and unstable it felt at highway speeds, and maybe a little more. It has been a while since I have taken it for a highway ride but as fun as it is to drive I thought it seemed a bit sketchy at speed. Anyone else feel this way or maybe I am missing something. The only changes made to the suspension were Boomers lowering kit about a year ago. The original tires are good and the pressures were correct. Sure feels fast but ??? Thanks

 

[Wifey]

I had my srt-10 out for a little 300mi ride and was not happy with how unpredictable and unstable it felt at highway speeds, and maybe a little more. It has been a while since I have taken it for a highway ride but as fun as it is to drive I thought it seemed a bit sketchy at speed. Anyone else feel this way or maybe I am missing something. The only changes made to the suspension were Boomers lowering kit about a year ago. The original tires are good and the pressures were correct. Sure feels fast but ??? Thanks

Mine is completely stock and we experience the same thing when we take it out. The steering is extremely twitchy. Others on the forum have mentioned the same thing. I don't think you missed anything. I have to agree with Silent D though, these things are NOT sports cars.
We dropped the tire pressure a couple pounds and that seems to help some. Mine has 4K on it now, and it seems to handle better each time we take it out. :dontknow:

Anyways, good luck and keep the rubber side down :rock: :dancing:

 

[JTS VENOM PERFORMANCE]

Try and find a REAL GOOD alignment shop, I mean someone that does performance cars , or someone that has been at the same place doing alignments for 10-20 years bro.

The caster on these things are extreme for performance levels, a good alignment guy can take a remove a tad of this and make it feel ten times better.

Plus with as I have said a billion times as low as the kits put the trucks, it puts the tie rods at a very extreme angle. Look under the truck and look at them they should be perfectly level or close to it.

You need a bumpsteer kit, I would have one made but just dont have the time lately, maybe the first of the year I can get on it.

Untill you get this done..... it will always feel a tad sketchy...but takin some caster out will help from it being so skiddish.

 

[SANCHOBA]

i love the way mine handles,can't get enough:rock:

 

[WING TRANSPORT]

Thanks, I will drop tire press a couple pounds and have my srt mechanic check the caster, he did do an alignment after the drop kit. I hope it helps, only have 3k mi on it so far. It stays in my garage the rest of the time. Thanks again and they are still a ball to drive..........

 

[walenator]

I did a cheap improvement on my nervous feeling suspension. I applied some thread locker on the front sway bar bushing rod ends and backed the nut off about 1 to 1 1/2 turns. I wanted the rubber bushings to be less compressed and take some of the feedback of the sway bar. I had to use a second wrench to prevent the rod from turning while loosening the nut. The rear on my RC has no bushings so I've done nothing there. I did notice on the new Dodge Nitro the rear sway bar ends are connected to what look like small gas struts. Stinker has a remedy for the bump steer which is more pronounced on lowered trucks. Those tie rod need to be horizontal. If you have stock tires, one or more are probably out of round and nothing will help them except replacement. Just my 2 cents.

 

[FATJACK]

Just took a 630 mile trip in mine also, it was very twitchy with any irregularities in the road at all the thing would almost change lanes.
But I did get great fuel mileage (17.7) @ 70 mph with no a/c, better mileage than my old hemi truck. Mine is a regular cab.

 

[includemeout]

2lbs less in the front ......4lbs less in the rear ( them door sticker 38lbs) is for a truck with a full load.:idea: When do you put 500 pounds in the bed, or have a full load of gas, or passengers for that matter????
Also noticed much improved steering after our trip to Bakersfield, 4000 mi and the steering components have finally broke in (steering wheel now has a little movement before it turns, before the trip it had zero play) twitchy's are all gone now :dancing: :rock:

 

[WING TRANSPORT]

Thanks again, as I said I will try dropping the air and see if that helps. What is this Bump Steer ??

 

[yellowfeverquad]

hey wing,dont know if this will help,but i have a quad cab did the same shit,lowered the rear 1 1/2" threw a sway bar in & its like a whole new truck,should have come that way from factory,anyway try frt spring spacers to adjust geomertry and alignment,talk to boomer he sounds like the go to guy on rcs,good luck.

 

[Rockin Ronnie]

For Sure Somethin's not right! I have mine lowered 2/4 with a california kit and I've had her to 150 ( 140 several times) so far and she sticks like glue. No floating!!! You might want to look at stiffening the rear end with airbags or something to give it more stability.

 

[MG42pillbox]

100% Normal

The tires are wide, hence they follow crevices in the road, you will have to go to 20s to fix the problem, it is the nature of the beast....

 

[Django]

It is most disconcerting to observe the inconsistency of opinions on this subject.... I don't wish to be an anus about this, but it leads one to wonder what some people are smokin'..... Or what truck they're driving when they have such a radically differing ride experience......

My RC has the BOOMER kit in it.... Before that it had bloody awful bump steer.... (the way it steers thru a bump)... BOOMER's kit made it better, but it still rides pretty fkn bad..... My problem is that my daily driver is a great handling sports car....the contrast is most profound between it and the truck.... So I'm sure my perspective is tainted....

But if someone could come up with a mod to make this truck actually handle more like my Z Car.....I'd fkn buy it in a second.....

At freeway speeds over 100 mph this truck feels about as rock solid as the very top rung of a 40ft extension ladder.

Someone please help us.....

SD

 

[mopower1958]

I have had mine on 130 and it was stable as could be. However if you have grooves in the highway from Stinkers' big truck mashing in the pavement the tires will follow the contour of the road. Most cars don't have 10 1/2 inch tread width on the front. Plus if there is wind from the side it will be prone to push side to side. I love my truck!!!

 

[Rockin Ronnie]

For Starter's the whole setup matters. Are you running the original 22's or 24's with gator's. Are you runnin a setup that slightly ( like an inch) sags in the rear? If you really want to go fast then you need to start thinking like the big race outfits. What is the aerodynamical pitch? How does the truck address the road? Do you need to reassure the rear end or bring her down in the front? Just some thoughts Bro's!!!

 

[MG42pillbox]

Really, God damn My old 4x4 Ram has great control at 105/110mph, I cant imagine these trucks would have issues at these speeds.

 

[JTS VENOM PERFORMANCE]

LOLOLOL Blame the trucker!!!


Guys I promise I will work on a bump steer kit in the next few weeks, then I will pick someone and send it to them and see how it works,

right now I definitly got a black QC in Fla to whip

 

[Hotrodmike]

Stink are you going to try to lower the rack or raise the tie's ?
I can say mine rides a bit better than a race car when on any thing groved or rough and the wide tires always walk the groves .On good road she rides nice but the steering goemetry seems to lend it to being stiff but twitchy. I think I may be doing a drop since some think the susp was fubared by someone since I do not have a bump steer problem but have almost no upward movement so why would it :dontknow: but damn does it drift easy , not that I would drive like that on public roads :burnout: :burnout:
Have A Kind Day
Mike

 

[Silverback]

Thanks again, as I said I will try dropping the air and see if that helps. What is this Bump Steer ??

Here you go.

A. Definition

Bump Steer is when your wheels steer themselves without input from the steering wheel. The undesirable steering is caused by bumps in the track interacting with improper length or angle of your suspension and steering linkages.

Most car builders design their cars so that the effects of bump steer are minimal. However, you must still take care to bolt on your suspension carefully so as not to create unwanted bump steer. Make sure that you are always using the correct components for a particular car. Bump steer must be designed into the car and cannot be adjusted out if improper parts are used or if pivot points are moved without considering bump steer design principles.

In order to accomplish zero bump the tie rod must fall between an imaginary line that runs from the upper ball joint through the lower ball joint and an imaginary line that runs through the upper a-arm pivot and the lower control arm pivot. In addition, the centerline of the tie rod must intersect with the instant center created by the upper a-arm and the lower control arm (See diagram below).

The instant center is an imaginary point that is created by drawing a line from the upper a-arm ball joint through the a-arm pivot where it is intersected by an imaginary line that extends from the lower ball joint through the inner control arm pivot. Where the two imaginary lines intersect is the instant center.

Sounds complicated? Really it is very simple. To achieve zero bump the front end must be designed correctly. The tie rod must travel on the same arc as the suspension when the car goes through travel. Simply matching lengths and arcs to prevent any unwanted steering of the front tires.

To exaggerate, if the tie rod were only 10" long and the suspension were 20" long then when the suspension traveled the tie rod angle would shorten much quicker than the suspension arc. In this scenario the tie rod would shorten much quicker through travel than the suspension and the car would toe in drastically over bumps. The shorter arc of the tie rod would pull on the spindle and toe it in through travel.

Bump Simplified - When designing a car, if the centerline of the outer tie rod lines up with the centerline of the lower ball joint, and the inter tie rod lines up with the lower pivot point then the length and angle of the tie rod and suspension will be the same resulting in zero bump. Most car builders design their cars in this fashion.

Here is the site if you want to read more.

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/longtech3.htm

I should also add that from my experience that the Perilli tires are part of the problem. They are a very square shouldered tire. That type of tire seems to follow grooves in the pavement more than more rounded tires.

 

[WING TRANSPORT]

Thanks for the information.. I will go back to my SRT shop and have them check it out real careful like. I do really enjoy driving this thing but the crazy handling has got to get straightened out.