Extreme wheel hop / bounce??

This is my first post and I'm looking to get some help. Having only had my tacoma for 6 months it hasn't been off road much until recently. The past two times out I encountered loose surfaces (snow: about a foot and half of powder and, sand). During both of these outings I had to head back early do to extreme wheel hop and the fear I was going to break something on the truck. I have tried turning off traction control, running in 2wd with locker on and off, 4wd hi & lo with the e-locker on and off and have not been able to get rid of the wheel hop. Even with the tires aired down it still occurs. Any help / suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I have already tried the search button but did not find anything... Thanks!

Video of the problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVdlbAsXepQ&feature=youtu.be

 

Because of my racing days I associate the term 'wheel hop' with broken traction / spinning tires from a hard launch (on a hard surface). That's usually improved by several techniques, including stiffer suspension settings (leafs, coils, shocks, bushings, slapper bars, etc.)

Even with thousands of off road miles and being stuck lots of times, I never had wheel hop in soft surfaces.

In your video (nicely done!) I don't see tire spin. I do see 'motion' that would seem to go with a rough road/surface, but maybe would expect it with more speed than you are doing.

What is the year and mileage of the truck? I've read a lot of weird things about broken springs on this board, and it does appear to be extra sensitive for such a passive launch. Have you per chance examined the spring pack? Does it only do this on one side?

Also, does it do the same on asphalt?

 

The truck is a 2014 with 6000 miles. And the springs are fine I would imagine... I told toyota and they changed out the U-bolts, I have no idea why they would but it made no difference. I'm unsure if it does it on asphalt as I have new tires and don't really want to check $$$... And yes this happens on both sides. Thanks for the reply!

 

That's axle wrap.

 

looks like wheel hop from axle wrap. It's happening because your leaf springs are allowing your axle to tilt forward when you accelerate. My truck did it on stock springs too, got better when I got a new leafpack. The stock leaf springs suck. You could get a new leafpack, or try this first:

 

Are you on stock leaf springs? I can't tell from the angle.

Looks to me like fairly mild (but annoying) axle wrap. The tires have traction at first but the torque of the drive shaft spinning the wheels bends the leaf springs. The springs bend to the point where there's too much energy stored for the tires to hold traction, and then that energy is released by the tires loosing traction. This happens repeatedly and quickly causing the "hop". This is pretty hard on u joints and other components. Stiffer leaf springs or a traction bar are your only ways to solve the problem.

 

yup stock springs.... standard axle wrap. either get on the gas more or get a different spring pack. My wheelers 2in single aal help axle wrap pretty good.

~Ben H

 

They are stock springs. Thanks for all the replies everyone! Just felt like I was alone on this one, glad to know im not the only one. I was thinking ladder bars, is that overkill for a daily driver though? Anyone else find this annoying, my old toyota pickup had 33's on stock sptings and nothing like this happened...

 

When this happens to me on the sand, I just drop a couple more pounds of air on that axle. That usually clears it up.
So 18 PSI becomes 16 PSI, etc.

 

I had this issue not too long ago while pulling someone out of thick sand on the beach. It was a buried 2wd silverado and I was in 4-lo and locked rear. I was trying to be gentle so basically tightened up the slack and rolled into the throttle. He moved back a little bit but I was getting rear hop pretty bad. I backed off and gave it more throttle and everything was good to go.

 

Ladder (traction) bars will work great. Some of them are strong enough to double as sliders for your drive shaft.

 

Did you ever solve your problem? I'm having serious wheel hop as well. I've never experienced this before. I have pretty much new take-off leafs from a 2019 and a 1.5" AAL and just yesterday tried the whole "U-bolt" with helper leaf fix and it didn't do a thing. Its violent and I feel like I'm going to break something. My wife's Subaru got around better in deep snow this year than my truck because it would just hop and feel like I was going to break an axle.

Ladder bar seems excessive for the occasional offloading that I do.

 

Same problem here on 2020 stock TRD offroad. I've only had it happen in sand, especially steep sandy climbs. Has anyone found a reasonable fix for this? I don't really want to end up with a heavily modified truck. I made some simple clamps to try on the front of the leafs and I'll try airing down more next time out. It just seems like a serious limitation for an otherwise capable truck...

 

The general fix for axle wrap is stronger leaf springs. The stock leaf springs on these trucks are not exactly great.

 

OK thx I'll consider stiffer leafs. I do like the way it rides over washboard, etc with the stock springs. Just wish there was a targeted way to fix this one rear axle hop issue without changing the overall stock ride quality. I looked at the ruff stuff anti-wrap traction bar. I guess you have to move the muffler over to make room for these things?

 

I also have the same problem in deep snow and off road of wheel hop. Have a 2018 4x4 sport. Also at relatively low speed. Feel like somthings about to break. Good video of showing exactly what's happening. Looks like new leaf spring in the future I guess. Sad

 

This thread is super helpful. What’s the recommended traction bars for this kind of thing?

 

Been looking, cant find anything decent

 

I wound up just doin the 3 leaf progressive AAL and haven’t had problems since. I could prob test it a bit more at the lake now that I’m thinking about it though

 

For me its the sand and snow that causes it bad. Pretty annoying tho my sisters 4runner with that 3 link doesn’t have any issues.