Twitchy Steering?

Alright, i'll be the first to admit that I have a tendency to over analyze things, and I may be doing that here. But it seems like my Taco's steering is a bit twitchy, or overly sensitive. For example, down here in florida we have a lot of these reflectors bulging out of the road, and it seems like my Taco transmits more through the steering wheel than any other car i've driven when hitting these tiny road obstacles. I also find myself having to correct the steering a lot of particularly windy days, often over-correcting because it's so sensitive. It just seems like i constantly have to make these tiny adjustments to keep it in line, and the frequency goes up as i get on the highway. If it were a motorcycle I'd consider putting a steering damper on it but I don't know if there is a comparable product for trucks. Maybe it's nothing and im just being picky? or maybe there is something that needs to be replaced that I'm unaware of?

 

You lifted it. This changes steering geometry. The stock caster is maxed out. This makes it more sensitive at higher speeds, and requires more attention to stay in line. Same with mine.

Adjustable (or uniball) UCAs will fix this (Light Racing UCAs are next on my list).

Deeper into the black hole...

 

Yes, but when it hit holes in the road, or things that stick out, i feel the tires moving left and right. Sometimes I need to help them get back in line. It's raised some mental red flags.

 

It could be front wheel alignment. If the caster setting is below 2 degrees positive, these truck will have a bit of bumpsteer. Do you have a lift?

edit: scocar beat me to it. Yeah, what he ^^^ said.

 

eesh.... i see. didn't think it would be needed with only 1'25-ish lift in the front.

 

Yes, I believe that is a bit of bump steer, caused by same.

 

just 881s

 

Me neither. Mine is close to 1.75 lift (from where it was, anyway). I find it tiring on long road trips.

 

Now that i think about it, I think we had a few PMs about this subject scocar back when both our springs were new and still settling.

 

mine was level with the rear AAL when i first got it but now that it's settled with a little bit of a rake again. So im not sure exactly how much lift I got. it doesn't look like too much.

Ya, it being tiring is exactly why i decided to make a thread on it. I had heard of steering bushings going out on these trucks and wasn't sure what the symptoms could be. Luckily on all my LONG trips i had a lot of weight in the bed, and that kept it calm.

 

So UCAs are the fix? can't change the castor any other way with the lift?

 

It really depends on the actual alignment results. And unfortunately, some techs that do the alignment take the position that it'll be good enough when in fact they could be better.

I've seen chris4x4 state over and over again that the ideal numbers are:

toe = 0 degrees
camber = 0 degrees
caster = 2.4 (or higher) degrees

 

hmm. well i never had an alignment done. After i put in the new struts and springs i took it on the highway, let go of the wheel. it went straight as an arrow for like a 10th of a mile, same as before i put in the lift, so i figured i was good.

 

Get the alignment.

 

Hey, check this out. My knowledge just got bigger. DON'T BUY UCAs yet!

So I got me "new" wheels mounted and decided to get an alignment, too, too see if they could improve the caster with my 881 setup. I told them to crank the caster as close to possible as max spec (2.5 degrees), but that I know that because it is lifted, spec. may not be possible.

Well they could. 2.5 degrees. Holy crap. So it turns out you just need to be specific and insistent, or they might just do a toe-and-go-alignment. Or, it depends on the technician's skill/work ethic.

Anyhoo, twitchy wandering gone. No UCAs needed. This makes sense after such a mild (~2 in.) lift.

The truck tracks better, and in strong crosswinds that conveniently showed up today, it is much less subject to being pushed around.

So, get the alignment and tell them to crank the caster!

 

Good deal scocar...I told my alignment tech the same thing but he insisted that too much caster with my lift would compromise camber and would not be good for my tires. So he left it up to me...slightly annoying steering with good tire wear or nice steering with risk of cupping tires quickly. I opted to deal with the steering issue. Did your guy tell you anything about this?

 

No, he did not.... Maybe I need a new tech? Sheesh, why does this have to be so complicated? Thanks for the heads-up. Time to read up on alignments again and keep an eye on the tire wear.

I'm never modding my truck again. Until this weekend.

 

This might help you out if the other suggestions dont:

 

doesn't some of the "twitchyness" in our trucks steering originate from bad steering rack bushings or that horrible safety slip joint in the steering shaft in the column?

 

Hey thats a great thread that everybody should do. I did that mod about a year ago and "rattle" is gone! However it is unrelated to the twitchy'ness issue that I'm talking about, at least.