Help drivability and wind

I have noticed since i bought my truck that the slights bit of wind seems to move my truck around on the road. i am constantly having to adjust and sometimes im weaving in the lane fighting a slight breeze. does anyone have any tips or things i should check

 

as long as your tire pressure and alignment are good, that's all you can do

 

What did you drive prior to the Taco? Coming from a car, a truck will seem more sensitive to crosswinds. It even says this in the manual! What you are describing sounds worse than normal, however. Your sig says 2005 Tacoma. Did you buy it used?

- Check tire pressures
- Check tires for abnormal wear
- Get a front alignment done.

 

I Did come from driving a car, but i am used to driving trucks, I had a Bronco for years before the car and a couple other trucks. It just seems very unusual. The tire pressure is good. tire wear seems good nothing unusual. I did buy the truck used with 65k miles. I have stock tires. 2005 prerunner access cab, 6 speed standard. I havent had the alignment checked, it seems to drive strait. but i should get it checked

 

I have had 9 trucks in my life, most of them having a camper shell installed, and when the wind is blowing and with a shell on it seems to blow you around at times. But this truck is more sensitive to cross winds then any other truck I have owned, and I do not even have a shell installed on this one yet! Also, get around 18 wheelers and watch your truck want to dance! it does a little shake or two...
I just think the Tacoma 4x4/Prerunners sit higher and are a lighter truck which makes them blow around easier. Sometimes I been driving in strong winds and have had a hard time keeping a straight line and wonder if a cop was behind me would he pull me over for weaving down the road! These results are based on a stock suspension, with rear TSB and stock tires. I believe with improved suspension and a wider tire may help. Maybe someone who has experienced this feeling with their truck stock, and then upgraded the suspension and tires may chime in with their opinion on if it helped or not.

 

Nothing you can do. Sorry dude.

 

A rear anti-sway bar fixes it up almost completely. I put one on mine and I'm totally impressed by the improvement.

The problem is the wind pushes and you have to steer it to counteract the pushing... but worse, it also induces body lean. The counter steering combines with the body lean to change front the suspension geometry to make the truck pull even harder requiring even more input. The sway bar keeps the body from leaning and eliminates the effect that changes the suspension geometry so the steering input is a lot less and it doesn't feel like the wind is pushing you around anymore.

The improvement was amazing to me, especially when passing semi's (or they passed me) with the buffeting they cause.

A camper or shell makes it worse still, if I had one I'd probably put a stiffer front bar on too. But I'm OK as it is now.

 

thanks guy for all your help!!!

 

I do have a bed cover. obviously to wich makes it worse. but i will have to check into the sway bars. and maybe consider taking the bed cover off

 

This is quite interesting. The wind when I drive through plains areas sometimes bothers me a little as well. It was worse becuase I didn't have UCAs, now I do. I wonder though, rear swaybar and quick disconnect?

 

Yeah, swaybars do limit articulation... but I can't see how that's a major issue with OP since he's riding a pre-runner anyway. It's not much of an issue at all unless you do some pretty serious off-road adventuring, mainly rock crawling.

I'm not sure how a quick disconnect would work but the link nuts on my bar are easily accessible... taking them off and removing the link from one side shouldn't be more than another 5 min's at trail head when prepping for an off-road trek. The link on the other side will hold the bar safely out of the way but make it ineffective and return full articulation.

 

One of the things that is adjusted on an alignment is the tow-in. If there is not enough toe-in or it is towed-out, it will contribute to instability in the steering. Too much tow-in will cause tire wear. This should be one of the first things checked.

 

I bought my 09 new a couple of years ago and felt the same thing you are. I also have had several other trucks, none of which felt this "loose" at highway speeds with a crosswind. I made several mods to my truck which helped the looseness. Note that the mods weren't necessarily done to fix the looseness, but did help.

The mods were done in this order:

- upgraded tires from 245/75-16 to 265/70-16 - helped a bit
- TSB rear springs - helped a bit
- upgraded shocks to 5100s, set fronts to .85 lift - helped a bit
- aligned front to recommended (on here...) settings of 0/0/2.1 - helped quite a bit

I've been thinking about the rear sway bar, but haven't pulled the trigger on it yet though. The mods above have helped the looseness, it hasn't gone away, but it's better. Also need to keep a eye on tire pressures, as I've had it overfilled before (Discount Tire's finest techs...) at 35psi and the truck felt quite squirrely until I lowered the psi to 30-31.

 

where did you find a rear anti sway bar?

 

I came from a full size Ford Econoline with a high top lol. The tacoma drives like a dream compared to that square box.

Not much you can do.

 

Wonder if he still has the truck... considering the post was from 2011 !

 

im reviving all kind of threads on this today.

 

http://www.xr-underground.com/threads/official-sway-bar-group-buy.58605/page-3

 

Tacomas just suck in the wind, for whatever reason. And that stupid whistling.

I've owned lots of trucks, SUVs, Suburbans, etc. that catch a lot of wind and the Tacoma is by far the worst of any I've owned. That said, just keep a good grip on the wheel in the wind and drive on. After awhile you'll correct steering without even thinking about it.

 

Tacomas are a PITA for driving in wind or over 65mph.

Just the way it is.

I have a cap and that makes it worse