Truck seems a little squirrely at highway speeds

I notice the same movement in my truck, no lift or alterations. It feels like it comes from the front end kind of a pulling left to right, I notice it on parts of the 10 hwy. here in az, or in high winds on the hwy. I think it is due to the lightness of the truck as well as the tires and height of the truck.

 

Just because it rides 'straight' still doesn't mean its fully alligned properly.

In heavy wind, the tacoma will sway a bit. That's natural for a vehicle of that size/shape. After putting a 3" lift on it, that'll only get worse. With no wind, the truck shouldn't sway (atleast mine doesn't). Alilgnment plays a huge roll.

If you haven't gotten it alligned yet (after the lift), then I highly recommend it.

 

So it looks like we are getting some degree of variation in experiences here.

Many with 3" spacers complain of drifting at highway speeds

Some with completely stock setups complain of drifting at highway speeds.

I would like to know from those that installed aftermarket UCA's if it corrected the problem or just reduced the severity of the drift.

 

i would also like to know how much the aftermarket uca's fix the problem

 

No drift here... LR UCA's work like a champ!

 

Mine had 2 versions of slop we speak of here....the rear did it before the lift due to the shitty 3 leaf packs, loaded or not it sucked at any speed. AAL fixed that since truck was over 36k when I got it & no one would do TSB. The front wanders in grooves in the frwy after 2.5 lift due to not enough caster. The LR UCAs in the garage will fix that as soon as they jump the fuck on there & an alignment is done. Several other things on oem or new trucks can have bearing on this as has been stated such as narrow tall tires in crosswinds, tire pressure, no TSB done on the crappy 3 leafs out back, alignment, etc etc etc. But the OP with 3" spacer lift is gonna be caster issue besides whatever badness spacer lift vs. suspension lift adds to the equation. Check your printout of the alignment, I bet your caster is nowhere near +2.5. They will align only camber/toe and tell you it's good to go if no caster adjustment. It won't necessarily wear the tires for awhile but will be sketchy twitchy & follow grooves in the pavement.

 

Would new LR UCA's help drift and swaying in a new truck with no lift?

 

My stock 2008 4X4 Access Cab gets squirrelly on grooved pavement. It has from day one.

How do you fix that?

 

it's a truck...sits high off the ground...whenever there is a side wind or an 18 wheeler goes by it's gonna move a bit....also cuz of the big tires grooves in the road are gonna make it squirrely since you have more contact with the road than you would in a car with skinnier tires

 

That's highly dependent on tread pattern. Any tread with longitudinal grooves is going to try to follow the ridges in the pavement. It's not IMO something you need to worry about. You can feel it but it's not something that will go past a certain point. The tire will hop to the next ridge before it pushes much one way or the other.

 

07 here with the same issue, it looks like its pretty common; I noticed it got worst after tire upgrade.

 

I noticed the twitcyness right after my lift as well. Nothing dangerous just a tendancy to not go straight without holding the wheel as much as before. You just have to be more attentive to the steering.
Yes it is the caster change with the lift.
I will be getting some upper control arms soon to make it more stable in the steering.
The Light Racing ones look like the way to go so far.

 

Yeah... I have no lift at all, but I recently changed wheels and got new tires. They're the OEM size, but they're General Grabber AT2s. I noticed the difference on the highway immediately. The truck was aligned w/ the new wheels/tires and it tracks straight at slower speeds, but I feel like I really have to concentrate when I'm driving on the interstate.

If a set of UCAs will fix it, then it sounds like a fun thing to get my hands dirty with, but it'll be my first experience w/ something that involved, other than the spark plug change I did.

I've looked for a DIY, but haven't seen one. Also, while I've seen the names of a few UCAs in this thread, I still don't know what would be good for me (just basic, good equipment... no need for top of the line racing components or anything like that).

Additional help in this thread is appreciated!

 

Ok guys, What do Light Racing Upper Control Arms do for my, STOCK, rear wheel drive, 4 Cyl, Tacoma???????? I'm looking for a sure thing fix for my twitchy squirly cross wind pushed little truck.

Can an alignment fix this if I get Camber / Caster set at some maximum acceptable range?

I called TOYOTA, and they claim that no one has ever complained about crosswind steering stability problems.

 

A good frontend guy suggested taking my tire pressure to the maximum. Toyota recommends 30 lbs and the tire is rated up to 40 lbs. I tried 40 lbs and it is alot better. I need a really windy day to know for sure, how much better, but I would now consider driving a long distance on a highway.

 

ya my truck is like that in high winds, or if its calm. I think i just need to pick up some aftermarket uca's.

 

UCA's will not fix a stock truck. hell i bet it puts too much +caster on it. which i assume is bad also.

i lifted my truck gently. 2 friggen inches. it is looser and the best my alignment guy can get is +0.7 caster. not enough, and my truck is ever so slightly loose feeling. it is slight, buy i am very sensitive to every car in my arsenal. i will go with the camburg ball joint UCA's. these use the stock BJ. the LR ones use this huge one that is similar to our stock BJ's.

 

You got uniball or stock type. The LR and stock are basically the same style. The uniball will give more articulation. The type of ball joint will not dictate whether caster can be adjusted or not. +0.7 is nowhere near +2.0 to +3.0 range where the twitchy disappears. Mine had +0.8 on 1 side and +1.2 on the other before doing the UCAs. Yes, it sucked. Sittin on +2.8 on both sides now with the LR UCAs. Wander is completely gone.