Road vibrations on feet and pedals?

[RangerFD]

I don’t know if I’m being paranoid but can you guys “feel” the road when you’re driving your Ranger. Whether it’s on your left resting foot or your foot through the pedal? I don’t know if I’m feeling unnecessary vibrations from maybe the wheels not being tight enough or I’m just imagining things.

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[P. A. Schilke]

I don’t know if I’m being paranoid but can you guys “feel” the road when you’re driving your Ranger. Whether it’s on your left resting foot or your foot through the pedal? I don’t know if I’m feeling unnecessary vibrations from maybe the wheels not being tight enough or I’m just imagining things.

Hi J,

Are your tires set to the door label pressure when cold? Is your truck lifted with bigger tires?

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[JaysOnTheEDGE]

i've had this sensation before depending on how smooth the road was an also the type of shoes i was wearing. wearing dress shoes i felt more road feedback

 

[RangerFD]

Hi J,

Are your tires set to the door label pressure when cold? Is your truck lifted with bigger tires?

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

I’ve got a leveling kit on, stock tires with correct pressure. I mean is it somewhat normal to feel it?

 

[slowmachine]

We don't have great roads in New England, so there is always some vibration from road irregularities, repairs, etc. When there is no obvious cause, I always suspect the tires. Most people never have them rebalanced as they wear. I like to do it about every 10,000 miles.

 

[geophb]

You driving barefoot? I would feel vibrations in the steering wheel or the whole truck before I felt it in the pedals to be honest.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

You driving barefoot? I would feel vibrations in the steering wheel or the whole truck before I felt it in the pedals to be honest.

Hi Geophb,

Not necessarily. If the excitation frequency is specific it can excite the floorpan and not the steering column. We try to keep the steering column in the 30 Hz first order natural frequency as installed, however most vehicles fail this objective and there are road induced excitation frequencies that can on some cases affect only the steering wheel/column and not any other part of the vehicle. The old Econoline was that way with a first mode natural frequency of about 9hz...low speed driving on a slightly rough road would really set off the steering wheel/column. We tried a pencil brace to help but it was ineffective. When the Econoline was redesigned to become SLA instead of Twin I beam, we revised the column and the problem went away...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[geophb]

Hi Geophb,

Not necessarily. If the excitation frequency is specific it can excite the floorpan and not the steering column. We try to keep the steering column in the 30 Hz first order natural frequency as installed, however most vehicles fail this objective and there are road induced excitation frequencies that can on some cases affect only the steering wheel/column and not any other part of the vehicle. The old Econoline was that way with a first mode natural frequency of about 9hz...low speed driving on a slightly rough road would really set off the steering wheel/column. We tried a pencil brace to help but it was ineffective. When the Econoline was redesigned to become SLA instead of Twin I beam, we revised the column and the problem went away...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

I was just getting at that it would be hard for me to feel the vibration through the sole of shoe or boot.

 

[RangerFD]

We don't have great roads in New England, so there is always some vibration from road irregularities, repairs, etc. When there is no obvious cause, I always suspect the tires. Most people never have them rebalanced as they wear. I like to do it about every 10,000 miles.

so if the road is smooth i dont feel anything at all. I just dont know if say like i go over a bump or a dip in the road on one side should i feel that bump/vibration through my feet?

 

[P. A. Schilke]

so if the road is smooth i dont feel anything at all. I just dont know if say like i go over a bump or a dip in the road on one side should i feel that bump/vibration through my feet?

Hi J,

Just a hunch...have the dealer tighten up your seat to floorpan bolts. There was a complaint similar that resulted in this fixing the problem...Maybe even a TSB...can not recall.

Good luck!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[Big Blue]

so if the road is smooth i dont feel anything at all. I just dont know if say like i go over a bump or a dip in the road on one side should i feel that bump/vibration through my feet?

I've read the other threads here on vibrations and can understand drive line vibration and the attempts and methods to correct them. But, feeling the road? No road is perfectly smooth, no tire is perfectly round or balanced. So of course your going to feel the road. Sometimes more sometimes less. We are talking a truck here with a truck suspension, read stiffer. I'm not sitting in my recliner at home, I'm going down the road at 60-70 MPH. If I didn't feel some vibration in my feet, my hands, my butt I would think I had a flying car. So unless this vibration is specific to a specific speed range or varies greatly with speed, yes it is normal.

 

[RangerFD]

I've read the other threads here on vibrations and can understand drive line vibration and the attempts and methods to correct them. But, feeling the road? No road is perfectly smooth, no tire is perfectly round or balanced. So of course your going to feel the road. Sometimes more sometimes less. We are talking a truck here with a truck suspension, read stiffer. I'm not sitting in my recliner at home, I'm going down the road at 60-70 MPH. If I didn't feel some vibration in my feet, my hands, my butt I would think I had a flying car. So unless this vibration is specific to a specific speed range or varies greatly with speed, yes it is normal.

Thanks! I needed someone to tell me it was in my head?

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