Truck wanders on grooved cement highway

[pboggini]

My wife and I had to run back to the dealer 'cause they forgot to have us sign one of the papers. On the way there, we drove on a highway with the grooves in the cement and the truck wandered. Actually, it kind of shimmied back and forth. I have a feeling that the alignment needs more caster as I had something similar on my '96 Tacoma. Fortunately that truck has the recall where they had to essentially do the Boss 302 front end mod so I requested the max caster setting. This is actually worse but it's only on this one highway as the grooves are newer/deeper I believe. I mentioned it to the guy I got the truck from and I told him that when I bring it back I'll want them to take a look and likely add caster.

Anyone else notice this?

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[Snorebaby]

My wife and I had to run back to the dealer 'cause they forgot to have us sign one of the papers. On the way there, we drove on a highway with the grooves in the cement and the truck wandered. Actually, it kind of shimmied back and forth. I have a feeling that the alignment needs more caster as I had something similar on my '96 Tacoma. Fortunately that truck has the recall where they had to essentially do the Boss 302 front end mod so I requested the max caster setting. This is actually worse but it's only on this one highway as the grooves are newer/deeper I believe. I mentioned it to the guy I got the truck from and I told him that when I bring it back I'll want them to take a look and likely add caster.

Anyone else notice this?

Check the tire pressure. Some dealers don't adjust the pressure after they receive it. The door jamb says 30 psi on mine. Ford over inflates for transportation.

 

[pboggini]

Check the tire pressure. Some dealers don't adjust the pressure after they receive it. The door jamb says 30 psi on mine. Ford over inflates for transportation.

Yea, I thought about that too and did check. Mine says 35 PSI and they were 40. I dropped them to about 36. Given the fact that I've traditionally run my tires higher in all my cars but in both my '96 Tacoma and '08 Canyon w/o such effects I didn't think it would matter. This morning I was on the same highway and it did the same thing with the lower pressure.

 

[Snorebaby]

Yea, I thought about that too and did check. Mine says 35 PSI and they were 40. I dropped them to about 36. Given the fact that I've traditionally run my tires higher in all my cars but in both my '96 Tacoma and '08 Canyon w/o such effects I didn't think it would matter. This morning I was on the same highway and it did the same thing with the lower pressure.

It just could be the grooves themselves. I have a stretch of road that I drive somewhat regularly that has grooves. Some tires are better at deflecting the wobble than others. I haven't encountered an issue with the Hankook ATM tires on my FX4. The tires on my '96 Ranger (cheap Primewell's) are affected by the grooves. The same with my motorcycle tires. Some brands/models of tire are better at handling the grooves than others. A 900lb motorcycle with a groove wobble at highway speed is rather unnerving

Post when you get an answer for the problem.

 

[Geoff]

I think it all depends on the grooves and the tires. Some tires are worse than others for wandering.

 

[pboggini]

It just could be the grooves themselves. I have a stretch of road that I drive somewhat regularly that has grooves. Some tires are better at deflecting the wobble than others. I haven't encountered an issue with the Hankook ATM tires on my FX4. The tires on my '96 Ranger (cheap Primewell's) are affected by the grooves. The same with my motorcycle tires. Some brands/models of tire are better at handling the grooves than others. A 900lb motorcycle with a groove wobble at highway speed is rather unnerving

Post when you get an answer for the problem.

My truck came with the Bridgestone Duelers on it which are the same tires my wife's Pilot has ironically and we don't see that with the Pilot. Since the mounts for the tonneau cover were damaged in shipment, it does need to go back. Oh, and the body shop was too busy to take off the STX stickers so now it looks like three things for them to look at when I take it back.

I'll reply here once the dealer checks it out and gives me their opinion. On another highway it wasn't as bad but you can visibly see the difference in the grooves as the second highway (Interstate 280 vs. Highway 85) are noticeably less pronounced.

 

[joeb427]

My truck came with the Bridgestone Duelers on it which are the same tires my wife's Pilot has ironically and we don't see that with the Pilot. Since the mounts for the tonneau cover were damaged in shipment, it does need to go back. Oh, and the body shop was too busy to take off the STX stickers so now it looks like three things for them to look at when I take it back.

I'll reply here once the dealer checks it out and gives me their opinion. On another highway it wasn't as bad but you can visibly see the difference in the grooves as the second highway (Interstate 280 vs. Highway 85) are noticeably less pronounced.

If you want, you can take the STX sticker off easity. Just heat with hair dryer a bit, lift an end up and removed guiding the hair dryer as you lift. Comes off in 30 seconds with no glue residue. I just removed my Sport pieces.

 

[VAMike]

I've had my other car for more than 15 years, and every once in a while some set of grooves will make it squirrelly. I have no idea what combination of factors makes that happen when most of the time it doesn't.

 

[pboggini]

its likely a combination of a number of factors. more than likely the tire tread and the groove spacing being the likely combination thats causing the issue.

If this is a road that you commonly travel I can see the desire to make a long term adjustment such as your caster.
But if it's not a well travelled highway for you, why bother?

I'm a HUGE fan of max caster. I had a '65 Mustang with manual steering and I did the Shelby upper control arm mod. That car would wander on streets with ruts or grooves. I had to convince the alignment shop here (Shelby guys) that I'd be OK with max caster because it makes steering a bit harder. They agreed with a lot of caveats but the end result was a car that tracked very true and a steering wheel that came back to center more reliably. To me, I just can't understand why someone wouldn't want it since it 1) tracks better, 2) wheel returns to center faster and 3) even helps give a bit of dynamic camber. But, I've not met an alignment tech who didn't balk at my request due to it making the steering effort a bit heavier. Shrug.

Anyway, yea, this is a highway I drive most days and since I've had a lot of experience both before and after I'm pretty much sold on it. Even my wife asked why the truck was dancing around like that and said "you should drive my car 'cause I'm afraid it's going to ruin the tires". So, it's very noticeable.

 

[pboggini]

If you want, you can take the STX sticker off easity. Just heat with hair dryer a bit, lift an end up and removed guiding the hair dryer as you lift. Comes off in 30 seconds with no glue residue. I just removed my Sport pieces.

Yea I know I can do it myself and I do have a heat gun (with a bazillion settings) but since the dealer offered to have the body shop do it to make sure their techs didn't damage the paint, I"m going to let them do it. They will likely have it for the day anyway so I'm gathering items for them to do. I don't think there will be much more to do. Oh, that reminds me, they need different mounts for the rubber floor mounts 'cause they are on top of the standard ones. I'm adding that to the list.

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