Billstein 5100's & 1" springs. Much floatier handling normal? *Alignment sheet edit*

[Quiero]

Billstein 5100's & 1" springs. Much floatier handling normal? *Alignment sheet edit*

I had Billsteins at the highest setting and 1" rear springs installed and had the truck aligned.

On the freeway it feels much floatier now. Like the wind is blowing it around when the wind is not blowing hard.

Still on factory tie rods and balljoints as well as bushings. In my older truck it drove similar to this before I replaced all of the front end components. Then again, I didnt notice this until the lift.

I've never owned a lifted vehicle. Is this normal?

 

[Ebolavirus6]

What springs are you using and how many miles on stock components?

I would venture to say that something is not right.

 

[cwilliams563]

I had Billsteins at the highest setting and 1" rear springs installed and had the truck aligned.

On the freeway it feels much floatier now. Like the wind is blowing it around when the wind is not blowing hard.

Still on factory tie rods and balljoints as well as bushings. In my older truck it drove similar to this before I replaced all of the front end components. Then again, I didnt notice this until the lift.

I've never owned a lifted vehicle. Is this normal?

Mine is the same way. Bought it this year with 154K mi. and was stock height. Put basically a 3”/2” on mine with 5100’s front and back and Eibach front springs and super flex rears. Right after I lifted it, it felt very floaty as well and that was with the exact same tires and wheels so I compared apples to apples. With new tires (bigger) and wheels it still felt exactly the same so it’s not my tires like some say. It felt pretty sketchy on the hwy or fwy and still kinds does.

I did replace the rear sway bar end links with Moog 2nd generation (1”longer than our 4th gen) More Information for MOOG K80380 and energy poly bushings. This definitely helped some as it stiffened it up a bit and helped bring the rear geometry back a bit. After that, I did a sway bar relocate kit and drop as well as energy poly end link bushings and sway bar bushings. Didn’t notice much improvement in squirellyness there but feel the bumps more so may have helped a bit. It still floats and I know exactly what you mean. Not sure if somethings wrong with mine either. I just deal with it now and try to pay very close attention to the road, if not I have a tendency to end up on the other side pretty quick (happened just a few hours ago lol!

 

[bigmoose]

The light handling may be caused by the upper control arm. When you raised the suspension the UCA drooped causing the wheel to be out of camber. Some of the aftermarket UCA's compensate for this or are adjustable. The higher the lift, the more the camber will be affected.

 

[Quiero]

I posted on another group which said that adjustable CAs are really needed to balance caster/camber.

I have the print out from my alignment shop below.

This seems to be a common thing based on my google fu.

160k miles

 

[BackOff]

Low caster will lead to wander and constant driver input needed.
3.5*+ caster will track better... less floaty, less the road surface will push you around.

Steering starts to get heavier as you get up up 5*... tracks great though, like your on rails.

 

[cwilliams563]

Low caster will lead to wander and constant driver input needed.
3.5*+ caster will track better... less floaty, less the road surface will push you around.

Steering starts to get heavier as you get up up 5*... tracks great though, like your on rails.

Not trying to hijack this thread by any means, but how does my alignment look? Anything unusual or way out of whack?

 

[BackOff]

Not trying to hijack this thread by any means, but how does my alignment look? Anything unusual or way out of whack?

you want more caster you have .6

the OP was not even to the min at 2.3

try for 3.5 or more

 

[cwilliams563]

you want more caster you have .6

the OP was not even to the min at 2.3

try for 3.5 or more

Oh geez.... .6*, thought I saw 6* lol. Guess I'm way off huh? Was hoping to get away without having to get new adjustable UCA's with my lift not being over 3" but guess I will have to start looking more into that. Thank you.

 

[riceandpho]

with stock control arms, you will get the max of 3 for caster i think, have your alignment guy go to 3 or more.

 

[BackOff]

...and if your LCA cam bolts are rusted/seized good luck getting improved caster without a small headache... cutting the cam bolts out.