So I went back to the shop that originally installed my DJM suspension today to have them check for faulty or broken parts and, in general, to see if anything was loose or "frozen".

First, a little background about the shop that did the install. The name of the shop is CustomTruckShop (L&G Enterprises). They are a large and very reputable shop who have done dozens (literally) of cover vehicles for different magazines from 4x4 to Truckin to HotRodder. Their clientele include people like Jim Carey, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, Dale Earnherdt, Jr., etc. They are very well respected in the industry and highly recognized for their work. Most recently, they did the '04 yellow F150's that were on the cover of Truckin'.

Back to the point...they did not find anything to be faulty, broken, loose or frozen, including the shocks. Part of their explanation for my truck's terrible handling was that it's part of lowering the truck so low (which I've been told by everyone). The other part is that my alignment was off; the toe and camber mostly. They said the misalignment could be playing a very important role in the truck's overall handling. Another issue they raised was the dreaded bumpsteer!

Here's what they suggested to resolve the problem:

Apparantly, there is some play in the suspension where the lower DJM arms mount. They said that installing some custom made washers to prevent the arms from moving at all would help. I didn't think this was too outrageous of an idea, but their second idea really blew me away. They suggested installing a steering stabilizer (sp?), which is basically a shock mounted sideways across the front suspension. It something they install when lifting trucks. They say it's used to, of course, stabilize the steering which will reduce bumpsteer.

Does this sound right? When I suggested flipping the tie-rod ends like they do for the Chevy's, they said the steering stabilizer would do much more to reduce bumpsteer than flipping the tie-rod ends. To flip the tie-rod ends and redrill the spindles would cost about 3x as much as the steering stablizer setup. Could they be right? Most shops would jump at the idea of making a few extra dollars, but they were very confident the steering stablizer would be the solution.

You're thoughts?

-Monty

 

I replied via e-mail re the clunk washers already.

These guys are FOS on the steering stabilizer. The ONLY thing that will CURE the bump steer is changing the geometry. All that the stabilizer can do is (maybe) to help you from feeling the effects as quickly. In other words, if you hit a sharp bump on one side of the truck, the steering wheel might not be allowed to jerk as quickly. But under braking and cornering, where the forces are more constant, it would not have much effect. Maybe a semantic point, but an important one nonetheless. And given that you seem to be most upset about "twitchiness," maybe the stabilizer would work for you. But it seems like putting a bandaid on a broken arm. If your truck is that unstable, there must be something else going on.

The alignment is absolutely, positively critical. If you have toe out, for instance, the truck will be all over the road -- even if the suspension is bone stock.

Even with almost 2 degrees of camber and no shocks (temporarily), my front end feels fine (other than the pitching around from not having shocks). Although I know that the bump steer must be worse now that I am almost 2" lower than before, I do not really notice it to be any worse.