I have a question for anyone that may care to shed some light.

With the weather around here being a bit cooler, I have found some rewarding power gains in my truck .

I have the 3.55 LS rear end and had something happen today that I haven't noticed before.

Here goes,,,,I have been able to spin the tires pretty good when launching from a light and the kid in me gets a kick out of showing off a bit. I even got a bit of white smoke last week.
Well today, I jumped on it and the tires broke loose into a nice spin when all of a sudden the wheels felt as if they where hopping a bit. It actually seemed to slow my launch. Is this the "wheel hop" I have read about?
Any suggestions on wether it is hard on my rear end or what mod I might do to keep it from happening.

My truck config is in my sig below, if this helps any.

Thanks for any input on this.

Rocks

 

I can't tell you if it is hard on your rear end or not, but can give you a couple of mods that are worth looking into. On my '00, I would experience wheel hop occasionally, right up until I changed my shocks. When I went from the stockers to RS9000s, I noticed that the wheel hop was pretty much gone. If you still have your stock shocks (and I didn't notice in your sig if you indicated) you might look at changing them out. another option that has been mentioned a lot is a rear sway bar. My '02 came with one from the factory (camper package), and I haven't had any problems with wheel hop at all - even before I changed out the shocks.

 

JDMnAR- don't know to much about wheel hop, but my stupid Wrangler RT/S's get all crazy in the back the minute the road gets a little slick. I am taking care of that thoug with some new tires, they are in the garage now, and will be on the truck as soon as I get off work monday morning! You think that the Wranglers would hold up more that 25,000 miles!

Rocks- Wow that new 250 "ROCKS." Your name says it all! That is a sweet looking truck. And also, what the heck happened to your old 250, thats awfull.

 

Get a rear sway bar and look into some new shocks. I had the same problem. I did both the same time and cured 99% of it.

 

Thanks for the reponses everyone. I did have the shocks replaced about 2 months ago. I believe the replacements where a brand called KYB if I'm not mistaken. They where a much stiffer riding shock than my factories.

I also have a Hellwig rear sway bar, the 1 1/8", it looks pretty cool sitting on my garage floor. I think maybe I need to go ahead and put it on.

Rocks

 

be careful wheel hop can hurt your axle as well as your rearend, what it will do is grind down your teeth on your axle spline and the same to your rear end. you may want to get ladder bars that will help and there are also many products that people sell for just that reason, but when the wheel hop begins let off cause it can hurt you truck.

 

I wondered about that. It sounds hard on it when it starts happening so I have been letting up on the gas.

Thanks herbie5.4,

Rocks

 

not a problem

 

Rocks,
I am also getting some wheel hop since I switched to the 430 rear. It means your truck has enough power to spin the tires and the tires are good enough to grab; they kind of battle it out and cause the springs to wrap up a little.

I have been looking at traction bars (I also have good aftermarket shocks and rear sway bar). Just recently I saw something in the Whitney catalog that bolts to the top front of the spring and is suppose to work like traction bars. It was very reasonable so I may try that first. In the meantime I try to stay out of it.

I have also found that if I power brake it just a little when I punch the throttle then let go, it will burn out smoother (and also impresses the rice burners).

 

This is something I poured over for a while. The options available will make your head spin!

I settled for the slappers I think they were the best bang for the buck value. I'm installing the Lakewoods and a speedo calibrator this coming Friday.

 

I had the same problem too. I went to autozone and bought a set of leaf spring clamps. On my truck the top two where already clamped so I clamped it where you could clamp three together. I went out tonight and tried it out. No more wheel hop! Now I can smokem and let it ride from a stop with no problem and for only 10 bucks, you can't beat that. Heres a pics of what I did!!

 

That looks pretty simple to do trueblue. I am not very good on suspension issues, but I think I could even do that.
So is this a method anyone else has tried? Are there any problems this could create? It doesn't seem like it should cause any problem.

Friday I jumped on it pretty hard, manually shifting my auto out of first into second and the darned thing did the wheel hop again(in first, not second...LOL) I did get a chirp when I hit second gear, but my transmission lurched a second as I shifted. I may not do that again. It sounded rough on my tranny.


Rocks

One more ?.....did you put a clamp on both the forward and rear of each set of springs?

 

Hi Rocks,
I just put the clamps on the fronts. I figured this away the suspension can move up and down alittle, so the ride isn't too harsh. Good luck

 

Mine does it too, and I've been thinking of doing either slappers or some other type of traction device. As far as the spring clamps, those do work enough for your average leaf spring vehicle, like a mildly modded truck. I have my doubts they could stop a Lightning or similar prepped vehicle from hopping, though. They are supposed to go on the front of the springs only, so a good call on that. I read about spring clamps quite a while back in a hot rodding magazine, and they also mentioned to ONLY put them on the front, otherwise the ride would be badly affected. I might try this myself when I get home. So, they are in the lowering block and shackles area of the store??,,,,98

 

Hi guys i just got my Metco's this week..!!!!! my wheel hop is CRAZY!! i let you know how things work out after the install friday after t-giving.....also going to be installing axle shims cuz my rear angle is off..........