My brother recently put on 36" on some boggers and had to crank up the torsion bars all the way, and take off the stepsides (97' Expo) The truck will now violently shake you out of the road, literally, at 40mph. Is this because the torsion bars or could it just be the tires? (Out of balance / truck out of alignment)? He had 22in neepers with a low profile tire and road smooth but now has terrible problems. The tire is extremely aggressive with the tread on the sides and such. Anyone know a fix w/o a suspension lift (Don't have money for that \= )

 

Boggers on the street


If you want a really good ride on the street don't buy Swampers, they're made for offroad with not much thought to road manners (with the exception of the STS and SSR) other than to get DOT approval. Boggers are bias ply and EXTREMELY knobby. Those 2 things make them next to impossible to get balanced correctly. Welcome to the world of offroad tires, this is the reason I don't ever drive my Ranger with TSLs on the street. Oh, and have fun replacing the boggers after 10k, they don't last very long on the street.

 

I appriciate the reply. Would the wheels & tired being out of balance make is shake that bad though? I mean it's hard to portray how bad it shakes. It's fine up to 40 mph, but as soon as you hit 40/41 it will shake you completely out of the road. The shaking continues til your below 20, then you can accelerate back to 40. This is why I was unsure about the tires just being a rough ride, since the shake would go away as soon as you got back below 40. Any ideas?

 

Those tires, out of balance, could easily shake the truck like you describe. They continue to shake until you get below 20 mph probably due to inertia. Once you get an unbalanced mass going, it will continue to shake until it's turning slow enough it seems "balanced". I would guess the opposite is happening on acceleration - you start "balanced", and each successive rotation creates more unbalance. Apparently, it becomes unbearable at 40 mph.

Here's an easy test - leave the t-bars cranked and put a set of professionaly balanced stock tires back on. If it doesn't shake, well it's your Boggers. If it does you may have something else going on. Maybe you wiped out bearing clearances? If you did your tires may shake no matter how well they're balanced.

I'd post more info on your brother's truck. I'd like to know how he got 36" boggers on an Expy without a suspension lift.

Mike

 

I'll post some pics, I have a little more information, the tires are "Swampers, (TSL)?. The remedy that I have been told would work a little is a 3inch body lift and "uncranking" the torsion bars back down. As for the tires, I guess that aggressive of a tread pattern will shaken no matter what even when perfectly balanced. As of now he is getting a 3in body lift and balancing the tires. He took it to the local shop but their wheel balance machine was too small =(. Thanks for all the info and Ill post the pics tonight when we get home. If we can't run it on the road for a bit, we can run it in the mud. Theres a mud run in memory of some redneck that died less than 2 miles down the road. Wow, how ****ty a town I live in. East of Asheville, NC about 10 miles.

 

Btw, he had to take off the running boards and cut a little of the inside fender out.

 

That's cool that someone isn't afraid to run a aggressive tire on the street. Not everyone likes to be like everyone else. My brothers and I have run many swampers on the street and have had good luck with them with a good alignment and balancing. You might want to check into siping(I think it's spelt that way). Siping is taking a tool and putting slits in the lugs for better traction in bad weather and they also help the tire stay cool on the street for better life. I've never done the siping yet but everything I've read looks promising.

And by the way some of those swampers were up to 44's so anything can be done if it's done right or well enough to please the owner!!!!!!!!!

Jeff
97 F-150

 

Biggest problem I have with running my swampers on the street is the fact that I don't want to use up $600 in tires in 15k. Boggers have typically lasted 10k on the street, and some were even sipped. I can't justify paying $800 (next set will be more than my current set) every 6mo to get new tires. But I guess if you're made of money ....................

 

I'm not flaming you. I just think to each his own. Usually when someone puts that big of tire on they only drive it sparingly anyway. My brother just bought a set of thornbirds and he's doing alot of highway driving with them so it'll be interesting to see how well they hold up. They look nice but I think I'll go with the swampers.

Not trying to start something so

Jeff

 

I also have a 97'' F150 4x4 Im running 35'' SSRs and I love them, its my daily driver......For a mean azz looking tire you get good mileage out of them. They dont really make as much noise as I would like them too, but hey... more noise they make the faster there waring out right.

I had a little shake from 0-40 mph but after I installed the Fabtech stabalizer it drives real good now

Wow 36''s on a expo with a 3'' body... I want to see them pics

Jimmy



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