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Rear track bar?

Poolmonkey

Poolmonkey

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Had an incident towing home today, 19 PW with 25k almost all towing on and off road and probably loaded a bit heavy. When it not towing it’s almost always in the dirt, it does a lot of pretty severe dirt.
Have read on here about some weird stuff happening while towing and loaded heavy regarding road imperfection and such. I had never noticed any so thought meh.
Lately, it seems like the truck loaded, towing or not takes longer to recover from encounters with seams, dips and stuff..almost feels like the truck undulates side to side for a bit afterward. Imperfection seems like more than it is in reality.
Today while towing the little TT and not loaded nearly as heavy as some times, a pretty bad dip on I15 coming home raised heck. The rear felt light and seemed to step a bit driver side. Cruise control cut off and anti lock/traction control began, yanking the wheel and woggling the truck back and forth. Stepped on the gas and there was none, the truck slowed itself to about 50 before I could drive again. It seemed violent and as out of control as can be, but my buddy behind me said that other than suddenly slowing down, it didn’t seem to amount to much. He said the brake lights were on when I didn’t hit them.
Anyway, who thinks that a rear track bar could take care of what is going on and that mine may be shot?
 
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H3LZSN1P3R said:
Thats likely shocks the Trac bar is not a likely suspect
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Shocks have maybe 5k, no leaks..crappy Rancho 9000 but improved tow ride over the factory Bils when they went on, adjustable so usually run them a bit stiff unless running trails while mostly unloaded. Really, they have been nice…took whatever wallowing the truck had when heavy which was not much, right out.
Have had shocks go bad before and this doesn’t feel like it, more like a shifting back and forth in the rear, much more pronounced in bumpy curves.
 
Poolmonkey said:
Shocks have maybe 5k, no leaks..crappy Rancho 9000 but improved tow ride over the factory Bils when they went on, adjustable so usually run them a bit stiff unless running trails while mostly unloaded. Really, they have been nice…took whatever wallowing the truck had when heavy which was not much, right out.
Have had shocks go bad before and this doesn’t feel like it, more like a shifting back and forth in the rear, much more pronounced in bumpy curves.
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Sounds like typical Ranchos to me honestly but its not hard to check the trac bar
 
Wait so when the truck came up out of the bump and the suspension unloaded the ABS and brakes kicked on without your input on the brake pedal?
 
jetrinka said:
Wait so when the truck came up out of the bump and the suspension unloaded the ABS and brakes kicked on without your input on the brake pedal?
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…pretty much. It was a bad dip though, the kind that the heat around here will do to asphalt sometimes.
Nothing traumatic has ever happened to this thing while towing, it’s the interstate so folks are towing over that dip at speed all day. It’s possible that it may have thought the resulting up travel was sway outta the trailer so it took over, IDK.
My old Ford did something the same one time in hellacious wind, flashed red and took the throttle away for a bit but no brrrrrrrr and mayhem of antilock that time.
 
Poolmonkey said:
…pretty much. It was a bad dip though, the kind that the heat around here will do to asphalt sometimes.
Nothing traumatic has ever happened to this thing while towing, it’s the interstate so folks are towing over that dip at speed all day. It’s possible that it may have thought the resulting up travel was sway outta the trailer so it took over, IDK.
My old Ford did something the same one time in hellacious wind, flashed red and took the throttle away for a bit but no brrrrrrrr and mayhem of antilock that time.
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There is a set of train tracks here on the highway that is rough enough to kick off my cruise and set the traction control light so thats not surprising that it happened if the bump is large enough
 
I had a function in my radio settings for sway control, I turned it off early on. Is yours turned to on, and maybe that kicked in?
 
Rockcrawlindude said:
Track bar is easy enough to check. Could be any of the control arm bushings, really. I wouldn’t rule out a bad shock but you can have it all checked before lunchtime
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@Etoimos called it in PM…tire pressure.
I forgot to air back up after deer hunting in October, was cruising and towing ~30 psi since. Stupid…
 
I've noticed the Thuren rear track bar helped mine with some of the ass end play it used to have, but I also have a ton of other stuff on the truck most of which is in my sig. Glad to hear you ironed it out with tire pressure though. I haven't tried this loaded, but empty there are several rural RR crossing I can hit at 65-75 with CC on and the truck doesn't miss a beat. Really the only gripe I have left with mine is the "wind up", bind, torsion spring effect, whatever you want to call it from the factory rear control arms - I was going to replace them with the metalcloak arms to match my radius arms, but now that Thuren has their rear control arm kit out I think I'm gonna go that route early next year.
 
joshuaeb09 said:
I've noticed the Thuren rear track bar helped mine with some of the ass end play it used to have, but I also have a ton of other stuff on the truck most of which is in my sig. Glad to hear you ironed it out with tire pressure though. I haven't tried this loaded, but empty there are several rural RR crossing I can hit at 65-75 with CC on and the truck doesn't miss a beat. Really the only gripe I have left with mine is the "wind up", bind, torsion spring effect, whatever you want to call it from the factory rear control arms - I was going to replace them with the metalcloak arms to match my radius arms, but now that Thuren has their rear control arm kit out I think I'm gonna go that route early next year.
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Yeah…this truck is no way as stable as my previous, a Ford, though it’s hauling and towing the same and it’s weight capacity is supposedly higher.
It’s not horrible, the Bronco I had doing it was horrible but it was off road modded to the max.
Pulled across the same dip same load same speed last Sunday with no drama.
 
Poolmonkey said:
Yeah…this truck is no way as stable as my previous, a Ford, though it’s hauling and towing the same and it’s weight capacity is supposedly higher.
It’s not horrible, the Bronco I had doing it was horrible but it was off road modded to the max.
Pulled across the same dip same load same speed last Sunday with no drama.
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Honestly most of the stock PW's I've driven have felt like something "was a little off" in the factory configuration. I do love the PW's, but I feel like Ram could've done a lot more around the factory suspension setup to give it the best of both worlds - Towing/Hauling around what a max payload/towing 1500 would do while also being a great factory off-roader.

I don't really have enough fun to need a winch, but those have been the basic build goals of my 2500 CTD since I just prefer having an oil burner in a HD truck. Just about everything I tow comes in where one of those goldilocks configured half-tons could be appropriate or a touch over, I don't do it often as we have another more work truck 2500 in the family fleet so mine is more for backup/personal use(we have some property with a few cattle, our vegetable gardens, etc), most of my driving is long hwy trips not short DD stuff so it's a great "daily", and I like to play from time to time or go camping, to the lake, etc where having some offroad capability gets you to the nicer spots. Can't justify a dedicated vehicle for each purpose so my truck is what I've called the compromise build.
 
joshuaeb09 said:
Honestly most of the stock PW's I've driven have felt like something "was a little off" in the factory configuration. I do love the PW's, but I feel like Ram could've done a lot more around the factory suspension setup to give it the best of both worlds - Towing/Hauling around what a max payload/towing 1500 would do while also being a great factory off-roader.

I don't really have enough fun to need a winch, but those have been the basic build goals of my 2500 CTD since I just prefer having an oil burner in a HD truck. Just about everything I tow comes in where one of those goldilocks configured half-tons could be appropriate or a touch over, I don't do it often as we have another more work truck 2500 in the family fleet so mine is more for backup/personal use(we have some property with a few cattle, our vegetable gardens, etc), most of my driving is long hwy trips not short DD stuff so it's a great "daily", and I like to play from time to time or go camping, to the lake, etc where having some offroad capability gets you to the nicer spots. Can't justify a dedicated vehicle for each purpose so my truck is what I've called the compromise build.
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They are damn heavy, a fine balance between that due to giant and bullet-proof components/frame etc and the suspension that allows mass flex of course.
It’s fine, whatever slight instability that comes from being narrower and higher than the previous is countered by that weight which will yank the little trailer back into shape..when the tires are properly aired up.
The N/A V8 overcame any want I had for another Ford with that six or the long rumored and now here boutique, supercharged V8 they have available now. Came close to getting the TRX and sometimes regret not when driving my buddy’s but that forced induction, just didn’t want it.
It’s been absolutely reliable for the term, no issues whatsoever mechanically. I like to trash talk the tech, though.
 
joshuaeb09 said:
Honestly most of the stock PW's I've driven have felt like something "was a little off" in the factory configuration. I do love the PW's, but I feel like Ram could've done a lot more around the factory suspension setup to give it the best of both worlds - Towing/Hauling around what a max payload/towing 1500 would do while also being a great factory off-roader.

I don't really have enough fun to need a winch, but those have been the basic build goals of my 2500 CTD since I just prefer having an oil burner in a HD truck. Just about everything I tow comes in where one of those goldilocks configured half-tons could be appropriate or a touch over, I don't do it often as we have another more work truck 2500 in the family fleet so mine is more for backup/personal use(we have some property with a few cattle, our vegetable gardens, etc), most of my driving is long hwy trips not short DD stuff so it's a great "daily", and I like to play from time to time or go camping, to the lake, etc where having some offroad capability gets you to the nicer spots. Can't justify a dedicated vehicle for each purpose so my truck is what I've called the compromise build.
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Yeah they certainly are a bit "off." But a wise member here once said (@Rockcrawlindude) that these trucks are meat cleavers not scalpels. LOL. He's right.

The truck generally goes where I point it. Not towing a whole lot and when the weather hits the fan it gets me where I need to go every single time. Its a valuable tool in my toolbox for sure. I've tried to get it stuck before (cmon now - within reason.....LOL) and haven't been successful yet - always manages to crawl itself out.
 
jetrinka said:
Yeah they certainly are a bit "off." But a wise member here once said (@Rockcrawlindude) that these trucks are meat cleavers not scalpels. LOL. He's right.

The truck generally goes where I point it. Not towing a whole lot and when the weather hits the fan it gets me where I need to go every single time. It’s a valuable tool in my toolbox for sure. I've tried to get it stuck before (cmon now - within reason.....LOL) and haven't been successful yet - always manages to crawl itself out.
Click to expand...
Aw shucks. I’ve been called a lot of things before but wise was never one of them.
 
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