What's new
By:
Ram Heavy Duty Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

3500 continuous, rhythmic bounce on concrete highway

J

JKSchnoo

Member
Messages
41
Reaction score
11
Points
8
Hi Everyone-

I just traded up from my 1500 to a new 3500 6.4L SRW. On sections of highway or streets that are concrete, it starts this rhythmic, fast and continuous bouncing up and down. Feels like I’m going to bite my tongue off. The concrete itself looks smooth, but for some reason the truck gets into this bouncing rhythm immediately.

However, on asphalt highways and streets it rides great. A bit rough when hitting random bumps, but is what I expected with such a stiff suspension, and how it rode when test driving. After reading the forums I dropped the tire pressure down to 50 front, 45 rear, but it still didn’t seem to do much for the concrete driving.

What is going on here? Would adding steel bumpers front and rear help by adding weight? Billstein shocks up front? Air suspension?

Any help is appreciated
 
Welcome to life in an HD truck. Big diff from a 1500 for sure. It’s the evenly spaced joints in the road that get a harmonic vibration thing going.

Lower tire pressure helps, throwing money at suspension upgrades helps, driving wayyy over the speed limit helps most of all.
 
JKSchnoo said:
Hi Everyone-

I just traded up from my 1500 to a new 3500 6.4L SRW. On sections of highway or streets that are concrete, it starts this rhythmic, fast and continuous bouncing up and down. Feels like I’m going to bite my tongue off. The concrete itself looks smooth, but for some reason the truck gets into this bouncing rhythm immediately.

However, on asphalt highways and streets it rides great. A bit rough when hitting random bumps, but is what I expected with such a stiff suspension, and how it rode when test driving. After reading the forums I dropped the tire pressure down to 50 front, 45 rear, but it still didn’t seem to do much for the concrete driving.

What is going on here? Would adding steel bumpers front and rear help by adding weight? Billstein shocks up front? Air suspension?

Any help is appreciated
Click to expand...
Two things off the top of my head, 1 Tire threw a weight. 2 Every now and then some vehicles on just the right surfaces start a harmonic vibration, might change the speed see if stops. Id lay odds on a tire. Long shot half shaft way out of balance, can't hardly fathom that on a truck. Ive seen it make a big difference on sports cars .
 
I'd lay odds on the road. Happens to me all the time. It all depends on the road and speed.
You can slow down, speed up, or hit the brakes real quick to try and get out of the harmonic.
Calif roads are the worse.
There are sections of the highway here in Reno that are bad.
 
Lowering the tire pressure might have helped a bit, but the bumping/bucking still very noticeable. Would adding a steel bumper to front and rear help with added weight?
 
I have lower tire pressure and a Carli pintop suspension - those things maybe make a 5% improvement. No joke, not that I would ever personally break the law like this, but the bouncing/bucking only disappears if you either go far slower than the posted speed limit or somewhere at/north of around 85mph.

This isn't your truck, it's the road. Google around, everyone experiences it on those certain stretches of highway pavement and nothing you do to your ride is going to stop it from happening.
 
Concrete roads are ludicrous. I’m in Denver and the highway goes in and out of asphalt and concrete. Smooth as butter on the asphalt, love the ride. Transitions to concrete and I need a damn mouth guard. Worried my kid is gonna get shaken baby syndrome from riding in my truck
 
JKSchnoo said:
Concrete roads are ludicrous. I’m in Denver and the highway goes in and out of asphalt and concrete. Smooth as butter on the asphalt, love the ride. Transitions to concrete and I need a damn mouth guard. Worried my kid is gonna get shaken baby syndrome from riding in my truck
Click to expand...

Yeah I’m south of you. Sections of I25 between lone tree and castle rock and then a few more heading south towards the Springs are just horrible…
 
I actually live in centennial. I commute to castle rock every day to teach. That stretch of highway is what prompted this post.

The day I got my truck I revved the engine a bit while it was in park, and it rocked side to side a bit. Made me wonder if there was something wrong from day 1.
 
I never realized this was such a common problem. Ok, lets do some data. Those experiencing harmonic vibration, what model and tires? Ive had it a Corvette before, kinda thought that was a long shot in trucks. Haven't had in my 1500 Big Horn, but roads are full of patches and pot holes around here in Kankakee, IL.
 
I’m not sure we are talking about the same thing here. I’m not feeling any vibration at all when driving on concrete. I’m getting bumped up and down in the seat like riding a horse the second I hit concrete. Can see the front end of the truck going up and down. Goes back to smooth riding with asphalt
 
JKSchnoo said:
I’m not sure we are talking about the same thing here. I’m not feeling any vibration at all when driving on concrete. I’m getting bumped up and down in the seat like riding a horse the second I hit concrete. Can see the front end of the truck going up and down. Goes back to smooth riding with asphalt
Click to expand...

Random google, 5 years old post, different brand, same issue. It’s the road.


www.tundras.com

2019 Tundra Shaking on Highway

Just picked up a 2019 Tundra, TRD Limited. Driving it on the highway today, at speeds between 60 and 80. Some parts of the drive were smooth and others...
www.tundras.com www.tundras.com
 
Is this kinda thing going to get better when towing decent weight? How is this not going to destroy a travel trailer?
 
More weight will help up to a point. You have a heavy axle and wheels and a somewhat light bed and frame. When the axle goes up, it tends to stay up, so the bed and frame will go up too. Making the bed heavier will tend to isolate its movement from the axle. You can go lower on the rear tires also depending on the ply rating. I have E rated tires and will go down to 35 on the rear, 45 front.

There's an old trick with white shoe polish to check your tire pressures. Paint a strip on the tread, slowly drive straight on a road, check the white strip. If it evenly removes the polish, you have a good pressure. Wear in the center is high pressure, wear on the edges is low.

I-70 across Kansas used to have long stretches of concrete slab. Like 300 miles. It sucked.
 
Wanderlust073 said:
Yeah I’m south of you. Sections of I25 between lone tree and castle rock and then a few more heading south towards the Springs are just horrible…
Click to expand...

I run 83 Parker - Springs. Often hop across on County Line (Palmer Divide Rd) to Monument hill as going through Black Hills and especially all the lights on Interquest has gotten to be such a sh*tshow.

Decided to gamble a bit the last time we travelled north on our return and held on until Hess but regretted that.

F* I-25.
 
JKSchnoo said:
I’m not sure we are talking about the same thing here. I’m not feeling any vibration at all when driving on concrete. I’m getting bumped up and down in the seat like riding a horse the second I hit concrete. Can see the front end of the truck going up and down. Goes back to smooth riding with asphalt
Click to expand...
I thought concrete roads are poured in sections, are you feeling the seams that separate each sectio?
 
For what it's worth my truck rides pretty smooth on I25. I've run from Ft. Collins to Walsenburg without any issues. Mine is a diesel SRW Megacab 3500. I have Thuren springs up front and factory Air assist in the back. I'm also on 37x12.50r17 ties and they soak up a lot.

On other sections of road (Like the ramp from 6 to i70 in Golden) where there's a frost heave that has lifted a concrete section the rear suspension tops out pretty violently on rebound. I have new shocks in the garage and am hopeful those will fix that situation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top