Advice on Minimizing Getting Blown Around by Crosswinds

[Rusty PW]

And even though @Rusty PW is kidding around, trust them too. And there was another person that @ShadowsPapa recently said that they know things … Johnathon or something.

My Power Wagon was rock steady with a 4" lift and 37's. Hell, it was close to 7,500 lbs. My JTRD stock got blown around some. With the 4" lift, it's more.

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[jav_eee]

That's just what jeeps do. Sorry you found out AFTER purchasing. Time to get acquainted and adjusted to it.

 

[Lunentucker]

 

[Badunit]

It isn't a deal breaker, just something I'd like to improve upon to make windy days more enjoyable.

Lunentucker, you said you "got into the various and numerous ways to make it better". In addition to the LCAs and the brace, what else did you do that worked (or did not work) for you?

 

[Lunentucker]

It isn't a deal breaker, just something I'd like to improve upon to make windy days more enjoyable.

Lunentucker, you said you "got into the various and numerous ways to make it better". In addition to the LCAs and the brace, what else did you do that worked (or did not work) for you?

Made sure everything was torqued properly, played around with toe in vs toe out (within the published specs), the steering gearbox adjustment, and as mentioned, the brackets to improve positive caster. The Metalcloak sector shaft brace tightened the feel up considerably. Even the Teraflex rear brackets make the back end feel more planted on the road.
Also play around the tire pressure. I run 30 cold on the 35's. I ran 33 cold on the stock 33's on the Mojave. 4 lbs under the door placard.

All of my add-ons are linked in my build thread in my signature.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Made sure everything was torqued properly, played around with toe in vs toe out (within the published specs), the steering gearbox adjustment, and as mentioned, the brackets to improve positive caster. The Metalcloak sector shaft brace tightened the feel up considerably. Even the Teraflex rear brackets make the back end feel more planted on the road.

When our temperatures dipped into the double-digits below 0 a while back, and highs in the single digits above, I aired up the tires on our Jeeps. Now with temps back up around 60 I'm floating around with tires at 37-38 psi before I even start driving.
I found it to be a tad less "stable" or solid and will be airing back down to about 35-36 like I usually run them. You'd not think that that little bit should matter - but it does.
That's something else I'd check on any Jeep that wanders a bit or seems just not right - dealers usually send these thing out with tire pressures around 40 and even a stock Overland with stock tires doesn't run tires that high - 38 is the sticker number for stock Overland and I've found that dropping down from their 40-41 down to 38 max makes a difference on these.
The OP has a Rubicon - if it's the stock Falken A/T tires, it shouldn't be sitting over 36 psi tops.

 

[Badunit]

Trust in @Lunentucker and @ShadowsPapa , they are both wonderful sources of info, and very knowledgeable.

And even though @Rusty PW is kidding around, trust them too. And there was another person that @ShadowsPapa recently said that they know things … Johnathon or something.

Thanks. Their answers are always knowledgable and helpful, or funny (actually funny, not making fun of) and I appreciate the expertise in their replies. I am here to learn, and to help out when I can.

 

[Badunit]

My tires (stock Falkens) are at 34psi cold. Airing them down was the first thing I did after I bought it, before leaving the dealers lot. I'd driven a Mojave at 40psi and it was all over the road. I recall it was mentioned here that it made a huge difference and I know it did on my Ram, which felt like it was riding on basketballs when I drove it home the first time.

 

[Lunentucker]

When our temperatures dipped into the double-digits below 0 a while back, and highs in the single digits above, I aired up the tires on our Jeeps. Now with temps back up around 60 I'm floating around with tires at 37-38 psi before I even start driving.
I found it to be a tad less "stable" or solid and will be airing back down to about 35-36 like I usually run them. You'd not think that that little bit should matter - but it does.
That's something else I'd check on any Jeep that wanders a bit or seems just not right - dealers usually send these thing out with tire pressures around 40 and even a stock Overland with stock tires doesn't run tires that high - 38 is the sticker number for stock Overland and I've found that dropping down from their 40-41 down to 38 max makes a difference on these.
The OP has a Rubicon - if it's the stock Falken A/T tires, it shouldn't be sitting over 36 psi tops.

I had a thread on exploring tire psi and rubber durometer across temperature ranges.
I really can't find much data out there, but my theory was whether or not we need to add as much air in winter was we think we do, because tire compounds get harder as the temperatures drop. I'm looking for a correlation between let's say a 30 degree ambient drop and a 2 psi shift that follows it.
Do we really need to pump the now harder and stiffer tire up more?

 

[WILDHOBO]

Cross winds make it hard to keep my JT in my lane on the highway. I am thinking that a stiffer steering stabilizer would help and hope to get some advice. It is a stock '23 Rubicon. No lift, stock tires. Question 1: Will it help? Question 2: where can I find any data about how much stiffer any of the aftermarket ones are vs stock.

I thought about the Roadmaster Exact Center because it sounds like it is meant for just this kind of issue but their website makes it sound like it will not fit a Rubicon and it seems like it could mask a mechanical or tire problem until it became dangerous.

Adjustable through shaft designs such as Fox ATS or the Falcon Nexus 2.2 ATS. Both seem overkill for stock suspension and tires but the adjustability would let me dial in what I want. The Fox has 24 clicks of adjustment, the Falcom has soft-med-stiff. The Fox has an external reservoir that I really don't need. Both are pretty expensive. If I knew it would fix the problem I'd gladly spring for one of them. But which one, or maybe a different one?

Non-Adjustable through shaft designs such as the Fox TS or Falcon Nexus TS. I don't know which is stiffer or if either is much different from stock. They aren't cheap and I'd be a little ticked off to find it had no effect on the problem. If I knew one of them would fix the problem I would gladly give up the adjustability of the ATS designs.

Normal designs like the Bilstein or Fox. My concern is it causing a pull to one side because of the pressurization. The through shaft designs don't have this as a concern. The standard stabilizers are a lot cheaper, though.

What are all your thoughts on stabilizers and their ability to minimize wind-induced steering? Which do you recommend.

It’ll always be less aerodynamic than a non Jeep, but in my opinion, a nice way to start is with the shocks. The stock rubicon shocks are very squishy and don’t help with high speed road handling. And you don not need to spend a lot, just some basic 2.0 shocks that are a little stiffer will make a large difference. I could barely control mine on certain highway stretches with the stock shocks. Basic Fox 2.0’s were on it for 40k miles. That problem was gone. Those are not high end shocks, but with basic stuff, road manners can improve over stock Rubi shocks.

 

[bd100]

I'll second the idea of making sure everything is torqued properly.

As for tire pressures, my truck has 32" LT-E tires at 50psi because we tow and at 40 the back tires were getting noticeably hotter than the front. So 50. But it's very stable even in the cross winds with a pop-up in tow. Combined with stiffer shocks, it has great handling too.

RVs can be a real handful in cross winds. One reason I like our popup.

 

[Idlethunder]

My tires (stock Falkens) are at 34psi cold. Airing them down was the first thing I did after I bought it, before leaving the dealers lot. I'd driven a Mojave at 40psi and it was all over the road. I recall it was mentioned here that it made a huge difference and I know it did on my Ram, which felt like it was riding on basketballs when I drove it home the first time.

My 22 Rubicon was terrible in the wind and wandered badly at highway speed. My first change was following forum advice and changing to the longer front lower control arms from the Mopar lift. They bumped the caster out to 6.4 and the wandering was noticeably better, and it was blown around a lot less.

A few months later I swapped out the very soft OEM Fox shocks for a set of Eibach Pro Truck shocks. This improved both as much if not more than the control arms. At that point I’d had the Jeep for about 9 months, and it drove well enough that I no longer had any complaints. I've heard the red shocks on the 23 model Rubicon are better than the Fox they replaced so that may not be any help to you.

A month later for Christmas my wife gave me a Fox race series 2.0 ATS steering stabilizer. I installed it a few days later and was amazed but only because it did not make much of a change at all. I could feel a slight difference when I click through the adjustments but even set to its firmest, I don’t feel like it firmed up the steering on the highway much if any over the stock stabilizer. Having said that, if that had been the first modification, the difference might have been obvious. To me, the advantage of being able to adjust the stiffness is when I’m offroad. Dialing it back really loosens up the steering at slower speeds.

Up to that point, I was still at stock height and on the original Wildpeak AT3s. The biggest changes for highway driving were the longer control arms and stiffer shocks. Had I done nothing else to the suspension, I would have been happy with the handling.

After that I got carried away and installed a 2.5” Clayton lift with Falcon piggyback shocks. It now rides and handles about twice as good as stock and 50% better than after the mods. It is just amazing how much heavier built the aftermarket springs, control arms, and track bars are than the factory parts. I’m not smart enough to be certain but my guess is that they flex much less keeping it much more stable on the road.

 

[Like-a-virgin]

My 2500 Ram is also a brick on wheels with solid axles and the same suspension design and recirculating ball steering and sits even higher and it is so solid in the wind that you can't even tell the wind is blowing. I'm not convinced yet that this JT has to be as poor in the wind as it is. And, yes, I know the Ram has more mass but it also has more side area to catch the wind.

You have a 2500 Ram & a Gladiator? How would you compare the two? I which did you get first?

 

[Like-a-virgin]

Hang on and anticipate the crosswind. I'm guessing you didn't test drive on a windy day?
At least you don't have a Wrangler!

Why? Does the Wrangler react more to the wind than the JT?

 

[Like-a-virgin]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA - good one!

I didn’t a catch that!

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