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Solutions for the freeway wander - will track bar/steering stabilizer help?

ACLdestroyer

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Hi All,

Picked up my Rubi yesterday and I love it. First negative thing I've noticed is the truck likes to wander around the lane at highway speeds.

Any collective experience with a track bar/steering stabilizer helping reduce this?


Thanks,

Joe
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kevman65

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So many things can cause this NOT relating to the JT.

Lane crowns, ruts in pavement from semis, even those fricken ground in grooves (motorcycle rider here, HATE grooves)

Also, check air pressure in your tires, probably WAY too high of a pressure. Stock tires I had down to 35 psi before they behaved. The 35" tires I run now are at 30 psi.

Also, check to see if you have the dreaded dead spot in your steering. While driving, see if their is a dead spot where you can move the wheel a couple of inches back and forth and get no response.

Don't throw money and parts at it until you figure out WHY it is behaving like this.
 

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What he said.

So many things can cause this NOT relating to the JT.

Lane crowns, ruts in pavement from semis, even those fricken ground in grooves (motorcycle rider here, HATE grooves)

Also, check air pressure in your tires, probably WAY too high of a pressure. Stock tires I had down to 35 psi before they behaved. The 35" tires I run now are at 30 psi.

Also, check to see if you have the dreaded dead spot in your steering. While driving, see if their is a dead spot where you can move the wheel a couple of inches back and forth and get no response.

Don't throw money and parts at it until you figure out WHY it is behaving like this.
 
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ACLdestroyer

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So many things can cause this NOT relating to the JT.

Lane crowns, ruts in pavement from semis, even those fricken ground in grooves (motorcycle rider here, HATE grooves)

Also, check air pressure in your tires, probably WAY too high of a pressure. Stock tires I had down to 35 psi before they behaved. The 35" tires I run now are at 30 psi.

Also, check to see if you have the dreaded dead spot in your steering. While driving, see if their is a dead spot where you can move the wheel a couple of inches back and forth and get no response.

Don't throw money and parts at it until you figure out WHY it is behaving like this.

Dropped the 42psi down to 37psi just now. Will inch it down to 35 if needed.

Ugh, hope the dead spot thing isnt there. Will go check. Any FCA address to this yet?


Thanks a lot.
 

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Hi All,

Picked up my Rubi yesterday and I love it. First negative thing I've noticed is the truck likes to wander around the lane at highway speeds.

Any collective experience with a track bar/steering stabilizer helping reduce this?


Thanks,

Joe
There is thousands of threads & posts about the steering.. Most people who are used to jeeps are ok with it.. Myself and others not coming from jeeps it seems to be a bigger issue. There was enough complaints & reports of dealerships not fixing it I just threw money at it to fix it.. The Synergy Sector Shaft Brace & a Fox Steering stabilizer & the slop in my wheel & the flightiness when making small corrects is all gone. Its now at least on part with the tightness of the steering on my previous F150 was where as stock it was just way too much work to try to keep straight.
 

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Another fairly cheap and easy to install option are the Rancho Geometry Correction brackets. Have an alignment shop check to see how much caster you have. If it isn't at least 5 degrees then you need to add caster.
 

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So many things can cause this NOT relating to the JT.

Lane crowns, ruts in pavement from semis, even those fricken ground in grooves (motorcycle rider here, HATE grooves)

Also, check air pressure in your tires, probably WAY too high of a pressure. Stock tires I had down to 35 psi before they behaved. The 35" tires I run now are at 30 psi.

Also, check to see if you have the dreaded dead spot in your steering. While driving, see if their is a dead spot where you can move the wheel a couple of inches back and forth and get no response.

Don't throw money and parts at it until you figure out WHY it is behaving like this.
Amen, one of the first things I noticed was the pressure was about 5# over, aired down, ride improved a bunch. Folks got to understand a solid front axle will react to road conditions a lot stronger than an independent.
 

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Also what he said.

So I will tell a humbling story. Years ago my first hot rod was a 51 chevy truck. Had a guy named Sid do a dropped axle for me. I was one of the first ones for his business. He was just starting out. SO I go to put it all back together and in with the leaf springs I find these two wedges. I was removing a few springs anyway. Gotta be low and slow. Truck drove like SHIT. It was like a shopping cart. All over the place and the steering was SUPER loose. The words death trap at 35 mph were accurate. Turned out I pulled the caster shims. I'm a pack rat and saved them. So I put them back and problem solved.

Another fairly cheap and easy to install option are the Rancho Geometry Correction brackets. Have an alignment shop check to see how much caster you have. If it isn't at least 5 degrees then you need to add caster.
 
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Wide aftermarket offset wheels with wide tires, and a Fox TS 2.0 steering stabilizer helped mine tremendously. The skinny stock tires & wheels and stock steering stabilizer was horrible. The first night I drove it home from the dealership it was a nightmare on the highway...Hell it was bad going 55... It was horrendous at 75-85 MPH... Now tracks straight as long as the road is. But it does still follow ruts and grooves bad, but I think that's attributed to the fact it's a Jeep. I think that's one of those "It's a Jeep thing" things. Having to drive it to work and back for 2 weeks on the highway at 75-80 MPH for around 200 miles a day, was really a "get to know me" session with my Jeep. I only had about 2,000 miles on it prior, and now it's over 4K. So, a lot of seat time in a relatively short period.

Here’s a before & after of my JTR. Which one do you think would track straighter based on the contact area and track-width? ;)

Jeep Gladiator Solutions for the freeway wander - will track bar/steering stabilizer help? 0D7B134E-3A7E-411A-8D8D-2CFCB48EF698


Adding one of these helped tremendously, too.

Jeep Gladiator Solutions for the freeway wander - will track bar/steering stabilizer help? 7A9A62E8-EA08-42C5-A006-B2B02E4B6E25
 

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bet there is 43lbs of air in the tires, take it to 30 or so cold, cost you free99, and it will be 95% better in 4 minutes.
 

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I read a post on the JL forum the other day that it helps if you pull out the steering wheel closer to you. I thought it was silly but it feels alot better. It's funny too because I had a JL for 2 years and forgot I had that option. I'm running 35"s with 3.5" lift and dual stabilizer.
 

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The control arms on the Rubicon are the same as the Sport, and the factory alignment spec is 4.0 - 5.5 deg of caster. I took my JTR to my favorite suspension shop a week after I bought it, thinking something was jacked up. They told me not enough caster and too much toe in made it wandery and floaty, come back in 10,000 miles and they would check again.

With that data, I looked around here. I bought a pair of the Mopar lower control arms from the factory 2" lift kit. They are .25" longer than the stock arms. After installation, I ran the Jeep back to the shop (they remembered it, of course!).

It's got maybe TOO much caster, 6 deg now, but it tracks WAY better on the road. For $130 for arms and alignment and 30 minutes to swap arms, it was a cheap and easy fix. A little heavy on turn in is fine, it's not a Porsche.

Also my 35" KO2's won't wear weird from too much toe in, now.

Towed a cargo trailer 600+ miles last weekend through LA to San Diego, very calm and stately progress. Would have been a bummer with bad alignment geometry.

Hi All,

Picked up my Rubi yesterday and I love it. First negative thing I've noticed is the truck likes to wander around the lane at highway speeds.

Any collective experience with a track bar/steering stabilizer helping reduce this?


Thanks,

Joe
 

Moriarty

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All of the above mentioned fixes are good and work.

Here is some food for thought, a different angle.

We ordered/picked up our JTR from Idaho and drove back to Nevada. It wondered a little compared to the 2015 JKUR that we just sold. Jump forward 10k miles, it was get worse with a vibration. Took it to the dealer after reading a thread about the intermediate shaft bushing. (@ the FAD) They didn't know there was a TSB notice on the issue and ordered the parts. Long story short, they ended up replacing "ALL" of the front axle shafts because the drivers side was also making noise as well. Now our JTR drives like the JKUR, straight down the road. We run the 33" Falken muds @ 38-40 psi for daily driving and our 37" Nitto muds on AEV Borah wheels @ 40 psi for trail/overlanding.

Just a different angle! Sometimes there really is something wrong.

I'm a Jeep guy and thought the steering was the "Jeep" thing.
"Took it in for the vibration problem"
 

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Make sure of what you are experiencing before doing anything. Wander is different than loose steering. Incorrect toe can cause this - other angles can't be adjusted without parts swaps. Caster is set unless you change control arms. Even then caster DIFFERENCE is set, period.
Caster helps keep a vehicle tracking straight ahead and helps return it to center after a turn.
These have great SAI which also helps them return to straight after a turn and helps keep them straight (because a turn lifts the vehicle, the vehicle wants to be down so tends to straight it out)
It's crazy how dealers will set tire pressure 41 and over! Check your door sticker- bet they are well over the sticker number.

We've also seen cases where the track bar wasn't torqued properly, that sort of thing. So check the basics, don't just toss money at it yet. But that's more likely to be loose, not be reflected as "unstable" necessarily. Still - easy to check.

Does the vehicle react instantly if you move the steering wheel left or right?

My Overland is stable as heck but in a wind or the wake of a truck, because it's a tall straight-side vehicle, it does tend to get pushed and pulled around a bit. That's a big flat truck, not even a Jeep thing.
There's no excuse or reason for a straight axle vehicle to not be stable these days. this bit about "A Jeep thing because it's not IFS" is BS.
They'll never handle like a Mercedes - but then, who cares?
 

Onebigyoshi

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The control arms on the Rubicon are the same as the Sport, and the factory alignment spec is 4.0 - 5.5 deg of caster. I took my JTR to my favorite suspension shop a week after I bought it, thinking something was jacked up. They told me not enough caster and too much toe in made it wandery and floaty, come back in 10,000 miles and they would check again.

With that data, I looked around here. I bought a pair of the Mopar lower control arms from the factory 2" lift kit. They are .25" longer than the stock arms. After installation, I ran the Jeep back to the shop (they remembered it, of course!).

It's got maybe TOO much caster, 6 deg now, but it tracks WAY better on the road. For $130 for arms and alignment and 30 minutes to swap arms, it was a cheap and easy fix. A little heavy on turn in is fine, it's not a Porsche.

Also my 35" KO2's won't wear weird from too much toe in, now.

Towed a cargo trailer 600+ miles last weekend through LA to San Diego, very calm and stately progress. Would have been a bummer with bad alignment geometry.
Interesting how you got 6 degrees with the Mopar LCAs. I installed mine and only got 5 and 4.7 degrees. Still ways better than it was before apparently it was at 3 degrees. This upgrade and an alignment that fixed my toe in and a steering stabilizer significantly helped improve my wonder/tracking in the highway.
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