Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

I just leveled the truck with the stock torsion bars and threw on some new bilsteins w/ alignment. The ride is good on local driving but on the freeway the ride is really squirly compared to the oem ride. Sometimes it makes me really uncomfortable driving on the freeway. Is this normal with a level lift? Ive had it re aligned just incase it was out of wack and there is no real change. I just switched to the h3 from a nissan 350z and its hard for me to adjust...Is this normal or is my lift somehow screwed up

RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

If you are switching from a 350z to a H3 you are probably still adjusting to the weight and body rollin the H3. Your 350Z has near instant steering feedback, but the H3 has ahigher steering ratio and extrasuspension and weight. So when you make a corrective turn it takes a split second longer as the weight of the truck and the extra suspension travel shift. Your reaction is to over compensate then over correct giving you a squirrely feeling. Cranking the torsion bars will change the feel of the front suspension and increase the center of gravity and will change its handling characteristics. Give it a month or two and you will reprogram your reactions to accommodate.

I have a MR2 with completely upgraded suspension and zero body roll thatI drive most of the summer. Switching back the H3 always feels squirrely to me at first but I adjust to it.

RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

Ditto, you need to give it some time. My second car is a Pontiac Solstice, so I understand your comparison.

I still find that my H3 with the Bilsteins and leveling still handles very well.

RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

thats good to hear. The way the steering wheel moves around on rougher freeways is really unnerving to me. I had a 3 inch lift tacoma pre runner prior to my 350z and I dont recall it feeling so squirly, feels like my hummer is riding on sofa springs

RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

You might have leveled too far also. They can align as best they can but they cant get a leveled front end perfect. The camber on the front wheels wont be quite right so there is not a full tread evenly balance. If you find that it is really wobbly when the truck bounces up (causing the camber to go way out), you might try to back off a turn or two and see if that helps. I find that with a full load of fuel and people in my truck that it is much steadier at highway speeds. Its also very squirrelly when a trailer is lifting the front end a little.

RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

Leveling the truck by raising the front WILL seriously compromise the handling and safety of the vehicle. That is whymost dealerswon't do it.

The front suspension design counts heavily on the bump stops to add a second spring rate to the otherwise single rate tortion bars. When the vehicle was at stock ride height,..you would have been able to see that the bump stops rest only 1/4" or so above the lower control arm. Very early on in a turn, the one on the outside wheel will contact the control arm and stiffen up that corners' spring rate. When you do a "ghetto-jack" on the front,..you remove this important piece of the suspension from the game.

In addition you raise the roll-center axis way up (usually 2-3 times the amount of the lift job,....and you raise the center of gravity.

A better way to level the truck would have been to lower the rear an 1",...and simply level the front side to side. While this will costs $30 in parts instead of being free,... it doesn't require an alignment,...so it ends upnot only far better and safer,...but cheaper too.

A bigger rear sway bar will help a lot in the turns and on the freeway.
http://www.suspensionconnection.com/...scon/7682.html

You can get even better handling by having the alignment shop add in -.75 camber ion the fornt. It will help inthe turns AND increase tire life. If you turn much,..or turn hard,..you will notice that the front tires will start to feather on the outside. Some neg camber stops this, and helps the handling. I had -1 degree on mine,...drove great,...but it looked the slightest bit funny from the front. -.75 degrees might be better.

RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

24.5" from fender edge to front hub center. If you went passed that, you need to lower the front some like Ghostrider was talking about. Mine is probably at 23.6", not a problem with it.

RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

I've lurked around here for a while and I finally registered because Ihave some input that I think can help out here. Trailduty just started making extended front bumpstops in +1/2" and +1" sizes. From the people I know who tested them with and without replacing their shocks there is a very noticible difference in handling and front end nose diving!

Here is the link:
http://www.trailduty.com/product_inf...roducts_id=764

They even have an entire kit with the Cognito shocks included for about $210+shipping!
http://www.trailduty.com/product_inf...roducts_id=765

I hope this helps.

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RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

By the way: NO I don't work for Trailduty or get any kind of kick back from them. I just like to tell people about products or companies that have great customer service and/or products. Especially a product that willmake our vehicles safer after modifications!

RE: Leveling made my ride squirly....
 

awesome thanks for all the input guys! Im going to go measure my lift tomorow and see If its too high. If it is too high, can I bring it down a tiny bit and not re-align it afterwards? Im going to order the bump stops tomorow also!

I just drove 70 miles and I dont have the balls to drive in the carpool lane anymore, I get too tense because I think I might hit the divider If I go over a pothole or something.[:@]