worn out front shocks
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,552
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From: va
worn out front shocks
It will be a month before i can replace the front shocks. Can it damage anything on the front end? Drives are just to town and back 10 miles on pavement. I was told it wont damage the front end, just on pavement, but it will ware out the front tires. Can someone explain why the tires ware out when shocks are worn out.
Junior User
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 88
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From: Phoenix-or-thereabout
Shocks dampen the feild of sway in any vehicle - it will smooth out excess pitch when cornering, or even out roll when barrelling over hill and dale. Without this control, the weight will come to bear on the softest thing between your truck and the pavement - your tires. In the shop I work at, the most common problem we see is usually due to bad shocks: cupping. With nothing to slow the rocking of a vehicle, the tires just take a beating - and a beating they can't take forever. Cupping is most visually evident as high or choppy spots, and when you have choppy spots, some areas of the tire are coming into contact with the road surface more than others, and wearing much, much faster than those areas as well.
Letting your shocks go for a little while isn't the most horrible thing you can do, but remember that good suspension is also a key component to your truck stopping correctly in the event you need to brake or swerve to avoid an accident. Your truck isn't going to react in a way you are used to, which could startle you into over correcting your steer and causing even greater problems. With front end sag you can also cut into your turning radius, perhaps causing your tire to fail if it rubs with a frame member, and again putting you in a sudden and unpleasant situation.
Letting your shocks go for a little while isn't the most horrible thing you can do, but remember that good suspension is also a key component to your truck stopping correctly in the event you need to brake or swerve to avoid an accident. Your truck isn't going to react in a way you are used to, which could startle you into over correcting your steer and causing even greater problems. With front end sag you can also cut into your turning radius, perhaps causing your tire to fail if it rubs with a frame member, and again putting you in a sudden and unpleasant situation.
