Mule,

While you are driving down any road that has any bumps at all, and look out the driver's side mirror, do you see the side of the bed, uh, for lack of a better term, wiggling? It's not really a vibration - I guess I described it wrong. Any bump will make it wiggle...like its flimsy or something. I haven't taken it to the dealer for repair because I don't know if there is anything wrong with it. This could just be normal...I dunno.

 

Mine does it too,on a little bit of a rough road ,the bed jumps up and down..04 supercrew 4x4.

 

My 04 4x4 screw lariat beds side panels shake over bumps since it was new. When I first noticed this (looking thru drivers mirror) I pulled over to see if the bed was coming unbolted, not the case. These trucks bed panels are very long, I think they could use more support arms to prevent the shake. On a positive note the shake has not transmitted to the steering. I think this is the nature of the beast. So no trip to the dealer for me. If she wants to shake a little, I say let her shake.

 

Hello Guys,, I can not believe some of the comments here
My truck has the vibs and I have been to the dealer 15 times over 8 months for this.
1) If your truck has the vibs get it to the dealer ASAP and have it documented at that time if you go down the road of buy back they count mileage at first visit as the starting point of payback calculations.
2) Sandbags in the box as a fix LOL these are new $$$35K trucks make the dealer understand you want what you paid for,,a defect free truck. And this fix should be sent in to Chevy as it would make a great commercial for them. The dog in the commercial going from the chevy to the ford would jump back in the chevy after riding 10 miles in an F150 Vibrator with the owner installed sandbag fix. I picture JimBob with a mullet driving the Ford.
3) There is a TBS for this 4-28-7/8 don't let the dealer tell you ( Vibration is normal )for this truck. I didn't see that in the Sales Literature and my salesman didn't tell me that before writing the check. I am sure the same is true for everyone here.
4) Over the months I have seen fixes being tried of new rearends, new drive shafts rubber coated dingle berries hanging from the rear diff, new body mounts, new trans mounts, rebalancing tires.
5) Read your owners manual and follow the instructions given for complaints. Squeaky wheels get grease. Every single person at my dealership knows who I am.Don't be rude but don't let them give you the Vibs is normal BS
6) Document, Document, Document, everything, times, dates, what was done who did it, what was said, who said it.

 

No, I know what you are speaking of but I can state emphatically there is no noticeable vibration of the bed or mirror blurring whatsoever. The truck is as smooth as glass. I drove it today for about 80 miles and after I repositioned the vibration damper after installing the hitch there was still no problem. It is my opinion that if the tires are balanced, are truly round, and the vibration damper is installed there will be no vibration.

If the dealer cannot resolve this problem I would have to conclude his service department is incompetent or are giving the truck the "fresh air and sunshine" treatment. There is no excuse for this problem. One final thought. Have the tires spun at high speed and you view and check for any runout or "hop" in the tire. It should absolutely steady. If not replace the tires. When I purchased my truck I asked for and got the original Continentals replaced by a set of Michelins off another truck. I had driven one with the Continentals and there was a front end vibration. With the Michelins there was no vibration; same truck; same equipment. The only other difference I know of is that the 2005 model I have has the vibration damper. I don't buy all of this stuff about driveshafts (although that can't positively ruled out with bad u-joints) and pinion gears. A very remote possibility would be the axles but that would be extremely hard to believe. I say this as one who is hyper sensitive about vibration. That is to say, I tolerate no vibration or excuses. This is not rocket science.

 

MY friend has COlorado (Chevy) truck and other chevy 1500, their bed shaking a bit too its about same as mine....So its TRUCK cuz the rear area is light than front..so add extra like sands bag would be do-able.


YOMAN!

 

The bed movement is an inherent design issue I believe. As stated in many posts previous, the extremly stiff frame, paired with lighter weight panels (with less bracing), is what is causing the so called bed bounce. It is not a design problem, more of a design result. I have no problems with it. It does not effect my truck in a negative way. I put the idea of sand bags out there because it is winter. It is always a plus to have some extra weight in the bed. I just noticed that the bags also helped to stabilize some of that movement you see. By the way, I do not have any of these vibration issues. I think many users correlate the vibrations to the bed movement.

 

Can someone explain what the vibration damper is,what it does and what it looks like?Where would I find it?My truck (04 4x4 Lariat SCab) was built 8-04.Should I have it?Thanks for helping out with your knowledge!

 

I've got to take mine down for an oil change anyway. I guess I'll ask to test drive a new one and see if I can see the same loose wobble in the bed. Like I said, it's not a steady vibration. It's a wobbling of the sides of the bed when I go over any sort of rough road. My complaint (and it really isn't a complaint yet) is that the bed seems loose when I go over bumps like and old 1985 long bed that has been hit a few times, has no tailgate, and the sides of the bed wobble when it hits a bump.

geneam10 - what is the TSB number you are talking about?

 

I have an '04 FX4 and my bed shakes very little. actually lest than the '99 F150 I had.
and the '83 F250 I also shakes more than the FX4 has.

 

It's a device that is built into a heavy metal housing that attaches to the driver's side of the frame on the end nearest the tailgate. It is rubber mounted and rotates slightly in either direction. My guess is that is is designed to cancel out any bed vibrations. It is roughly seven or eight inches square more or less. I would assume it is there for a reason. The only thing that I can say is that with my Michelin tires and the vibration damper there is zero vibration. I really cannot understand why there is all this hand wringing over something that is easily correctable. Either that or the service departments are composed of cretins who can't turn a wrench. It baffles me no end.

 

Ruckus, the 04 didn't come with the dampener installed...just the 05's. The dampener is a "fix" for the 04's if you need it. Adding mass CAN reduce vibration. If you have a canteliver beam (supported only on one end) and you "flick" the unsupported end, the beam will oscillate rappidly. Add some weight to the unsupported end and "flick" the unsupported end again, it will oscillate much less. This is obviously the simple theory.

 

not all 05's come with a damper.

 

Just ran out and checked. My '04 has nothing even closely resembling a dampener.

 

Any one with the 05 have any vibration problems, or is it just the 04's

Brian