I just picked up my secound f150. She's a 05 crew laroit and noticed every time I hit a bump it feels like my steering wheel is going to fall off. I never noticed it in my 04 xl. Is this normal? also I just moved to Boston (pot hole capital)
Thanks Shawn.

 

No, I hit lots of bumps. Check the air in the tires first, set it to the level posted in the door. Make darn sure your dealer checks the steering, tires, etc. My truck takes pot holes very well.
Some of the guys with front level lifts have said they hit hard.

It's even possible that you have one or more bad shocks. Again, dealership.
Chris

 

Thanks will do.

 

Are you sure the tilt steering latch isn't loose. That could make it move more than normal when you hit bumps.

 

Yes thats the first thing I looked at

 

I have had my 05 Reg Cab XLT for about two weeks and I am almost scared to take it over 40 mph. Everytime I hit a pothole or washboard type bumps it feels like my steering wheel is really loose also. And it's not just the steering wheel that is unstable, it feels like the whole rear end is falling apart. Someone at work told me they were behind me and thought I hit an oil slick because the rear end moved so far to the right. And I was only going 45 on a city street hitting a small patch of bad asphalt.

 

I installed nurf bars on my truck yesterday and noticed 3 lose bolts.they were holding on the iner plastic panel in the front fender wheel well. If I go over a bump my front hops real bad. is this because my truck has only 400 miles.

 

I have a similiar feeling when driving over bumps or pot holes. It almost feels like how an antilock brake pedal will feel when trying to not lock up, kind of a pulse feeling. This is the second 04, and the first one also had it.

 

O.K., I did a little experiment today. I was going about 45 down a section of road that always gives me trouble. When I hit the bumps and felt the lack of conrtrol in the wheel I started turning the wheel wide to the left and right. This had 0 affect on the trajectery of the truck. It was like the steering wheel wasn't even connected. But when I came out of the bumps the direction I had the steering wheel turned is the direction the truck went. Something is definetly not right with this system.

 

The steering is mechanical, period. No steer by wire. Nope.

When you turned the steering wheel, the tires turned back and forth. Period. Rack and pinion predate the second world war. Not new.

If your tires are over inflated, you will bounce and your steering will float free.
But that's probably not what you are demonstrating.

A commonly known fact of American cars/trucks, is that they under-steer.

During driver training (do NOT try this at home) we were shown that at 60 mph, you could sharply turn your wheels back and forth and not affect the direction of travel. Instead the tires would bend, as they are supposed to.
If you pushed them too far, they would drag, all the while you continue forward.

You are protected from too abrupt movement of the wheel.

The cars that are not, flip over.

See studies on SUV, aggressive tread, high body roll.

Look up understeer vs. oversteer.
Very simply put, when you get ‘loose’ from the pavement, if it understeers you can recover by braking, if it oversteers, braking disconnects your rear and you slide.
In that case you get control by powering into the slide.

For obvious reasons, American vehicles are intended to understeer.
When things go wrong, most US drivers stab the brake pedal.

These are not absolutes, of course, if your rear is too light, a pickup can go from understeer to oversteer in a heartbeat.

That’s why they put ABS back there. So it won’t break loose and oversteer you into a ditch on over braking.

With street radials, at full cruise you can flip the wheel back and forth with relative safety.

Again, don’t do this, it’s like testing your anti-lock brakes by going 90 past a school and slamming on the brakes. If it works, fine. If you have a problem, the cost is pretty high for a stunt…
Chris

 

yes but my steering wheel shakes when I hit bumps or cracks in the pavement.

 

Did you check the tire pressure? Shake is usually a sign of over inflation, or bad shocks. Shocks you can hit the dealer on.
If you hold any wheel very lightly, they all shake on bounce, but it sounds like you are getting more than that.
Do you have stock tires on the front? Rims? How many pounds of air, using a quality gauge? The ones you find at gas stations, mini-marts, etc. on the air hose itself, can vary 50%. Even good gauges vary ten fifteen percent, but that's a lot better.

If your tires shake after the hit, that's usually shocks going bad.

Of course, you could have some other problem, but why not check the easy stuff first?
Then make the dealer fix it if it's not something slight.
Good luck
Chris

 

My tires are dead on per the door frame and I do have everything stock. Yesterday I was turning small circles in a parking lot, the steering wheel would turn extremely far. I mean farther than any vehicle I have ever been in.At speeds of around 45 to 60, I get more than just a shake of the wheel after hitting bumps. It is more like I have no control right after the bump. It almost feels like I am hydroplaning. Then once that passes the rear end jumps so violently that it feels like I am going to loose control. Is all this just bad shocks? Under 45 not much of an issue, over 60 the effect drops greatly. After about 65 it starts to stabilize then about 70 I hardly feel any bumps.

 

I now have 350 miles on the odom I did this from the dealer.

 

Sounds like a trip back to the dealer. With that few miles, you could have a bolt or ten not tightened, or even a bad shock. Why haven't you taken it in???


Hydroplaning and shake are totally different things. That's the problem with this method of communication, it's very hard to get the exact problem across.

Again, why not take it to the dealer? A handful of people post that the dealer can't fix a certain vague problem, and suddenly no one wants to even try?

Sadly, we can't see what you are doing. Hitting a sharp bump at speeds of 50+ MPH will bounce a truck into the air.

Take it in, and complain. Road force balance the tires, and have them check the shocks.
Good luck
Chris