Hello All,

I hope someone out there has had the same bad luck as me...I hitched up my dads boat to his 2003 Explorer (68K miles) and hauled her back to my house (45 miles) in prep for her annual treck to the Florida keys for the winter (1500 miles each way). Everthing started off normal but as I was humping along the highway, when accelerating up and overpass, the truck started to run rough...the engine sounded normal, but I could feel some vibrations and a consistent bang every 20-30 seconds. When cruising along, everything seemed OK, but when applying more gas, the vibration would start, even when not dropping down a gear. It seemed to get worse the farther I went. I parked the boat in the driveway (19', well under the 5000# rating) and went off in the truck. The problem was still there and now there were some sounds and the feeling of metal grinding possibly..I looked under the truck and the drive shaft and universal joints are very rusty...I have hauled the boat backand forth to Florida 3 times now with out incident and I evendrove back and forth last year w/o the boat and the truck has not missed a beat...

Any suggestions as to what may be the issue? I have been trying to get him to buy a new truck, but he just got the ac fixed in this one and he took a beating in the stock market this year, so he does not want to spend any unnecessary cash.....

 

It could be a wheel bearing. You porbably should have felt around for excessive heat.

 

I had replaced the right rear wheel bearing 3 years ago when I drove the truck while my F150 was in the keys with the boat. I never felt that, but could ehar it...

 

Check the ujoints, made sure they are ok. Is it 2WD or 4WD?

 

The truck is a 4x4, but it was in 4-auto. I thought about the u-joints as the feeling was like something binding up...they are really rusted as this is a new jersey shore vehicle and lives in a very salty environment.

I have towed the boat back and forth to the florida keys 3 times so far, so I am pretty familair with how the truck runs and pulls the boat. This is definitely something new and bad...thanks for the input!-

 

Check you tire pressure/ circumference, the ControlTrack thinks a wheel is slipping.

 

Sure sounds like a u-joint to me, I agree......

 

X2 on the U-joint