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steering wheel wander

4K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  SpaceWrangler 
#1 ·
Well everybody, since i have bought my 2007 trd fj i have done a body mount chop to it and put some after market rims on it. (It already had after market rims on it.) But i changed em.

I had no prob hitting back roads in new mexico and going off road , and colorado. But never really went about 60 miles an hour either.

Well my vacation ended, and thus i had to go back to work. I got dispatched to a lil gas plant in Artesia, NM. bad idea, dragged that job in 3 days. Called a different contractor got a different job. So i began my LONG drive to a job in the gulf coast area.

Im a speciality welder for the oil/gas/chemical industry.

So i began my 16 hour drive, boom a blizzard hit southern new mexico. And for some reason i decided to drive 380 south through the permian basin instead of I-40 or I-25. Bad idea as that oil field area had exploded, so it was nothing but thousands of semi trucks, pitch black and a blizzard, and torn up roads.

Also my fj was out of control at speeds about 60mph or more. It wants to follow every little crack and divot in the road. So it was the most exhausting drive of my life, as that storm followed me all the way to lake charles LA.

Its drives fine at 60 plus on brand new roads, but if the road is banged up at all or has wagon tracks from semi truck abuse, it wants to follow them. Wagon tracks being the worst i feel.

I must say i do have 295 17" LT terra grappler on em. Bought the truck with them on em.

and also have the stock bilstens shocks with 2" Aluminum shock spacers. I believe they are called coil overs? Came with the truck as well

I plan to upgrade to a boss lift, with after market UCA ect.

But right now i do not have the time as i am working 7 days a week 12-16 hours a day. for the next 6 months or more.

my concern is, I'm in bell chase LA right now. well in a few weeks I'm going to go on a job in wyoming, or borger texas. So i have been researching as much as i can to figure out what the issue is. ( i don't have much time)

Im guessing its the tires/stock spacer combination, mixed in with stock UCA

but if anyone else has a similar experience, or advice, id really like to hear it. As i have to trek soon, and another drive like that might kill me haha.

I get a fatigue day in 15 days, that'll be my day off, to put any advice to use.
thanks everyone.

forgive my grammar n such, i am not educated in the manner most are nows days.
 
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#3 ·
hey thanks for your input. I wonder if the extra size would make a difference. thanks for for dropping in and reading my long post.

i kept telling myself I'm driving an fj..

but then i i was honest to myself. iv driven jeeps/ lifted/ dodge duallys/ lifted, cross country, etc.. never felt such an agonizing ride.

been reading on here and no one seems to post that their fj just rides ugly at highway speeds. I'm pretty sure i have a unique experience. Nor would toyota release a vechile to the market the rode like mine bahhh:wink
 
#4 ·
No problem.
i average 75 on the interstate. And it's stable, and tracks well. Mine is not lifted. so I can't speak about that. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. I have made round trips from central MS to Little rock and to Panama City. No problems.
But.. before I changed rims on it. I had some vibration in the front end. It doesn't have it now. I think that the problem was because the tires weren't balanced properly.
 
#5 ·
Hey Tubehand, welcome to the forum! And BTW, your grammar is just fine. Your story brings back memories of my oil patch time in the Permian Basin and SE New Mexico back in the early '80s, but I digress.

It sounds like it could be the alignment if it is twitchy on bad roads and in the semi-grooves. I would see if you can get the camber to zero, and the caster number up to four degrees or so to get it wanting to remain tracking straight. It doesn't sound like the toe is messed up, because that would be noticeable on the good, smooth roads too.

There are lots of front-end alignment discussions on here too.

Good luck with your rig, and stay safe out there! :bigthumb:
 
#8 ·
I would agree on UCA's and alignment being the suspects. I am running a wider tire, 305's, and do not suffer from the issues you are describing. I cruise up to 85 mph on my commute daily and the FJ tracks and drives great. In all honesty I believe it drives better than it did with the factory suspension. The lift you have with OEM UCA's is likely resulting in your caster coming in short on the alignment and they may not be able to bring it in. With aftermarket UCA's you should be able to bring it in. I have the shops try to achieve 3.5 on my caster which they have been able to do.
 
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#9 ·
So long as you have the Terra and not the Trail Grappler I don't think it is the tire design.
Have you Checked your air pressure this could have an effect.....You have not said how many miles you have on this FJ but I suspect you have quite a few...Loose worn steering parts especially tie rods will definitely give you a tug a war with the steering wheel when the road is dished from heavy trucks. Your alignment could be the issue as well but I would first get all the front end checked for wear before considering an alignment. The lift will make you need an alignment but once the alignment is set the lift is mostly out of the picture.
 
#10 ·
my bad.

I have 63k miles on it. I bought it from a friend in ABQ, It was his business truck for trips to the phoenix area. Thats bout the only time he drove it. He just likes to collect toyotas. I ended convincing him to sell it to me. woo.

I jacked the truck up and checked for ply in the hub unit, and checked the ball joints. Everything seems well. The only serious off road it ever had was just recently when i took it out . But it ran like a champion

The tire pressure sitting at 39-40ish in each tire, i brought em up to 45, and i didn't like the out come. So i brought it back down.

Well im going to have to see if i can get a shop to get it about 3.5-4 caster, if not time to change everything. And double check the front end on my day off.
 
#12 ·
I am sure a full alignment will be done but don't focus on all caster, the camber being out will make the steering unstable and pull around as well. Some of it may also just be the wheel stance of the FJ, if the roads are dished from the large haul trucks your wheels may just be always climbing and following the rise and dip in the road, only a small tight fine tread will not get pulled around in this type of road. If you will be traveling the area a lot may be worth consideration as driving like that is a battle that just wears you out.
 
#14 ·
Well everybody, since i have bought my 2007 trd fj i have done a body mount chop to it and put some after market rims on it. (It already had after market rims on it.) But i changed em.

I had no prob hitting back roads in new mexico and going off road , and colorado. But never really went about 60 miles an hour either.

Well my vacation ended, and thus i had to go back to work. I got dispatched to a lil gas plant in Artesia, NM. bad idea, dragged that job in 3 days. Called a different contractor got a different job. So i began my LONG drive to a job in the gulf coast area.

Im a speciality welder for the oil/gas/chemical industry.

So i began my 16 hour drive, boom a blizzard hit southern new mexico. And for some reason i decided to drive 380 south through the permian basin instead of I-40 or I-25. Bad idea as that oil field area had exploded, so it was nothing but thousands of semi trucks, pitch black and a blizzard, and torn up roads.

Also my fj was out of control at speeds about 60mph or more. It wants to follow every little crack and divot in the road. So it was the most exhausting drive of my life, as that storm followed me all the way to lake charles LA.

Its drives fine at 60 plus on brand new roads, but if the road is banged up at all or has wagon tracks from semi truck abuse, it wants to follow them. Wagon tracks being the worst i feel.

I must say i do have 295 17" LT terra grappler on em. Bought the truck with them on em.

and also have the stock bilstens shocks with 2" Aluminum shock spacers. I believe they are called coil overs? Came with the truck as well

I plan to upgrade to a boss lift, with after market UCA ect.

But right now i do not have the time as i am working 7 days a week 12-16 hours a day. for the next 6 months or more.

my concern is, I'm in bell chase LA right now. well in a few weeks I'm going to go on a job in wyoming, or borger texas. So i have been researching as much as i can to figure out what the issue is. ( i don't have much time)

Im guessing its the tires/stock spacer combination, mixed in with stock UCA

but if anyone else has a similar experience, or advice, id really like to hear it. As i have to trek soon, and another drive like that might kill me haha.

I get a fatigue day in 15 days, that'll be my day off, to put any advice to use.
thanks everyone.

forgive my grammar n such, i am not educated in the manner most are nows days.

spacers and coilovers are two different things. i assume you have a spacer lift. ..not generally the best way to get lift, but ultimately your alignment geometry is what matters. have someone give you your current alignment numbers and then have them adjust it to give you as much caster as possible without taking camber and toe out of spec.
 
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