Building My Overland Tacoma: Plans, Progress, Perplexions
- Thread starter Overland Hadley
- Start date
Overland Hadley
on a journey
slooowr6 said:
Yes, there is some vibration around 30 mph. It is not bad, just kind of annoying. I think it is a problem when lifting any 06+ Tacoma, I do not think there was much of a problem when lifting the 05's, but that is just from what I have pieced together.
I have a lot of weight in the back, and that helps keep the vibration down, as the rear is not as high as it would be other wise. In addition to the topper and the rack system, I have two 60 pound bags of sand.
In the end the whole vibration issue is annoying and I really wish I could have lifted the truck a couple of inches without a problem.
Overland Hadley
on a journey
slooowr6 said:
2.75" sounds right, thanks for the correction.
I could really feel the lack of aerodynamics on my rig, especially when driving into a 40mph head wind, and I seemed to do a lot of that this trip. Despite that fact, I still manged to average between 17 and 18 miles per gallon when driving on road.
Overland Hadley
on a journey
Here are some photos of the rig in action during my travels this spring.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Overland Hadley
on a journey
Overland Hadley
on a journey
Overland Hadley
on a journey
Streakerfreak
Jan-Kee
Nice, good to see some pics from your trip.
Michael
Adventurer
Overland Hadley said:
I lifted my '06 Tacoma about 2" in the front (Bilstein 5100's) and 2.5" in the rear (Deaver 10-leaf spring pack) and experienced a problem with vibration (felt like a 'shudder') when passing through about 10 mph and again at 20 mph (somewhat different than at 30 mph as Overland Hadley experienced). I did some online research and found that this was common problem after lifting the rear end on Tacomas. There were various fixes suggested by other owners, but the simplest one was to install a shim to restore the alignment between the drive train and differential. I tried the simplest fix first and was able to eliminate about 95% of the problem by installing a 2.5 degree shim under the leaf springs. When I recently had my Deaver Springs replaced, they replaced the 2.5 degree shim with a 3.0 degree shim and it completely cleared up the problem. No vibration! I can re-introduce some vibration by jacking my rear end up very high with my installed air bags -- which verifies the fix in a practical sort of way. Deaver Springs in Santa Ana, CA sells steel shims and stands behind their work 100%. Pro-Comp also sells aluminum shims. The size of the shim you need depends on how high you've lifted the rear, so it can take either an expert's evaluation or some trial and error on your part. For me, eliminating the shudder when passing through the gears was a great relief -- I hated feeling that vibration, knowing it was due to the lift and was probably causing wear on u-joints or a drop in fuel mileage.
[080729 - edited to correct shim size to 3.0 deg]
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Overland Hadley
on a journey
Michael said:
Thanks Michael!
It would be such a good thing if I could eliminate the vibration. I needed the lift and heavier springs, but the vibration has been really annoying me, and it has made me a bit less excited about my truck in general.
Has anybody else tried using the shims?
I been looking into this issue for awhile. Take a look at this site http://www.driveshaftshop.com/angle.ivnu. Our truck is setup like the bottom figure. You can see the top shaft, the one out from transfer case, and the 3rd member should be parallel. Even if they are setup to be perfectly parallel there is still the limitation of single cardan joint, the angle between 3rd member and the input drive shaft. Here is another site with good info. http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/Driveline-101.shtml
I did not find any guaranteed fix for vibration, it would be nice if there is one.
I did not find any guaranteed fix for vibration, it would be nice if there is one.
Overland Hadley
on a journey
slooowr6 said:
Thanks for the links.
I have a better understanding of what is going on now.
ntsqd
Heretic Car Camper
Something that isn't often mentioned is that the plane of greatest angles needs to be considered and that both ends be in the same plane, but that this plane is not required to have any particular orientation relative to the ground or chassis centerline.
Ignore for the moment that there are UJ's in the mix and just think of a piece of wire with a bend in it. The plane that the entire wire lays in is the plane that I'm referring to.
Now think of the wire with two bends in it. They must not be bent such that the entire wire can't lay in one plane, but there is no requirement for how this plane is oriented relative to the Earth.
Measuring with a level only gets you so far. If there is any lateral offset in the vehicle (extreme example: centered output transfercase used with an offset output intended axle) then those angles need to be measured as well. The plane of the most extreme angle can then be determined for each end individually and checked that they are co-planar.
I suspect that this is why sometimes what "shouldn't work", does. And what "should work", doesn't. Even though the angles relative to horizontal have been measured, it isn't the total picture.
Ignore for the moment that there are UJ's in the mix and just think of a piece of wire with a bend in it. The plane that the entire wire lays in is the plane that I'm referring to.
Now think of the wire with two bends in it. They must not be bent such that the entire wire can't lay in one plane, but there is no requirement for how this plane is oriented relative to the Earth.
Measuring with a level only gets you so far. If there is any lateral offset in the vehicle (extreme example: centered output transfercase used with an offset output intended axle) then those angles need to be measured as well. The plane of the most extreme angle can then be determined for each end individually and checked that they are co-planar.
I suspect that this is why sometimes what "shouldn't work", does. And what "should work", doesn't. Even though the angles relative to horizontal have been measured, it isn't the total picture.