The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline 1948 road wandering

I have a 1948 3/4 ton truck, with good springs and stock knee shocks with radial tires. when cornering or if there is a ridge in the pavement there is a slight road wandering, my master mechanic has driven the truck and says the steering is solid and handling as it should for a 48, i am keeping the speed at 50 to 55 and the truck is solid, i only notice it because it is different from my modern chevy. does anyone have any experience with the "sway bar kit" or the steering stabalizer kits offered by classic parts? thanks charles

What size tires are you running, and what wheels do you have? Also, what pressures are you running in the tires? Any or all of these could be contributing to your wandering problem.

Did he raise the truck in such a way to take the load off the springs to see if the spring bushings are worn?

I thought mine was tight, but would road walk badly. Finally lifted the truck so there wasn't any load on the springs. I could grab the wheels and move the front axle fore and aft.

Replaced the bushings in each end of the springs and made a world of difference in the handling.

thanks for all the info

Longbox55,I think you figured it out, when i first bought the truck a year ago and began the overhaul i wanted to get rid of the split rims so I got 8 lug 6inch x 16 inch trailer steel wheels and put p215 x16 radial tires on it. My mechanic has checked the axle and front end and all is ok.

with these trailer wheels there is a 1/2inch in set and the tires clear the te rod by !/4 inch.

what width wheel and what off set and tires would you think would fit a stock 3/4 ton. I am thinking that better wheels and wider wheels and tires would help thanks again

There is nothing wrong with those wheels, at least they work fine on my 1 Ton. You could go to a 235x85x R16 and they would be wider and taller.

The wheel fitment sounds fine to me as well. Width is perfect for the size tire youre running. You may need to run a higher tire pressure than what the oem spec was. 45 psi is a pretty good place to start with a 3/4 ton, seems that pressure works very well with the Advance Design 3/4 tons with modern radial tires.

Sansaba, have you checked the alignment on the front axle? I found that really helped my 1 ton.
I also had the tires trued and balanced on the truck the old fashioned way. It now rides smooth and straight.

hey thanks for all the good advice

i thought that the truck had been aligned but i just learned it has not been, so i will get that done asap, and air the tires to 45, i don't know if wider tires will clear the tie rods,

thanks again

So I guess you have already checked the backlash for steering gear, king pins, all pivot points in the steering system? I'm guessing that is what you meant by its all tight?

If he jacked the front end up by using the axle like I would normally do, he wouldn't find the spring bushings loose because of the weight still on them, so make sure he took the weight off the springs to see about all the pivot points on each end of the springs. That's how I found mine were bad.

I had the truck aligned at a good shop and the toe in was off substantially, once this was corrected the truck was much improved.

I will get the spring bushings checked as suggested above

thanks for all the help

just to give everyone followup on the road wandering, the alignment fixed about 90% of the wandering problem and this only cost about 90bucks, then i went ahead and put an anti sway bar and gas shocks on the front and that really helped on the curves, bumps etc, so problem solved and thanks again to all.