Chazmanian

I just got a PSC steering brace installed in my 05' as well as having the dealer dig through the front end looking for bad tie-rods, balljoints, trackbar issues etc...(Warranted as truck has less than 36K) Everything that was worn or bad has been replaced. Two tie rod ends, a new trackbar and an alignment again. Since it was at the dealer I offered him .5 hours to install the PSC brace which he did.

First impression? Steering still sucked.

Posted here....Fellow member told me to run 60+ PSI in my front tires (Ragged Trails) Checked pressure and it was at 48 PSI as the dealer lowered my previous 55 PSI. Bumped it up to 62 PSI. Almost purrfect! Probably drives as good as it ever will on the soft sidewalled BFG Ragged Trails.

Noticible improvement when cornering with the PSC brace. It took out the unpredictability of the stock steering when cornering at speeds or hitting offramps with my foot deep in it. I cant notice the brace in a straight line. Good cheap investment is a steering brace...If I could do it again I would have bought the 4 bolt unit from XLR8R though.

Next move?

Trick bushings and stuff from XLR8R. Plus a possible set of Bilstiens and a dual steering stabilizer. Stock ride height for now...I want to put on a leveling kit but have read way too many threads about new found shakes and shimmies when installed. My Truck will spend 30K miles a year out on the Hwy during the summer and warm months and be converted into a snowplowing truck come next winter. So maybe I will hold off on the leveling kit for now.

If you dont have a brace yet....I would say they are worth the coin!

TNLoneWolf

I AGREE COMPLETELY!!The brace took the sway out of my truck for better cornering also. It feels more stable in a straight line also, my truck seemed to be effected by crosswinds and passing semis (I drive sorta fast all the time), but the brace really was/is a great investment!

XLR8R

A lot of folks overlook the handling/road manners penalty that running large, low-pressure sidewalls incurs. I run the tires at max psi all the time - and wear out the center first - but it's worth it to keep the truck from wallowing & wandering down the road.

Raspy

A few of other things you can do that really help are get some Bilsteins or Ranchos on the front! Then set the caster angle to the max available with the lower eccentrics. Then take the play out of the steering box. I've got Toyo 285/75s on mine and it feels like it's on rails. Of course this is all after new ball joints and a Dynatrac kit with proper bearing preload for zero play.

I don't think it's so important to brace the box till you set up what's there correctly and get some good shocks. Keep the tires stiff, reasonably narrow and not sticking way out.

John

chipmonk

i've done it, and you couldn't pay me to run my 35" toyo m/t's at max pressure on my local gravel roads. with softer 'd' rated tires, it could be done without picking up my teeth from the floor of the cab, though!

megaboom

i didnt realize how much of a differance a few pounds of air could make, add air to mine and the results were awesome!

Hounddog

I haven't looked at many door stickers on 3rd gens but on others(2nd gen and 1st gens) all the ones I ever looked at called for 65 psi on FRONTS loaded or not with a E range tire.Now rears are a differant story for obvisious reasons.But fronts are toting 1000lbs of engine off the jump street.Are you all sure they show like 50 psi for fronts and differant loads at differant psi on fronts? My dually shows 65psi front.I've always run that with no adverse center wear.Rears now I run 50 even with gooesnecks hooked up(4 tires)any more then that I get center wear,

Chazmanian

After reading Hounddawgs post and thinking why would that door jamb say 40-50PSI? I went and took a look.

Turns out the dawg is on the money here.....


But why in the world did both the dealers I had work on my truck insist on lowering my PSI to 50 Marshmellow like, floating all over the road PSI???

Maybe because of this sticker?


The truck just drives so much better with more PSI. That engine is too heavy to ride on a set of ragged Trails at 50PSI. Shoot I'm gonna bump mine up to 68 PSI today and see if it drives even better than at my current 62.

Hounddog

All the diesels I have looked at like SRW,duallys, 1st gens,2nd,Fords,Chev.etc.are 65 front.Not 80 or 50 but 65psi with a load range E tire.Same tire is up TO 80 in OTHER axel postions,rear etc.I have had three Dodge 250/350 SRW and this truck and I've never had a wear issue out of front tires at 65.I've not been quite so lucky on rears tires.To do rears right for me takes a fair amount of air in air out depends on load and I'm not too diligent to do such and its shows after some wear sets up.Tire store and couple dealer techs give me this deer in the headlights look when they have asked why I won't let them put 80psi in all 6! None seems to under stand the dually rear psi is not the SAME as a SRW truck.Weight spread by 4 and such.

Chazmanian

One of my underlying issues is that the Rugged Trail tire is designed for ride and comfort. At 50PSI the front end wallows around like an old lincoln town car. My guess is that the sidewall rigidity was an afterthought as the ride and comfort was BFG's primary goal on the tire. It also seems as if most BFG Rugged trail tires are sold as OEM Stuff. Does the avg guy go out tire shopping and come home with a set of BFG Rugged Trails? I dont really know. What I do know is 90% of the online customer reviews I read about the Rugged are not good. Is there a huge group of extremely happy Rugged Trail owners out there that will buy a fresh set when theirs wear out?

Must be. I'm juts not one of em'. I'm thinking a set of Revo's or maybe even taking up discount tire on an offer to trade me all four of my Ragged Trails and $700.00 cash for a set of BFG AT KO's mounted and balanced.... Tempting. Sadly the last set of AT's I owned cost me about 1MPG on a new 2006 Tacoma 4x4 and they seemed noisy.....

Maybe I'm a Ragged Trail guy after all?

XLR8R

Until we started running the 37" Toyos, the BFG KO ATs were our tire of choice for load capacity and durability (never a flat in over 300K miles of GVWR+ driving).

That's why 19.5"s ride firmer and more stable - shorter sidewall for a given tire diameter.

The Toyo's sidewall is seriously thick - the tires weigh 94# each!

NC_Mog

Where did you get the brace?

chipmonk

the door sticker is for the stock tire, with a max recommended psi of 80 (i believe), so running it at 65 is about 20% less than max pressure. many other tires (both 'd' and 'e' rated) have max pressure that is 50-65 psi, so running a tire which has a max pressure of 65 (like my toyo m/t's) at about 53 psi, would be about the same % of max, as running the stockers at 65. wow, this came out sounding way more confusing than it probably needed to be.

Chazmanian

I bought the "El-Cheapo" PSC unit. If I could turn back time I would have spent an extra $50.00 or so and went with XLR8R's way stout 4 bolt main DSS unit!

When $50.00 is the difference between super stout gonna last forever and as cheap as they can make it work super stout wins in my book every time!

Chazmanian

Lost me as well...But how are those Toyos working out???