I know this has been addressed here countless times and been called flighty/loose steering, but have never seen a definite answer. New Rubicon unlimited-stock-drove just fine. Put on Teraflex spacer style leveling kit and 34" tires and 17" wheels with 4.5 bs. Now steering feels really loose. Recentered steering wheel-adjusted so I had 1/8 toe in{had almost 1/2 toe out when I checked it}, running 28 psi. Is it something you just live with? Everyone says should not need adjustable control arms with this little lift.

 

Is the 28 psi that you're running from a chalk test? Or did you just want to run that pressure? I run mine at 32 and it seems good to me. And with the toe-in, did you do that alignment yourself, or was it done at a shop? Because you're right, with the leveling kit, you shouldn't need any other accessories to get it to work properly.

 

Caster will be wrong - even with the (relatively) small lift of the levelling kit.

 

Read "what is caster? how much do I need?" in the faq's, it describes the flightyness from low caster.

But from your description, I am guessing it is 'loose' steering components more than low caster. Have you double checked the torque on everything? Did you loosen the ca bolts during the lift, and re-tighten when it was on the ground? And after the lift went on, did you drive with the toe at the old setting, or did you set it during the lift? Could just be the new setting isn't right for your specific setup?

 

Will check caster angle on a rack this weekend. The actual steering mechanism is all tight-no play. Tried increasing tire pressure up from about 28 to 32 psi. It helped. I am running 34x12.50x17 Nitto Terra Grapplers that I believe are load range E. Will try this for a week or so and see what I think. I thought lower psi would be enough on these bigger E tires.

 

Hey can you post pics? I was looking at purchasing this exact lift/tire combo.

 

I had the same problem, played around with tire pressures and finally found the "sweet spot". Try that 1st before doing anything. Also, put a few hundred miles on your new tires and recheck.

 

Pics are on my gallery

 

It's the load range e tires. I have the same issue. Friend had load range c tires same setup no bouncing. I put procomp es9000 shocks to secure tires to pavement. You essentially have 4 rocks at the corners because you are running 3/4 ton pickup tires on and less than half ton vehicle. Not enough weight to keep tires from bouncing.

 

...it may also be your adjustment to the wider 12.5" tire.

There are many sections of hwy where I live that have minimal grooves worn into the pavement from constant vehicle travel....caused by your average cars with much thinner rubber. The 12.5 inch tires bounce in and out of these grooves and bounce me all over the road in certain areas.