What exactly is Wheel Hop????

[ZMock]

Can someone explain what exactly "wheel hop" is and when it happens and why it happens? Do some lifted trucks get it and some don't?



I am trying to figure out my lift on my 07 Mega BDS Long arm kit with 37's and it doesn't ride near as nice as my past 2 megas with Revtek lifts. It has a up and down or back and forth type constant motion at times and I can't figure out for the life of me what it is? Someon mentioned the long arm kits may be what is making the uncomfortable ride beacuse it puts some of the suspension absorption in the frame??? Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[rbattelle]

As I understand it, wheel hop is basically a resonance caused by axle wrap during a hard launch. When the wheels slip-grab-slip-grab it sets up a vibrational response in the leaf springs which makes the axle "hop" up and down.

People usually use traction bars to mitigate.

Ryan

 

[bighammer]

The spring sort of winds up, then when the tire breaks traction, the spring is released. In deep snow, sand, etc. you have a violent hopping up and down of your tires instead of just spinning smoothly. It seemed worse on the 2nd gen trucks because of the tall blocks between the axle and springs. My 03 hops pretty bad too though.

 

[jelag]

Wheel hop also can be caused by a tire out of round or balance... . the heavy side of the tire rolls around and causes the tire to hop..... I know you've seen this going down the road on other vehicles... . the front or back tire is running fine but the other one is hopping up and down... . it slaps the pavement as the heavy side rolls around and sort of hops off the ground..... some big tires that don't have the plies laid them in correctly can do the same thing... . usually a tire with a bad belt will shimmy just a little as you spin it... . sometimes its as little as 1/8" from side to side...

Hope this helps. .

 

[Stranger]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here. I'm pretty sure wheel nhop is when a wheel/tire assembly HOPS during either acceleration or braking.


I'm done.

 

[CarlsonR]

wheel hop, axle wrap, what ever the term is ,is what occurs on leaf spring suspended axles. The tire on hard acceleration rotates forward in a counterclockwise rotation while the axle tries to rotate the oppisite direction clockwise while the tire has traction. the forward half of the leaf spring bends from a curved arch too a slight S curve, when the combination of tire traction and tension from the twisted leaf spring let go and the tire looses traction the leaf spring snaps back to its normal shape, this happens 1-3 times a second it feels like your truck is hopping at that axle. traction bars fix this by directly attaching your axle tube to arms bolted directly to your frame therefore not allowing your axletube to rotate,only the tires.

 

[Money Maker]

The problem is usually with leaf sprung suspensions BUT it can also occure to coil sping setups. Either from bad link geometry or worn components like bushings, heims, or other such devises. Triangulation is important in link suspensions especially on big tire/high torque vehicals.

 

[J&LRam]

come and ride with me and my '03 2500 2wd antispin Michelin LTX AS tires empty truck and on green grass. Let the clutch out and giv'er the "gas" [I've always liked that one] and both wheels start jumpimg up and down. This is my number 14 or 15 truck that I have owned and has absolutly the worst wheel hop of them all. Add 2200 lbs of hitch weight from my 11200 GVWR 5er and no wheel hop.

JIM

 

[MCummings]

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That's what it is, and sounds like.



Merrick