How Stable are these "jacked-upped" 4x4's

[Siskiyou]

This morning my grandson and I were headed out for a day of fishing when we almost became part of another drivers mess.  He was driving a Dodge Ram 2500 4x4.  It appeared to be more then 36" from bumper to pavement.  It had oversized tires.

I cannot blame the vehicle for the drivers poor judgement, but I believe the attitude placed a lot of folks in harms way.  I was following a towed horse trailer.  Behind me was three vehicles, the Dodge on stilts was three of the three.  There was a line of on coming traffic coming when I observed/heard the Dodge passing at full power.  I backed off to allow room for the Dodge to get in between the trailer and my vehicle.  At the same time the driver of the on coming vehicle moved to the shoulder of the road.

When the Dodge cut in front of me he was out of control.  He went off the shoulder of the road on my side, tossing dust, weeds, and roadside trash into the air.  During this process I notice tires at different times airborne.  Fortunately there was no drainage ditch along his path.  He then over corrected bringing his vehicle across my travel lane and part way into the on coming traffic lane.  He just missed taking a car head-on.  He then corrected back to the edge of the roadway almost coming to a stop.  He then dropped back and found his place in traffic three cars behind me.  

I had expected the vehicle to roll.  The one thing he did do right was not lock-up the brakes and go into an uncontrolled skid.

Over the years I have had a fair amount of training in driving 4x emergency vehicles.  One of the big concerns is the high center of gravity.  These concerns were in regards to driving factory vehicles.  What about the safety of these non-standard vehicles?  It appeared to me that the driver in this case did not have a lot of steering control.  The sharp cut to the right sent him off the road, and after a couple of hundred feet bouncing in the weeds he went flying back across the road.

I drove a 2500 Dodge Ram 4x4 for three years.  It was equipped with heavy duty towing suspension and standard tires.  At no time did I suffer steering problems with that vehicle.

(My grandson and I had just gone through a safety drill.  He had not been on this country highway before.  In case of an accident we had already identified the hwy we were on, our general location, and if nothing else he could use the Lat/Long from the gps to a 911 operator to identify our location.  We did that little excerise because over the years I have found a number of passengers in vehicle accidents very confused because they have no idea where they are.)

[DirtyHarry]

As long as the anti sway bars are connected, the truck should remain stable, most people who go very high just remove them all together or use quick disconnects on them because they hinder articulation...

[BlkHawk73]

depends greatly on the veichle itself and the set up used to lift it.   All too often it's the "macho" ego-fed people that do it and do it poorly.  By the sounds of what you experienced, proberly one of 'em.  You know, more HP than brains.
   It will change the handling characteristics but you learn what these differences are and adapt to them so as to be safe.

[GuntherII]

I lifted a light half shivvy with a rancho kit mostly. It's OK unless you hit a bump, then it torque steers something awful. I don't care it's used for hunting, not highway. It has advantages. It will ride over even semi hard snow because it's light and has wide tires. Disadvantages include kidney shaking, filling loosening, retinal detachment and whiplash.

[ihuntbucks]

I have a Dodge Dakota Sport CC 4 x 4,lifted 3"(body) w/34 x 9 mudders.When I lifted mine,I also went wider on wheel spacing to correct center of gravity.I installed wheel adapter/spacers that my wheels bolted up to,thus Iam higher and wider.No handling problems at all.........Rick

[Roadtrash]

Any time you get higher you will change the center of gravity making it a little more top heavy which will change the handling a bit.  As some of the others said if it is done right it will not hurt that much but it will change.  Also when traversing a hill it won't take quite the angle that an unchanged truck will.  Most of these trucks I see on the road are owned by people that never take them off the road and use them.  They're just the macho boys that want to look good.  I've had several and when done right they have their place and uses.  Also if the air in the tires isn't watched very closely this will give very erratic handling as well.
Roadtrash

[VSSF]

Mine handles great but it wasn't a sports car when I bought it,I must confess to "bullying" a few people with the size but in DC's traffic ya gotta.

[Siskiyou]

VSSF:

Looks like a guy could rip his pants getting in and out of your rig.  Nice looking.  I run the same tires on my rig, just smaller.(Chey 4x4, Z71)

Are you running single or dual shocks?

I have put a lot of miles on the Ford and the Dodge heavy duty 3/4 and 1 ton 4x4 models.  My experience has been that the Ford is a more stable platform.  Back in the 60's it seem like the Dodge had a self ditching steering system.  Later models were better.   The last Dodge I drove was a 2000 Model, okay but not as goods as the 3/4 ton Ford Heavy Duty.   The Dodge tow rigs and replaced  with Fords because of the high maintenance cost.

All I can say is that if the guy who did the unsafe passing was a road bully, his "brights" did not keep up with his situation awareness.  One has to have an "out."  Not a ouch!

How is that Ford V10.  The Dodge V10 was great except for heavy duty towing.  The gas bill was rough.  The Ford diesel was a far better deal.

[VSSF]

Single shocks,Rancho RS9000's.I love the V-10,Get's alot better milage than you'd think,I had a 96 F-350 w/ 460 that the absolute best it would do is 11 MPG!!  The least that this one gets is 13 around town,and so far i've only had one little 4 cylinder (Spoiler + Gauges =95 HP,less torgue than my lug-nuts) beat me,and that was cuz G/F had Pizza and Wings on her lap and I didn't get on it good enough out of the hole.Dodges V-10 ,i've played with em,can spank em everytime,haven't tried a new ford diesel yet. For a hunting truck unless your parking 5 miles away I'd stay away from a diesel,noise plus smell.

[Siskiyou]

VSSF:  Did you install a air system with the 9000's or do you use an external source.  I understand they are great.

I was towing a 7000 pound trailer with a 96 Ford, 460 cu.,  3/4 ton 4x4.  Seemed like it got about 6 MPG towing balls to the wall.  That gave me a range of 178 miles and I started to look for a gas station.  At that point I had 30 to 40 miles left in the tank.  When I was in remote areas of N. Cal, Nev., and Idaho I might fuel earlier because it is tough to find a open station at 0300 hrs.  Note that most directions I go I tow in the mountains.  Some of the Pass's are around 7000 feet.  I went to a 2000 Ford diesel.  Towing milage under the same conditions went to 9 MPG plus, and fuel cost dropped.  Both Fords were worked hard in the interest of time.  I believe the diesel was quieter when being pushed up a long grade.

I like the Chevy Durmax diesel.  It is quite.  Neighbor above me has one and I am impressed.  Neighbor below me has a dodge diesel.  He wakes up the world with it.  I believe the CAT diesel in his Ford 650 makes less noise.

diesel engines are a lot cleaner then they were a few years ago, and still improving.  The early Ford 7.4 power strokes were smokers and I hated them.

[DirtyHarry]

Dodges V-10 ,i've played with em,can spank em everytime

I am guessing that the Dodge V-10's you played with and spanked were not the SRT-10 version......

[VSSF]

Nope none of those.