Steering damper for rollover avoidance

[davjamison]

I just bought a used '00 4X4 EB Explorer, so I have been giving more thought to this tire blowout leading to rollover thing. It seems to me that this would happen by the blowout causing the steering wheel to be jerked from your hands, or from the driver over-correcting after the wheel was jerked away from him/her. So, if you put a steering damper on your Explorer, wouldn't it reduce the already slim likelihood of this happening??? I'd like to hear some opinions on this before I crawl underneath my Explorer and install one.

 

[fixer]

IIRC Consumer Reports or Popular Mechancs did some tests where they caused blowouts in Explorers and they couldn't make them rollover without the driver over-reacting.

it seems that urethane bushings for the swaybars and better shocks will go further towards improving the handling manners of the X, or other vehicles.

 

[TDG]

Tread separation is the larger cause of the explorer rollovers than blowouts. Tread separation will cause just about any vehicle to roll.

 

[NedFlanders]

Car and Driver had this article about the explorer-rolloverthing a while ago. Dead Link Removed if you would like to read it.

A thing you should check though is your swaybar links in the front. Don't know if that's still a problem in the '00 version, but at least on my '96 one of them was broken when I bought the truck. When I suddenly discovered this, I went to Ford, and they actually replaced it for free while I was waiting.... And what a difference! I thought it was leaning so much in sharp turns because it was a big and heavy vehicle... A working swaybar really made a BIG differene(and I lost a lot of flex Dead Link Removed )

 

[leebo]

Welcome to the site, I'm sure you'll love it as well as love the Explorer.

Ned, the sway-bar was a recall. They are required to fix it(unless they're like the dealer in my area, jerks) and it will make a HUGE difference.

Honestly, a damper won't make a huge difference. The best way is to slow down and know that you're driving a truck, not a car. New shocks, tires, and swaybars will help everything out big time. I just got a new set of swaybars and it shocked me how well it rode with them. I'd bet putting in bushings would do just the same. I know Energy Suspension sells a kit for about 25 for the front and rear swaybars.

 

[davjamison]

Thanks

Thanks for all the good input.