Suspension sitting funny

[TTG]

It looks as if the driver's side of the truck is sitting a little lower than the passenger side. Probably around an inch or so lower. The tires seem to have about the same amount of air in them, but when i chcked this I noticed the gap between the body and the tire was lower on the driver's side too, leading me to think it's suspension related. Any insight on to what it might be? The truck drives fine, but I'd rather get a jump on any possible problem brewing.

 

[Blee1099]

Got a full tank of gas or atleast half a tank? That would account for the weight. I believe its 6 lbs. per gallon for gas.

 

[BuffaloXplorer]

Blee's right (as a mod should be ) - Over time the Driver's side will sag more than the other, regardless of how much gas is in there. I recently measured 4 different heights at the 4 corners. However, i just recently went under to torsion-twist it down a couple inches and noticed that the torsion adjuster bolt was adjusted differently than the other, making one side lower/higher than the other.

Fixes? You could swap the leaf springs from side to side and adjust the front height via torsion twist.

 

[Blee1099]

I learned a few times how heavy gas was. Luckily when I did my sliders I made sure it was almost empty otherwise it would have been a pain in the ass to lift back up.

 

[therise21]

isnt the gas tank located in the center of the vehicle?

 

[off-road97Xplor]

Yes, atleast on my 1997 XLT it does

 

[HappyGilmore]

on my first gen the gas tank is on the drivers side. when my tank is full it does sit noticably lower on that side.

 

[TTG]

Mine's a 2nd gen. '95 Sport. I just want to be sure its not something important failing like a shock or spring or something important like that.

 

[birdman]

how many miles are on it? sounds like torsion sag to me too. Shocks won't control how high the vehicle sits. Search "torsion twist" to find out how to fix it. Very easy. good luck.

 

[BuffaloXplorer]

Mine's a 2nd gen. '95 Sport. I just want to be sure its not something important failing like a shock or spring or something important like that.

A failing leaf spring is common - you could addaleaf or have a shop put in a helper on that side. Your shocks are probably bad, too, if they're factory originals.

The front is likely torsion related, but before you go raising/lowering one side to achieve front-end balance, you need to fix the rear. Leaning in the rear will cause the opposite side-front to raise. Fix the rear first, then torsion-adjust the front. Actually, it would seem that the opposite would be true, too, in that leaning in the front will cause raising in the rear.

Ultimately, any torsion-related adjustment will affect your camber and require an alignment afterwards. Now would be a good time to replace your torsion bar adjusters while you're beneath it. The parts are inexpensive and not terribly hard to do (but i still need to do mine b/c i'm a lazy, broke SOB)

 

[Lloyd10977]

The Explorer Lean

The "Explorer Lean" is quite a common affliction. Not only is the weight of the gas creatng part of the issue, but whenever the vehicle is moving and hitting bumps, you ALWAYS have the weight of the DRIVER on the same side of the vehicle. Something that you can try for an inexpensive, short term fix is swap the rear leaf springs, left to right.

 

[samnitesspear]

Hello Everyone,
Just found this after weeks of searching
http://www.trademotion.com/partloca...&make=10&model=Explorer&year=1996&catalogid=1
Check out the illustration.
Joe