The freight shake

I tried to find the video I watched months ago about this issue, but can't seem to find the right search terms on YouTube. A gentleman showed how he cut the arm that positions the leveler valve, then welds in an additional 3/8" to make that arm a little bit longer and force the air bags to inflate a little bit more.

He mentioned a series of years of Freightliner that had the issue of leveler arms that were too short. With a short leveler arm your drive shaft is slightly out of whack, creating an intermittent shimmy. Once the leveler arm can bring the air bags to the correct height, the shimmy disappears.

 

This one?

 

Yes! That's the one!

 

I just took the air ride height rod off the truck, cut it in half. Then I used a 1/4" tubing compression coupler to join the two halves back together. If you slip the rod fully into both sides of the coupler you get about 1/4" of an increase length, i just pulled one end back out about an 1/8" of an inch to get my 3/8" total.
It's been on the truck for a full year now and still holds together just fine.

 

How is your ride after doing that? Is it smooth?

 

Did you have a shaking issue that it stopped?

3/8 of an inch it's not really that much, but that hasn't caused you any problems with your driveshafts?

Someone who understands how to set up drive shaft angles should check that and see if that's accurate.

 

Ya...thats why they call Freightliners "freightshakers".

 

The only time my Freightliner shook was when one of my steers was out of balance.

Well, and on I80 in Indiana.

 

3/8” on the rod gives you 3/4” on the actual air bags.
Using Freightliner instructions with my 46,000 rears the ride was too low . I did have a strong vibration that did go away after that.

 

My '12 Cascadia had some vibration or shimmy at about 55mph with Yoko's. Now with Bridgestones, it's smooth as can be.

The '16 I just got, has Michelen's, and it is just as smooth as can be.

Neither truck has the classic "Freightshaker" systems. Neither leaks either, which is astonishing.