Greg Parker
Full Access Members
I test drove multiple new Expeditions before I bought mine. They all did the same lateral bobblehead motion. Mine has 12,000 miles on it and handles exactly as it did new, except for the additional rear sway bar that I added that made it "tolerable". Your on ramp handling is right, they do handle great on the highway, its the backroad stuff they hate. If I drove all highways, or any for that matter, I wouldn't even notice this. I drive mostly all backroads and country roads and this thing wallows and flops all over the road on these surfaces. My wife got nautious and almost threw up in it before I added the rear sway bar. We had to pull over and let her get out and walk around and re-gain her bearings. Even my kids that are 4 and 7 ask why it sways side to side. I'm not making this stuff up, you guys need to pay more attention to its behavior on driveway approaches and angled surfaces. I have 8 other cars and NONE of them do this BS. I'm really hoping the front sway bar helps, but I have my reservations..... If it cures the bobble-head issues, then my wife will hands down buy another Expedition Max, but not if this handling issue won't resolve with the sway bars. There is a driveway at our local church parking lot that has a couple bumps in it. It swayed in such a rhythm so bad one day that I actually hit my head on the window, and I was probably going 5ish mph.
I'm probably too picky, because I spent years tweaking and re springing and revavling shocks on race ATV's and this kind of suspension problems would cause us to start over and revalve the shocks and try new spring rates. I honestly think the rebound valving speed is not right on these, so it allows the spring and shocks to extend out too fast and it in turn bucks the vehicle side to side as it does this. Sway bars will force the rear shocks to work as a pair and limit the rebound movement by borrowing from the other side with the heavy sway bar. Hope it helps whenever it arrives!
Maybe my tastes aren't as "discerning." To me, the Expy handles much better than my wife's '16 Honda Pilot, which is a significantly lighter and smaller platform. I've driven large vehicles pretty much my whole (driving) life and the only thing that ever handled better than my Expy (on "rough roads") was an old F250 that had solid rear AND front axles. But that was off-roading. On the highway that thing handled like and felt like riding an old hardtail chopper.
So...I reckon I still don't get it. If you're expecting the handling and stability of a sports car (on the highway) or a lifted 3/4-ton truck, off-road ...you definitely bought the wrong rig.
