legacycentral bbs

Anyone else notice that these cars are extremely susceptible to getting twitchy from crosswinds?

Both Legacies, Patti and the now-sold wagon, do it really bad. If there's a wind going across the road, I immediately notice the car forcibly trying to steer in that direction.

Coming back from the family's house yesterday, and I had a crosswind going to my left for most of the trip, and I literally had to drive Patti like she was out of alignment, constantly holding the steering wheel to the right.

My XT doesn't do this at all, in fact, I've never driven another vehicle that did this, even the 15-passenger vans and tall trucks I've driven.

The car drives perfectly straight with no wind, and there are no problems with the steering or suspension systems.

Anyone else notice this?

I've definately noticed that the my new wagon catches the wind more than my old sedan. No question there.

However, I've never thought it excessive. Have you driven the vans and such in much wind? I know ours will pull pretty hard when the wind gets going. I suspect old squishy suspension doesn't help the problem in the van but I seen my share of other vans/trucks/SUV's take a side step infront of me due to a gust.

I take it you're getting windy weather too?

yeah, noticed that too. lack of castor? 0 toe?

You people drive too slow. Cross winds only effect mine at legal and close to legal speeds. Over 120 is too fast, though.

Doing 15 over, I still don't like cross winds. My car just acts like a big sail. I think it's all that ground clearance.

You guys ever drive big vans? I'd say my wagon is in the better half of cars I've driven in terms of crosswind resistance.

You dont know cross winds until you've driven a wagon with two canoes on the roof--one 18 foot and the other 14 foot.

What helped a lot was the Whiteline sway bars( 20 front and 20/22/24 back) and links.

As I said, I have indeed driven big vans, from Ford 15-passenger vans to a U-Haul Chevy box truck (one of the smaller ones though, based off the Express van), and I drove the Ford van in tropical-storm force winds. It still didn't float around like my Legacies.

Didn't mean to belittle experiences in driving vans--haven't been there.

I meant to emphasize that adding canoes increases the sail area and that improving the suspension helps a lot

No offense was taken to anybody, I just want to emphasize that I've driven the big vans and still didn't find them as floaty in the wind as my car.

This is one of my pet peeves about the car. Too much body roll, too much of a tendency to seek out the ruts in the road, and too much susceptibility to crosswinds. I know the thing is a wagon, but honestly, our Forester is even better, and the Infiniti never had any problem at all.

You guys must need to refresh the suspensions or something. I run GR2s (worn and now gone stiff) and 16" wheels. The Isuzu/GMC box truck at work floats like Mohammad Ali.

evolutionmovement wrote:You guys must need to refresh the suspensions or something. I run GR2s (worn and now gone stiff) and 16" wheels. The Isuzu/GMC box truck at work floats like Mohammad Ali.

My parents complained about this back in the mid-90s when we took the car on camping trips. I'm pretty sure the suspension was fine back then.

I have GR2s in the front, and blown shocks in the rear -- but it seems to me that the front shocks would matter more for crosswinds.

I can't say that my Legacy is all that bad in the wind, but that's compared to my work vehicles and the FOXBOX. I drive for work 2001 E-350's with cargo boxes instead of regular van bodies. Talk about kites, especially when empty!!! The other company vehicles I drive are a Tahoe, an Expedition, a F-250 w/plow, a Lightning and a ML 500, although the Benz rides pretty damn smooth for an SUV. Oh, and I just started driving 35 foot straight trucks. I am scared shitless of tractor-trailers. All I do with those is move them around to load/unload/repair them at the home base. I've heard stories of empty trailers getting on 4 wheels in heavy crosswinds.

I haven't noticed any problem with the Legacy. It deals with wind a lot better than my last car, which had similar suspension but weighed 500 lbs less... THAT thing floated in the wind. The Legacy has always seemed to stay pretty steady to me, because of low profile and low center of gravity.

You guys have never driven a Vanagon in 30mph winds have you

I've gotta say, driving through Wyoming in a fully-loaded 24' GMC boxtruck with a Legacy on a car trailer was an interesting time with crosswinds. That friggin state was windy as hell the entire time I drove through it. You'd think an 18,000 lb vehicle wouldn't react but... it was a battle all the way through.

Side note though, Wyoming has the best-tasting, cleanest water ever.

Crosswinds are a bitch. I never even considered it until I had to drive through Nebraska on route 80 during a thunderstorm...in a minivan full of kids. It was nerve wracking to say the least. Those winds hit you like a wall.