Why is there a sweet spot (50-60mph) where a vehicle will shake when the alignment is off? How does the shaking start around 50/55 and get better after going over 60?
In: Engineering
It is caused by harmonics. The wheel actually shakes the whole time you’re driving, but there is a certain frequency of vibration that causes harmonic resonance, and the fact that a vibration shows up much worse at certain speeds is a good indicator that you have harmonics playing into the vibration mix. What happens is that as the tire rotates with either a misalignment or damage to the tire or wheel itself, it vibrates. As the speed increases, so does the frequency of the vibration. There is a certain point at which that frequency will cause sympathetic vibrations in other parts of the car, and that’s what you’re feeling when it really shakes at a certain speed, and you get out of that harmonic range when the vibration stops at a higher speed.
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