Harshness Conditions

CAUSES OF HARSHNESS CONDITIONS
Harshness is the term commonly used to describe a ride quality concern of the vehicle. A hard ride or harshness is usually caused by the tires or suspension system, namely:

- Overinflated, wrong size, or wrong type tire installed on the vehicle.
- Suspension insufficiently lubricated.
- Worn suspension components.
- Suspension components installed with preload on pivot point, bearings and bushings.
- Vehicles equipped with tires not specified by the manufacturer (different brand tires often give different ride qualities to the vehicle).
- Bent or bound-up shock absorbers.
- Heavy-duty components installed on vehicle. Other harshness conditions that affect ride quality can be summarized as follows:
- Vehicle bounce - the vertical motion of a vehicle on its suspension system, front and rear in phase. A low frequency 'float," an intermediate frequency "kick."
- Vehicle pitch - the out-of-phase vertical motion of the front and rear of the vehicle.
- A flat ride is considered the opposite of a pitch ride.
- Vehicle roll - the side-to-side rotation of the vehicle body about the front and rear axles.