After 91,000 miles of in-service use the Cass County Sheriff's HEMI Dodge Charger was feeling tired. Deputy Gary Armstrong describes what the Charger felt like in a hard turn in route to a call, "While responding to a call I had to stop and check to see if I had a flat tire. In a turn my car didn't feel right. The tires were fine, but something was wrong with the car.' Deputy Armstrong did his research and found Pedders.
The Cass County Sheriff's Department now has the ability to successfully conclude any pursuit they choose to engage in. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time - in Cass County Indiana.
So what was wrong? The rear sub-frame bushes were severely corroded. The corrosion had caused almost a complete separation of the rubber to metal bond in all four of the sub-frame bushes. The flat tire feeling was caused by the degradation of the sub-frame bushes. There was so much movement in the rear sub-frame it did feel as though there were a flat tire when driven. The picture below shows the cradle moving close to 2 inches; thus the sensation of a flat tire.
this video link shows the tearing rear cradle bushings and the tearing front tension rod bushings
YouTube - Sheriff's Charger with Sub-Frame and Tension Arm Bush Failure
Also, they were on their 3rd set of front tension rods. the bushings had what appeared as a slight crack. But upon very close inspection, the crack was all the way thru the bushing, and with normal deflection the thin crack opens to a very large gap
Now the issues of tearing front tension rod, or radus rod bushings, and tearing rear cradle bushings are not exclusive to to Police Persuit vehicles. The are common to hard driven LXs and shows the weak link of the bushing designs.
You can read more about the installation on our website.
Police and First Responder Solutions - Serving and Protecting First Responders - Pedders Suspension
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