Crabbing cars

alexthecheese

alexthecheese

alexthecheese

Soldato
Joined
10 Mar 2006
Posts
3,975
I've done a lot more miles in the last 6 months than I ever have done, pretty much, and I've noticed lots, and lots of cars that spend their lives crabbing their way down the road.

One, a Punto, earlier, was driving so awkwardly down the road that it actually looked dangerous.

Anybody else noticed this? I think if my car was so completely off that I would certainly notice, but others seem completely oblivious. :confused:
 
everytime i hear crabbing i think of this..
familyguy20peter20griff.gif


but on a serious note, i saw my first crabbing car the other day. it just looked so dodgy, how people don't notice this is beyong me. how does it even happen in the first place?!
 
i assume where the back wheels are out of line from the front wheels by some margin, i.e, they don't follow the front wheels exactly?
 
Metro's were famous for that.
Click to expand...

so were minis.

I havent seen a crabbing car for a while. well a moving crab anyway.
where the wheels (rear) move as well,so one sec is going left and next right. I've never driven one but you must notice it, having to constantly correct while driving in a strait line? and the constant feeling of the back stepping out!



bullit
 
You still see the odd mini going sideways down the road. I think it's when the subframes have been replace but not aligned properly.
 
There is almost no scope to misalign a mini subframe, it's not like Mr Fords spectacularly crap Mondeo design. Almost always crabbing is caused by bent rear suspension components, I've seen several bent rear radius arms on minis, even though they are a pretty hefty cast component.
 
My car feel like it's crabbing now I have 4 new tyres. I hope the rears rubber in soon enough :s
 
mjt said:
ah... i felt the same when i had new tyres put on but i thought i was imagining things!
Click to expand...

This feel un nerving and quite obvious to me. I even went round the tyres for about 15 mins checking they were rotating correctly and nothing was broken/loose. Very odd and feels unsafe. Might have to find a big car park and scrub them in.
 
My mini crabs a little bit. It could just be tracking that's out a little bit, though, got used to holding the steering wheel about half an inch to the left :p
 
GinG said:
Can anyone post a pic/vid to enlighten those who dont know what crabbing is please? :p
Click to expand...

If a car doesn't have proper alignment of the rear wheels, i.e. they are pointing slightly to the left or right instead of straight ahead, the rear of the car will be steering to one side. To compensate you have to steer the front wheels in the same direction, so whilst the car ends up going in a straight line, the entire body is at an angle and the front and rear wheels are not aligned.

Someone modified this Fiat 126 with a FWD drivetrain so not only does it drive backwards, it has steerable wheels at both ends so you can crab steer it.
 
Hxc said:
My mini crabs a little bit. It could just be tracking that's out a little bit, though, got used to holding the steering wheel about half an inch to the left :p
Click to expand...

Was going to say it was usually Minis that were crabbing. Usually twisted subframes on them though not tracking. A decent garage with a jig could sort it easy enough.

Others were the Chaved up Saxo and Pug brigade that have overdone it at McD's and kerbed the back wheels when trying to hand brake to impress the girlies.:D
 
If I may borrow from one of the mods a little diagram.

/\ direction of travel


|| fronts
// rears


||
\\


||
|/


||
\|

||
|\


||
/|

Any situation where a rear wheel isn't straight on a moving car will result in a greater or lesser degree of crabbing. The car appears to be travelling sideways. It's quite common the see motorcycles and bicycles doing this after a duff chain adjustment too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom