I've got a 2005 F350 dually that bounces up and down every time we drive on concrete portions of San Diego freeways. Bounce begins at around 65 and gets pretty bad between 70 and 80. Shocks and springs seem good and tire pressure is right. Any ideas?

 

Don't drive there. Could be the road surface is wash boarded and with the stiff suspension you have on your truck makes it feel *****. Try adding some weight and see if that makes a difference or go to a dealer that has a similar truck and suspension setup to see if it drives the same. I had a similar experience with a 1/2 ton chevy, adding weight made all the difference, worth a try.

 

You still have the orginal factory shocks? If so they are probably shot. You can't really tell how bad they are while they are still on the truck. The best way to tell is take one of them off and if you can easily compress it then look into getting new ones.
Good shocks should be able to eliminate or greatly dampen bounce from the springs.

 

Yeah, mine was bad too. I could hardly drive it empty on some of the So Cal freeways. I installed Bilsteins and it is a lot better. I still get some hop, but I haven't seen anything that would make me slow down like it was before.

I had the FX4 shocks, and about 50k miles on them. If I had taken them off and tested them by hand I would NOT have believed they were bad. They had plenty of gas charge and were as stiff as the Bilsteins. So the point is, I don't think you can tell anything by taking them off. Just get some Bilsteins on faith.

I think that's about all you can do, other than putting a couple of sandbags in the back.

 

I just did a long trip to Colorado and back. I have new Bilsteins on and even with them, and 13k worth of loaded stock trailer, parts of I-80 out through Nevada and Utah still jarred my kidneys out. I swear about 3 minutes of that road and both me and Dad suddenly had to stop and pee.

Honestly I dunno if there is much you can do when the road just sucks that bad.

 

Known issue for certain wheelbase Fords on California freeways. A few years back, this was a MAJOR point of discussion.

 

I don't know how your roads are constructed, but here, concrete roads are poured in panels and the joints are never smooth. The people building roads aren't very concerned in getting the road nice and smooth and concrete panels seem to be the roughest.

 

That's exactly the problem here. They pour the concrete in patchwork fashion, 12' sections I think, and it slumps in the center of each panel. That sets up a harmonic bounce at certain speeds, which seems to be right around 65mph.

 

Lemme guess......headin North on the 15 just before Border patrol (Temmecula) and sounth from Corona?

I had an 06 x-cab LB 350.....and it was a K I L L E R.....

I eventually installed airbags for load assist.....and that made it worse...

 

Ford Motor Company is aware of this issue and has responded by offering a new warranty named the "SDTOKT" Program, which stands for "Super Duty Owner's Kidney Transplant" Program! The roadside assistance portion of the warranty is really special... they bring "Depends" diapers in your choice of men's or women's sizes!

 

i really dont think you can do anything about it. we had a level lift put on with some new fabtech shocks and that helped a little but i dont think you will ever get it to bo completely away. our 250 drives best when we have our toy hauler hooked up to it.

 

Lower the tire pressures... ?

 

The roads are especially bad on the easbound 8. I just bought an excursion from San Diego and drove it home to phoenix a couple of weeks ago. Those freeways are horrible I think they are built in sections, and built poorly. It's been like that for over 20 years.