What causes F350 DRW to "crow hop"?
 

New 2013 F350 DRW 4 X 2 CC with 6.2L gas engine - truck appears to have a crow hop if the road is anything but very smooth - what maybe causing this? Truck has less than 1,000 miles - General Highway thread tires all at 60 psi.
thanks,

Not sure what crow hope is :-huh If you are talking about the little bouncing or jumping around empty remember you have a DRW that will take a lot of load on the rear end. Being able to carry a heavy load comes at a price, we always have some load in ours because of the hitch,tool boxes and aux fuel tank.

Denny

If you mean the rear end feeling like it's moving left or right over bumps, yeah, the stiff suspension is going to do that.

Lower the tire pressure if you're not carrying anything, that will certainly help.

Not knowing much about the newer trucks, how are the stock shocks? I find that weak shocks will make any vehicle do that...

Well it's hard to describe - ride feels like when something is out of balance like driveshaft or tires, but don't believe it's either since it does not do it on smooth roads - just on rough roads. It makes the ride very shakey - when it's happening, your voice sounds like your are trembling or quivering. I'll hook up the gooseneck this weekend and take it for a test run on some rough roads to see if it's better when loaded. Once I get the truck and trailer weighed by axle, I be able to adjust the air pressure accordingly. For now, I'm running 60psi all around - which is probably ok on the front, but not sure on rear tires. Don't know about the shocks.

Not sure about the 17" tires but on my 16" I run 50 to 55 in the back when not pulling for long periods of time.

Denny

After the test run this weekend with the gooseneck, I'll lower the rear tires to 50 and see if that makes any difference - thanks

My F-350 chassis cab does the same thing. I keep 75 lbs. of air in mine since I haul stuff for a living. It is quite normal. Nothing is wrong. My old F-450 and F-550 did it as well. I would not lower the tire pressure too low cuz it will cause the tires to overheat and blow up. :( Just sit back and enjoy a truck that can haul more weight than Dodge and Chevy. :) BTW, I slow down on rough roads to minimize the bumpy ride. :-jammin

I think I found the cause - had read on another forum that Ford states that the valve stems on the rear of a DRW truck had to be 180 degrees opposite from each other, but mine were across from each other and you could check both the outside and inside wheel air pressures using the same hole in the outside wheel. So today I jacked up the rear and rotated the outside rear wheel approx. 180 degrees, probably closer to 160 degrees so that the valve stems would be almost opposite from each other and still be able to reach the inside wheel valve stem through one of the holes in the outside wheel. Took it for a test drive after and it appears that the vibration is gone. YEA! What a simple fix. Ford is the one that had stated that the valve stems should be opposite from each other yet they are the ones that installed the wheels on my new truck - go figure!!!!