I have a 2004 F350 crew cab 4X4, 6.0 thats lifted 10" rolling on 37" Nitto's. I love the truck!! But frankly I'm sick of the crappy ride. What I want to do is build a 4-link setup for it, yeah sure I can spend $3-8,000 on a bolt on kit, but I figure since none of those kits are exactly what I want and since I have a fab shop why not just build my own.

Can someone point me in the right direction on this. Although the ride would be awesome, I'm not convinced air ride is the way to go. Honestly I don't go mudding or run the trails in this truck, but I would like the capability to do so if I got a wild hair. All the bushings in it now are wore out, it squeaks and pops like crazy, so I figure why not just do it now. I'm not sure how hard or crazy it would be, but I'd like to be able to adjust my ride height without airbags.

Questions:
Air ride or coils?
Coil overs?
How hard is it to set up and get to function properly?

Anyone have any crazy ideas?

 

I bumped you to Super Duty, maybe the guys will have a better answer for you here.

 

Why did you make this statement? What are your concerns with airbag technology?

Welcome to FTE!

 

I'm just not sold on air ride off road. I'm not against the idea of using them, if I knew they would hold up. I want to build some unique, something that is clean looking and very functional. And most of all something that's not gonna cost me a fortune to build. I'm pretty hand building just about anything out of steel if I know how it goes together. I'll add some pics of what I'm looking to build.

 

Welcome to the site.

I would definitely not count out airbags for off road use.

 

Sounds like you have confidence in your fabrications skills, but how about engineering skills? The loads on a suspension in a big truck are huge, as are the repercussions if something fails on the street... A truck the size of yours could easily take out several other cars before coming to rest. Even if you survive, the financial repercussions would be immense in our ludicrously litigous society.

For off road only use, I encourage folks to build their own stuff. Trial and error is a great educator. The inevitable failures (AKA, learning experiences) may strand you on the trail, but not all that likely to kill you and/or others.
For on road use, I encourage serious engineering to be included.

I have a masters degree in mechanical engineering and do a huge amount of fabrication, but I will NOT do my own suspension design because I do not have enough education and experience in calculating the dynamic forces.

 

Wise words I think. Self fabricated suspension I believe falls under the category of "if you have to ask", you shouldn't be doing it. Off-road only is another story since as you mentioned the consequences are probably nowhere near as severe.

There is a whole lot of engineering required to design a properly functioning and safe linked suspension. Not something I'd want to do under learn as you go conditions for a street vehicle.

Doing a linked suspension with airbags which is intended for off road use is going to be quite a bit more work then just adapting some Rite Rite bags, or bags intended for the semi truck crowd. The problem with those is they do not offer a tremendous amount of travel and don't like getting too twisted up. A linked suspension can offer a huge amount of suspension travel both compressed and extended which is something the average bags can't do. There are bags intended for serious off road use but their cost reflects their specialized function.

Personally I think any ride quality enhancements offered by converting to links and bags are far out-stripped by the costs involved but to each his own, it's not my money. If I WERE to do it I think I'd opt for links with some Fox dual rate coil overs and be done with it.

If I were the OP I'd head over to the Pirate 4x4 site and do some searching. There are a bunch of sharp cookies on the site (as well as some not-so-sharp) but you better have a thick skin. It is a notoriously unforgiving crowd that hangs out there.

 

The reason that I asked about your concerns over airbag technology is that to have an "adjustable" system you have to use airbags or change suspension components (springs, shocks, etc) every time you want a change in height... which is not practical.

Kelderman is supposed to be the leader in airbag suspension lifts. Take a look at their website for ideas.

http://www.keldermanairride.com/lift-kits/

http://www.keldermanairride.com/lift...hp?category=43

 

Well at this point I am ready to get my leaf spring out of there. I have a fab tech lift, (in which those idiots don't use factory size bushings). I have spent a week trying to find bushings to fit these springs. I think using coil over shocks is the way I'm gonna go. I don't get to crazy off road with this truck. I wanna keep it nice for a long time. Can someone post some spec's, maybe some good pic's?

 

Maybe this will help.

Truck Suspensions, Four-Link Suspensions, and Suspension Installs - Part 2 - 4 Wheel & Off Road