I went through three sets of Rancho 5000s under warranty in the first 10,000 miles. finally got Bilstien 5100s. Big difference. My truck was pulling to the right - this cured it. I had the death wobble thing going on also. This cured that also. The truck still bounces on concrete hyways, but not as bad.

 

That is an important point. Can you elaborate on your truck set up, Rickx? Cab/bed length? SRW/DRW?

The bouncing is what I want to get rid of with mine. I am hoping to get around to the shocks at some point in the near future to help out with this. My truck also pulls a bit to the right.

 

Sorry but kinda off topic...but did your truck come with hill decent control? Maybe I'm missing something, but from what the "build & price" tool says, you need FX4 to get hill decent control?

 

Steve,

I have a Crew cab, Single wheel drive, long bed. On concrete hyways it is the right (or wrong) length that it will oscilate on the seams. I've found that it is speed dependent. The Interstate speed limit is 75 MPH. I find the severity of bounce changes between 65 and 80MPH and is at its worse around 73 an least around 80. I looked into the R4tech Firestone airbag setup, but have a hard time spending 2200 bucks for parts only and $3400.00 installed.

I've been through 3 sets of Rancho 5000s. I've had Ford engineers in town for the "Death Wobble". They replaced my track bar and all four shocks with "factory certified" Rancho 5000s with upgraded seals. This got rid of the death wobble. Within about a month my truck started pulling to the right. I could feel a lot of bounce coming back to the front end also. I bought Bilstien 5100s, took them to the dealer and had them put them on. The front right shock had blown seals and was dead. The new shocks immediately got rid of the pull to the right and felt like I had just got a pro alignment.
The feeling of a loose front end with too much bounce dissappeared also. But, it still bounces on the hyway. Its more of a feeling of porposing than the shocks being to weak. All in all I'm happy with the ride.

 

Is that loaded, unloaded or both?

I assume you are talking unloaded.

 

I didn't order the hill descent control either.

 

Unloaded only.

 

I replaced my garbage Rancho shocks this weekend at 7500 miles. The Rancho's have Motorcraft Stamped into the metal.

I wanted 5100's but couldn't fine anyone that had them. I went with REAL Rancho 9000's and WOW what a difference. Gotta LOVE the penny pinching Ford folks.

 

mines the lariat with Ford OEM's. only have about 3200 miles on them, but when I can scrape together the dough I'm going with the bilsteins, I have some other crap I need to buy for it first....

 

I ordered a set of Bilsteins today. I'm not going to "upgrade" to Rancho 9000s. It's unacceptable to put out crap products even if that's what ford wanted.

Truck Parts and Accessories for Pickup Trucks, Medium Duty Trucks, Semis, and RVs - TruckSpring.com has the Bilsteins in stock. I have ordered from them in the past and they always ship same day!!!

 

get them here....

oh crap backordered here too sry...

 

Something else just occurred to me, kinda funny how things change. When I bought my wife's truck- '04 F150 crew cab/FX4 I was all bummed out and upset that it didn't come with the Rancho's- not so upset anymore. She's still running with the OEM black shocks that came in it-

 

At 4,000 miles I replaced the Rancho shocks with Bilstein 5100s. The two front Ranchos I took off had no gas pressure and one from the rear had no gas. I guess that explained the odd ride. The 5100s are stiff, but I like the ride much better. I still have a little oscillation on road divider strips like on the interstate.
2011 F-350 SRW LB Lariat 20" wheels