Get over myself?Buddy relax,I guess you didn't get my sense of humor....I meant to be funny.

 

Hopefully that's not really the truck, but it does check off 4 things most important to me:
1-F
2-O
3-R
4-D


Y'all have a good 'un!

 

Oh, sorry. Good job. Very funny.

 

Sorry to derail the OT Banter...

So, there's actually a lesson to learn here when it comes to towing with a lighter weight truck ins't there?

The heavier truck will command the trailer better - not because of HP/TQ or Brakes either... Traction , stability and weight are very much in play here...

When you go to turn a heavy trailer, the weight of the tow vehicle has to overcome the weight and inertia of the trailer in order to alter its direction..

One of the things I fear about making the trucks lighter is - will they make them too light..

We can leave crashworthiness as another subject....

 

This is 100% my concern for the future as well. I drove a Chevy 3500 diesel for 4 years and when I got my first ford in 2007 (2008 F250) it was like a gift from the heavens. The SD was completely superior in the handling/road manners in every way to the bow tie dually. I couldn't figure out why but my guess is weight, suspension, and the engineering of the vehicle dynamics (center of gravity, components, design like axles especially up front). The Chevy had plenty of power and nice seats but what really mattered wasn't there for me.

So, I'm scared of the heavy pickup going away. The power is nice, transmissions today are nice, the trucks look nice, but please don't change whatever it is that makes them tow trailers so well.

 

I agree with both of you but I say again, how about wanting both. In my short life, I've heard a ton of, "if you want this, then it has to have that," type statements about not only vehicles but lots of different tech we use ever day. We are constantly being surprised by a new design that no one thought possible 5 years ago. This is what I am hoping for rather than just being pleased with the status quo. Yes, I am very satisfied with my truck. Is it perfect? Far from it and the biggest weakness is ride quality. I just don't buy the "it's a truck and it should ride like one BS." (If was just a "truck" we wouldn't need platinum edition EVERYTHING so that argument is dead.) If it could tow like a 450 and ride like a Caddy, then I'm all in.

 

Rodney --- I hear you and agree...

Everybody wants things FASTER-BETTER-CHEAPER, but in reality, you can only have any two of those three...
In regard to ride quality - yes, there are compromises that have been made. However, Ram has turned on a light at the end of the tunnel for trucks in our class.. Air Ride suspension is not a new idea by any stretch. It was implemented by the heavy truck industry to address the very things we are talking about here. There are many more things that air ride can do as well as making a rough ride smooth.. I had a Class-A diesel pusher coach with a Freightliner chassis equipped with air ride. From a suspension configuration vantage point, It was a class setup from the word GO. It could even take the LIST out of the coach when running with a strong crosswind. When I hooked my racecar trailer up to it, that trailer had the nicest tow of its life.. No sway, no nothing - it just motored down the road like it was on glass the whole way....
If Ford really wants to kick some butt here, they have a golden opportunity.. Meanwhile, we start looking at air-suspension seats for our rigs to give our tushies a nice ride while the chassis gets the living cr@p hammered out of it....

 

Yep, that's why I post a few times in this thread about Ram's air suspension. If my next truck is a Ford and doesn't have it, I'm going Kelderman Air 4 link from the get go.

 

Karl, as an avid offroad guy since the early 60's there is not shortage of 'better mousetraps'.

IS approaches are not new. The Army bought it hook, line and sinker on the M151 A1 Jeep and it was a disaster way beyond anything anyone was willing to believe. I cannot imagine how many soldiers died in those Jeeps, so many that when the Army ditched the Jeep for the Humv the Jeeps were not even sold to the public as previous Jeep models.

All that said before I sold my off road shop I was going to experiment with a Jeep Wrangler TJ I had and what I wanted to do was to install a set of Corvette rear 3rd members in a jeep. Alas I never got to it, then moved and sold off all my personal Jeeps

I think the problem with the M151 Jeep which soured anyone from even trying out IS on anything that was serious off road was that it was sprung to hard. In the eyes of the military the Jeep is a Truck and its made to haul a load in the bed a 1/4 ton, 500 lbs + 2 soldiers and their gear that is 500+ lbs + radio gear, full tank of fuel etc add another 250 lb for a grand total,

We are now at 1250 lbs + the trailer 500 lbs ++++ (its built to 3,500 lb specs) + weight of trailer about 800 lbs.. 2550 lb combat load.

How do you think it handles unloaded...bounces like a rubber ball. On right/left turns at moderate highway speeds the left/right tires come off the road and cause the vehicle to flip. LOT of dead soldiers from that. IMO POOR engineering. Off road travel is a whole 'nother world! A dangerous one if you do not have experience out there.

I still think it can be done and I know big shops that have tried it and failed. I know of one company that spent itself into bankruptcy trying to sell a cobbled up rear axle IRS. I looked at it and it was home brew built on promises that never materialized.

Agreed that the solid axle is tried and true and SIMPLE/cheap to build and field. IS is fraught with challenges and you can bet LAW suits.

If I buy another project Jeep, I will let you know how it works out

 

I think They should of kept the original Super Duty look with the good ole square body!!! now thats a truck!!!

 

The huge new military trucks are IS all around but of course that's a whole different ball of string, what with their weight and width difference. Didn't the Mustang just go from a solid axle to IS? A front IS is one thing, but it sure seems to take a lot of engineering to design a decent rear IS even for a car, let alone a truck, where the real axle weight varies so much. Exactly the problem of the Jeep M151 mentioned above. Having the strength of a solid axle, but the handling and ride advantage is hard to get at the same time. However, the airbag solution may allow the variability of load weight required.