2015 F350SD 4X4 Power Stroke, Long Bed Crew Cab.

Suffered suspension and frame damage.

Background: Truck got off the right edge of the pavement, snapped left as I tried to coax it back on the road (heavy rains for several days last winter). Straightened out but drifted off the right edge of the road. That area turned into a ditch which sucked the truck in. Doing 55ish with no braking in the soaking wet grass. Approached a driveway with culvert pipe. Jumped the driveway (cleared it completely) and landed right back in the ditch. Second driveway and culvert pipe. Cleared that one completely. The second landing site was 5-6' below road level...a pasture. Came to a stop. Drove it out of that field if you can believe it. Ford tough for sure.

Basically lots of suspension damage, rock gard, radiator, front bumper, some frame damage. Bed to cab contact.

After 1.5 months I get the truck back but it was pulling left and the steering wheel was off center (my dealer...a very large Auto Nation dealership in GA) didn't have an alignment machine that could handle my truck the first 2 visits. Had them work on it a few times. The GM gave me his cell # and kept abreast of the repairs so kudos to him for that. Eventually they got it pretty close. They addressed pulling to the left, wheel hop passing over bumps on the freeway, a strong tendency to want to drift into the low side of a road crown (worst when driving in the left lane on the freeway...bad enough that on a multiple hours drive, my wrist hurts).

Now, after driving it from GA to VA on 2 round trips, I still think it's not right. Still seeing wear on the front tires, still feel front wheel hop going over bumps on the freeway. Still has a strong drift into the low side of a left lane crown on the freeway. Does not seem to drift into the low side of a right lane crown...maybe slightly but not nearly as much as the left lane. The wheel hop is worst when on the freeway at freeway speeds (65-75) and in a curve. I just don't recall wheel hop and the truck juking around going over bumps in a curve on the freeway before. We did several long trips in the first 20k miles of having this truck and it always seemed to ride like it was on rails. Now it seems more like my old truck, a 250 4X4 short be gasser...unstable.

One thing that was not done was the shocks. As far as I know, they did not replace the front shocks.

Is there anything anyone can suggest that my dealership in GA may have missed. I hesitate to take it to another dealership again as I've lost confidence in their ability to fix this. My GA dealer was a State Farm preferred shop, had a collision center...it was a huge place and sold a TON of the big trucks. They had frame machines, got a new alignment machine while they were dealing with my truck. They had all the tools but I still think its wrong.

If there are any members in my area that can recommend a "Big Truck" suspension/alignment/4X4 shop, I would appreciate it.

 

Can't help much with your problem but as far as the wobble/hop after a bump in the road, their are super duties that do that off the show room floor.

This is and older video but I know of some newer ones that do it also.

Fast forward to 1:00

 

Good LORD!!!! Thankfully mine isn't that bad!

I've seen lots of guys talking about switching to the Bilstein Shocks on their SD's. Went to a new collision center this week and they assure me that the frame is good and although there was a slight alignment adjustment made, I should be good. I asked them to explain the cupping and wheel hop. They couldn't.

Maybe I'm being a hypochondriac since the incident. Maybe the roads are much rougher up here with higher speeds on tighter curves than down south and it's just more pronounced than in the past. I may just go with a set of Bilstein shocks and see how that works...that and back off the speed and try harder to avoid the bumps (good luck). Amazing how horrible the roads are around our nations capital!

 

Well, It's been 5 months. I've driven it all around the norther VA area and made some observations.

Once we settled into our new home I called the insurance company and they got me to a shop with a frame machine that could take some measurements.
-The frame is straight. That shop has a neighboring alignment shop that takes care of their alignment work.
-The front end is aligned.
-The truck most definitely still wants to go to the left shoulder enough that I always have to hold pressure to the right to keep it straight (when in the left lane).
-If I travel in the right lane, she tracks mostly straight.
-There is no pull to either side under hard braking so long as it was tracking straight before brake application (tested in large parking lot).
-The wheel hop is definitely not related. It's just the crappy stock shocks and the optional larger wheels the truck came with. I have not upgraded as I may still trade into a new truck.
-If I drive on brand new pavement -or- a concrete road...in the left lane, there is ZERO pull to the left.
-There does not appear to be any adverse tire wear. It's been consistent since I got it back from my GA shop in August.
-Even on the flat concrete highways, the wheel sits just to the left of center when driving straight. If there were a pointer on the top of the steering wheel at 12 o'clock, it points between 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock even when tracking straight with no pull or drift as when on a concrete highway.

I'm no engineer or chassis guy but I'm pretty sure something is bent that won't show up in either the frame analysis or the front end shop. I just signed a purchase contract on a new 5th wheel and I need to get to the bottom of this before I do some real road tripping.

Do any of the guru's here have any suggestions where I should have the chassis shop look for a bent component that might cause this? At this point I will either pay out of pocket to fix it or get a new truck. I'm done messing with the insurance company. The truck is mostly right but I want in 100% right if I'm doing serious towing with my wife and three girls with me. I truly love this truck. It's everything I could have wanted and more but I want it fixed correctly.

Thanks for reading...

 

I would swap tires left side to right side and see if the problem follows the tires, you may have 1 or more tires with internal damage. The steering wheel not being centered is a simple adjustment, you may also have a damaged steering box causing the pull, hard to check though. Another thing I have seen is a slightly twisted frame, the one I saw took the shop over 9 months to find and then they didn't actually find it until they replaced the frame and the old one sitting on the floor with no weight on it 1 corner was 2 inches higher than the other but it didn't look bad with the weight of the truck on it, it measured straight and square until they took it apart.

 

Twisted frame...wow! That's crazy. The tires have been swapped but there is one original tire still on the front end. I will get rid of it and rotate the rest. Steering box is a real possibility. I have a real good guy now that I trust to run down a few leads before I give up.
Thanks!!