So you guys have been an amazing help on all things Econoline, so here is a new one. I have a 2000 e350, and it has about 225K miles on it. I have always noticed, that when turning right, that the vehicle (front end roll) tends to remain proud, and not really dip. When turning left, the vehicle tends to dip, even dig in a little from the front tire. It was minor, and not really an issue, but now i am also noticing that when a full lock (and turning left only) it almost feels as if he wheel is pulling then slipping. Its a really hard sensitization to try type out. Almost like there is an oval tire. However, I am suspecting this is all related.

I recently had a front end alignment, camber and caster is good. Anyways, I am going to take one more trip with it, then its down for the winter. I wanted to tear into this issue, but am not really sure where to start. I am the n-teenth owner, as I bought the van at 200K miles. So anything could of happened to it. This van is a beastly monster, but I am really enjoying it, and am also very happy with what it has been able to do for me. So its gonna stay around awhile. The engine and trans only has 80K on it, so I am gonna run it to the ground. 1-2K of parts a year is fine by me if it keeps it going.

 

These Ford front suspensions are awkward at best and what you describe is common, they also suffer pretty badly from bump steer and wild camber/caster variations from lock to lock. Bottom line is if you don't have excessive tire wear then you're good, everything else is a "feature" of this first stab at independent front suspension that managed to hang around waaaaaaaaaaay too long.

 

So you had it aligned and the caster was good. To me that means the caster is somewhere between +1.5 and +7.0 degrees which is not very meaningful. If the caster is set less then +5.5 then it is "not good" for highway driving. Too little caster can result in "loose steering" and "wandering" at highway speeds. Also, to gain the most benefit from the caster you do have it is best to adjust the tire pressure to be the least required pressure for actual loading.

 

How does one determine that pressure? My load is static. In my case the door jamb sticker calls for the extended weight capacity tires and 41lbs of pressure.