I am new here and have been lurking since I bought my first F250 KR back in the fall of 2015. That was hand's down the best vehicle I have ever owned including a bunch of expensive and fast cars and toys. I just traded it for a new 2018 KR that now has about 1500 miles on it. I am growing more and more disappointed and concerned in the poor quality of the ride/handling/steering. Ironically, only two weeks before I traded it and with no prior issues, the '15 exhibited a very violent episode of the death wobble. The dealership took it on trade aware of what I said had happened, and reported back a few days later it needed a new steering stabilizer. With 84k miles on it I am sure it needed it, but I am not even remotely convinced that was the cause. Nonetheless, that truck is gone and I have this new one. The '15 always felt solid and sure-footed and seldom if ever did I ever feel the road in the steering wheel. With this new truck, I feel every bump in the steering wheel and I can just feel the wobble in there waiting to come out. I have read nearly every thread here about this and I am still left with some questions.

1. Has anyone with a relatively new truck, without a lift, been able to positively eradicate the road inputs into the steering wheel and if so how? It seems to be this is mostly a shock absorber/rebound issue; the shocks just don't feel matched to the suspension.

2. Has anyone had an aftermarket steering stabilizer and or shocks on a '17-'18 truck installed long enough to positively confirm that alone solved the rough inputs into the front suspension and steering wheel? I am prepared to start disassembling and dyno'ing springs and shocks if need be but I hate to put a lot of time and effort into that on a daily driver if someone has found a reasonable solution off-the-shelf.

3. Has anyone installed some type of caster correct shims (again without a lift) and seen additional caster to resolve the rough steering inputs?

I have no intentions of lifting this truck and really want to try and start resolving the issue now while its new, as I can suspect its only going to get worse. If anyone as changed shocks and gotten a verifiably different result, post it here. I have been unable to find any threads that suggest a particular shock made enough of an impact to validate it as a shock-to-spring mismatch issue. And I am well aware of all that comes with a SFA, but my '15 had a SFA (as did a dozen other Ford trucks I have owned) and none behaved anything like this even once so I am not accepting that as an excuse for the way this truck rides and steers on normal paved surfaces.

Thanks in advance.

 

I agree, I was so enamored by the new ride that I didn't notice the annoying driving nuances of the Super Duty. Adding a Fox steering stabilizer was a quick and effective way to get most of the bumps out of the steering wheel. They're still there, just not near as bad. It can't hurt to try some castor bushings. I've got them on mine, but my truck is leveled. Even then, the bushings helped tremendously.

 

Thanks for the reply. Do you know how much caster you are running now and can you share the info on the bushings you chose?