I'm loving my new F-250 Lariat, but I have a question that you super duty veterans can probably answer in your sleep. We were driving back from Indiana last week and hits some really bumpy spots on I-65 up in Kentucky. What I noticed was that the truck has a tendency to "bounce" when it hits a bump, and it's quite a bit more pronounced at higher speeds. It almost felt like the wheels were coming off the ground at 70 mph. The truck was empty, just my wife and I for load, so I'm guessing this the normal response you get with a stiff suspension and no weight in the truck. Short of the obvious (adding weight) is there anything else you guys have done to dampen the "bounce"?

Thank you!

 

Better shocks, lower air pressure.

 

Yeah, lower the tire pressures, especially the rear.
Just remember that that also lowers the weight capacity of the tires so you need to pump them back up when towing or loaded heavy.

 

Was the highway concrete? Typically on concrete roads you can get some nasty bounce regardless of what weight/shocks/tire pressure you have. It's all because of the wheel base and how they pour the concrete highway and where the expansion joints are.

There's a horrendous spot on I-25 near the Fort Collins Point of Entry in the southbound lane. About a mile and it will loosen your fillings no matter what else you have going on.

If the ride is smooth on asphalt and pretty much everywhere else, you can take the steps above, but chances are you'll still run into bad spots every now and again anyway.

 

+1 for better shocks. My experience has been that stock shocks do not dampen oscillations well at highway speeds. It actually gets worse when you are loaded or towing.

 

Picked mine up this morning, tire pressures set by the dealer during PDI, 65 front, 75 rear, and it definitely rides rougher than either my RAM 2500 or my old 2012 F250, which rode better than the RAM.

But, I'll be loading it up with the 5th wheel hitch, aux tank and small toolbox in the bed, hopefully that will smooth it out some, especially with a full 60 gallon aux tank.

 

Plethora Green, the road section that caused the most bouncing had 10 to 15 foot long stretches of road carved out and filled in with asphalt that wasn't level with the rest of the road. They were random and it was dark, so I really couldn't anticipate when it was going to happen. The bounce got really alarming at higher speeds of 75 mph or so, when it almost felt like she was going airborne. To be clear this trucks main purpose in life is going to be pulling a 10,000# fifth wheel with 1,500# or so of pin weight in the bed. As a newbie, I can't imagine pulling any faster than 65 until I understand how everything feels and reacts, and maybe that's as fast as I'll ever go.

Ltngdrvr, as far as air pressure goes, my door jam says 60 psi front, 65 psi rear cold. The dealer had them set at 55 psi front, 60 psi rear and that's where I've left them so far. We're planning to pick up the RV in a week or two and when we do I'm planning on airing up to 60 front and 65 rear cold unless you guys think that's off for my setup.

I've already been thinking about adding a set airbags, but I thought I'd wait and see how much sag I get and how everything feels before I do that. I don't mind spending money on shocks (or anything else) if they add to safety and comfort, but I'm also hoping the truck is fairly capable as delivered.

Thank you guys so much for sharing your knowledge, I would have already made a ton of mistakes if it wasn't for this forum!

 

I was a little off on what the dealer had mine set at, it was like 60 front and about 73 rear.
I'm going to leave it alone for now, see how it does on my next trip.

 

I don't think you guys will ever like the ride with those high pressures in the rear tires. I have been running the rears at 45lbs since my truck was new as I have on my previous 3 superdutys and the ride difference is night and day. With 60 lbs in the rear bumps would send the truck in different directions and washboard would send the truck sideways. At 45 lbs the tire wear has been great. As others have stated the sticker pressures are for a fully loaded truck. If you weigh both the front and rear axles separately and then look up a pressure chart online from the tire manufactures you will see that for the weight you have measured the recommended pressure for the rear tires will be much lower than the sticker. The dealers have to protect themselves by following the sticker pressure recommendation in case you fully load your truck and don't put more air in the tires.

 

You can look up the "load inflation tables" for your size tires and it will tell you what pressures you should run in your tires for the weight you are carrying at the time.

On my last 1-ton truck I ran 35 psi in the rear unless I was towing or hauling something significant.