Hey Fellas.... I have a desire to reduce the stiffness of my ride quality riding down my asphalt highways in Mexico at around 70 mph my beer is flying all over the cab. Our roadways aren't built as flatly as in USA. A friend says I can have my local grease monkey remove a rear leaf or two so I wanted to get our forums expert opinions on if this is true. i already heard about some of the new aged fancy rear suspension options you can buy and install but thats not gonna happen. however if this removal of leafs is a fact then I'm open to an easy solution. Thoughts and thanks for your expertise!

 

what air pressure in the tires?
if i run 80 my truck rides like it is on square concrete wheels. if i drop pressure to 35 for empty driving it is almost as smooth a ride as the 2018 explorer.

 

Your's should have overload springs, springs that don't do anything, unless there is a heavy load in the bed. You can add to this by removing springs from the regular part and adding even more overload springs.

I found some after market overload springs that add on to the regular spring pack while browsing the junk yards.

The other thing is that the spring pack is supposed to slide on each other with pads on each spring.

Then you have the shackles, they are supposed to move freely so that the springs move freely.

Then you have the shocks, the shocks are actually dampers, they slow down and then stop the bounce. You can see how much it bounces by pushing down and bouncing the truck, then let it go and it should stop before a second bounce.

If you change the front springs, and they are coils, you won't be able to handle as much load without adding more springs. So a coil-over shock can act as a spring, but IDK what stiffness it would have to have to work and it would be working all the time vs a real overload spring. I think you have coils in the front, so IDK what you can do with that other than progressive springs if they are made for that.

So new shocks after doing research to which ones offer the best ride... reduce regular leafs and add more overload leafs... clean each leaf and add those slider pads and maybe lube?

Taller "ballon" type tires that you'd find on some heavy luxury cars, just gotta watch the load rating.

There's a thing where they used to do a "crown vic" conversion on the front, I think it was older trucks and IDK if the F250 works with that, but something like that might be an option. It basically makes the front of the truck the front of a car.

The noise part, you can add new spacers, maybe softer rubber spacers for the cab and bed. You can deaden noise with inside sound deadening pads and thick carpet.

 

Looks like a 2wd and the front is sagged pretty good which means it's right on the bumpstops. Simply installing a new set of OEM front coil springs will restore ride height and produce a better ride. Out back yes strip off some of the shorter springs to gain some compliance and air down to 35psi front and back if you're not carrying anything too heavy

 

the obvious solution here is to drink your beer using a straw.

 

Is the 3/4 ton necessary? Sell it and buy a 1/2 ton. If you want an even better ride, by a 2WD (C series) GM truck from the same era (GMT400). Even the 4WD's (K series) with their torsion bar suspension ride better than any of the F-Series trucks I've owned.

 

Agree with sell it and buy a half ton
Until then, add some weight to the bed
A few sand bags will not get stolen and will help a bunch

 

Here's another pic.where truck not sitting on steep downhill grade
... does the front still appear "sagged".... I'm not tech savy in the least but assumed the rear was my only issue with stiff ride presently. Thoughts now?

 

YaKnow what, I never thought of lowering tire pressure... I'll check on that and see if makes a noticeable difference thanks.

 

Appreciated but I don't drive much and I'm attached to ole Fernando after only 9 months together. I'm simply looking for cheap ideas like lower tire inflation and I like your sand bag concept... I'd wondered about that solution.

 

I will say your front end definitely looks a little low.


84 f250 (front leaf springs)

91 f150 on coils

 

I looked and I've got 4 layers of rear leaf springs [a shorter one is closest to ground on stack] and up front looks like one shock and a larger spring. not sure that helps any recommendations....

 

Coil or leaf? Either way, it looks like it would benefit from a fresh set of springs up front. It'd ride better and absorb bumps better.

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Must be that 460 gasser beast weighing it down

 

6.9 idi ain't no featherweight either.

Now my 302 on the other hand... mini gasser