As some of you may know from what I've posted before, Clyde's (my truck's name) primary mission in life is towing my 10,000# fifth-wheel trailer and I've done more than a little fine tuning to get the best performance out of a 25+ year old truck that earns it's keep. The hitch weight placed on the truck from the trailer is somewhere between 1800 and 2000# depending on how it's loaded with "stuff" and how much water I'm carrying. That put the overload springs about an inch shy of the OE rear spring perch pads in the stock configuration.

We've all been on roads where the tarred cracks are about 20' apart and we hit each and every one with the tires twice. Well, with the old setup, where the overloads were about 3/4" off the pads when towing, I got some serious "spring slap"; BANG ... pause ... BANG ... pause ... BANG ...etc.. This can be irritating ... especially after 20 miles or more of it!

After the last ~2500 mile trip from eastern MN to the area of the Co/NM border I had had enough ... NO MORE "SPRING SLAP" WHILE TOWING!!!

After doing a lot of searchs and looking at the cures that were available .... lots of people with airbags have been adding these "spring perch boosters" for stability ... and THE PRICES!!! I thought I could do better. I mean really ... people are using hockey pucks drilled and mounted on the perches to cure this! Manufactured sets are like $150 a set .... get real !!!

I ordered a 24" chunk of 3" UHMW rod online from a plastics supplier, matched the countours of the OE spring perch pads, and added enough height to fully engage the overload springs when the camper is hooked up.



End product compared to OE pads with installation tools. I (overkill) used grade 8 hardware to attach the blocks to the frame.



Here are the front and rear spring perch boosters installed:




Hooked up and rolling even the wife noticed the difference in the ride on the Lake Superior run we regularly make ... firmer but with less bounce, rock & roll and NO "SPRING SLAP!"... all due to the full, firmer engagement of the overload springs. I even took one road that was a problem in the past, Co Rd D to Hwy 2, and it was so much better I couldn't believe it! Major league improvement!!! For less than $50 I changed the ride and handling of Clyde while towing significantly!! The rear end sag you can see in the signature picture is totally gone and the truck actually has a slight "rake" when towing.

OK, now the bad news. The 1 3/4" boost eliminated the loaded spring slap .... but now it does it empty .
I've got enough material left for a couple more sets of these booster blocks and maybe I'll try an inch or inch and a quarter boost instead.

 

Neat idea. I may have to try it on my F350.