Ride quality
 

I have a 2017 Platinum with a ready lift 2.5 leveling kit installed. Tires are Toyo Open country AT LT325/60R20 everything else is stock. I thought the truck rode a little on the rough side and i feel everything in the steering wheel but thought it was normal for a straight axle truck.
Well this morning I dropped it off at the dealership to fix a rattle in the moon roof. They gave me a nice Lariat superduy 4x4 diesel as a rental.................. My God this thing rides great!!!!!! Do i have to put my truck back to stock height and stock tires to get this ride quality or is something wrong with my truck??????

I test drove a 2019 platinum the other day and the ride quality was as good as my cadillac. I'm really amazed at how they've tuned these trucks for driving.

Is your truck a gasser or diesel? My un-scientific, seat of the pants opinion is that the diesels ride a little better due to the extra weight.

I certainly wouldn't call riding in my platinum anything even sort of close to comparable to a Cadillac, but it certainly rides better than my Ram 3500.

My truck is a Diesel and a FX4 also in case someone else asks. I just cant get over the difference between a stock truck's ride and mine, by the way the rental is a 2018 and a FX4 also.

Just to be clear the FX4 "Rancho" shocks on any truck (gas or diesel) are s***.

In a diesel it will be worse. The 2.5 level will not change the ride much, the tires might have more impact.

If your truck has the high capacity tow or camper PKG this adds an overload spring to the rear leaf pack which could cause a rougher ride. Also the snow plow prep PKG has firmer front coils.

My suggestion, replace the shocks. The "Ranchos" are factory Ford shocks which have been tweaked slightly (if only pained white and a red boot). Real Ranchos will ride better, Fox 2.0 will be night and day, and adjustable Fox or Kings will ride like a Cadillac.

I just replaced mine with Fox 2.0 adjustable with custom valving from Accutune. I could easily compress the "Ranchos" with one hand when I took them off. It took my full body weight to compress the Fox's. Rebound was also pitifully slow for the "Ranchos" while the Foxs we're easily 3x faster.

If you spent $70k on a truck, don't skimp on the replacement shocks. Ford heard our complaints about the "Ranchos" and discontinued them for the 2019+ FX4 trucks.

"I feel everything in the steering wheel" <- this came from your 2.5" level.
You most likely don't have enough caster. When you lift the truck 2.5" in the front you removed most of the positive caster the truck was setup with from the factory.
Positive caster is what prevents your steering from being so light and jittery feeling, also helps return your steering wheel to center after a turn.

This has been covered to death in tons of posts here. Search and read.

True, but hopefully he spent the extra $ on the relocation bracket and alignment cams if he spent the $ on a Platinum.......

My kit did have the new bracket and i did have it aligned, don't know about alignment cams though.

Good info. I have noticed that the back end of my truck (FX4) tends to have the occasional death wobble. I mean, it's not a death wobble, but when it happens, I can distinctly count 5-6 back and forths of the suspension. Bridge transitions are sometimes really bad if the two wheels are hit at slightly different times. I assume that upgrading the rears to those Fox shocks would probably solve that problem. I also got the plow package, which I didn't want, so I'll eventually swap the front springs and shocks, but for now the front end doesn't really bother me. Feels about the same as my old Ram.

This is classic blown shock behavior. I would put new shocks on the truck asap.

And for the OP, you might have two problems; the level kit probably took one or two degrees of caster out _and_ your shocks are likely on their way out.

Get the paperwork from the alignment and post a pic. You should have +4 caster. Alignment cams are not necessary on a 2.5" level (not sure if readylift includes them in the kit), but without them caster drops to +1.5-2.5 which makes these truck drive too light.

Wow... less than 3 weeks old and only 700 miles. I guess I'll have to pull one off tonight and see how it feels. I guess I could make a warranty claim, but they'll probably replace them with the same pieces of crap, unless I get lucky and they don't even carry the "Ranchos" anymore.

Just called a local 4x4 shop, and it appears that the Fox shocks for that truck are extremely popular. On backorder right now.

Call Accutune for the Fox 2.0s they custom valve it to your driving habits and you can send the back for one free revalve. Good price too.

If you want the basic 2.0s look at any major online retailer, they will have them in stock.

Is yours a 2018? The '18 FX4s came with the standard Tenneco black shocks. There have been reports of the FX4 Ranchos being bad at very low miles. Mine have 13K on them and are fine. I had Bilsteins on my previous truck and will likely put either those or the Rancho RS9000s on this truck soon.