2005 F250 Harley-Davidson Edition
 

Just traded my Excursion on a brand new F250 Crew Cab HD edition - blue with ghost flames, V10, lots of leather and 20" wheels.

Pros:
- Beautiful truck (in my opinion)

Cons:
- Rattles like a junk pile after only 500 miles
- Front-end dances and steering wheel shakes (just like a bad caster shake) over any decent bump, bridge abutment, road crack, etc.

Verdict: 1 thumb up (barely)

I was hoping not to have to sink cash into a new truck to make it work right (like I had to do with my Excursion).

I've ordered in a set of Trailmaster SSV shocks and steering stabilizer to start with. Should help some.

Anyone else have suspension complaints on their '05 and some solutions that they've tried?

Thanks - Norm

I have the same truck, but black w/ red flames and the 6.0. I do not have any problems with rattles or handling. I jump on it all the time also. I did have a slight door rattle, but I put a piece of felt tape betwean the plastic door cover an dthe door itself. Problem solved

http://home.comcast.net/~mjs122276/w...e-skip-30.html

I have an 05 HD Truck, 6.0, no problems at all here. Far as the truck is concerned, runs great.

VT,


Curious to know what is rattling? Mine ('05 F-350 HD, also True Blue) is tight as a drum at 1,600 miles.

I, too, will be looking for some new shocks.

My o5 Harley F-250 does have a slight steering wheel nibble but drives better than my 04

Norm,
You may be on to something with your shocks and steering stabilizer.

I too just bought (7/08) an 05 True Blue Harley F250 CC 6.0 and feel it drives and rides far superior to the 03 F250 CC 7.3 I traded in. I absolutely love it!

I too have felt some of the steering wheel feedback gotten from driving on washboard type surfaces but not to the degree of alarming me. I think what we are feeling is somewhat inherent in the design of our front suspension, coil sprung monobeam front axle with large tires. When one side or the other hits a bump it travels through the solid front end and is felt in the steering wheel where as an IFS coil sprung front end would tend to isolate same.

Ford had much the same design in the '70's on their half ton pickups. I had a '77 F150 and when I put big tires (33's) on, it felt very similar to what I am feeling in my new truck. I put the same tire and wheel package on my new '79 F150 with the factory quad shocked "Handling Package" it was night and day difference.

I will be interested to know if your new shocks and stabilizer will be enough to dampen this steering wheel feedback or if an after market quad shock setup is needed or even available.

BTW, I'm not an engineer nor did I ever stay in a Holiday Inn Express.

My dealer told me Ford would only build 5,000 HD Edition trucks in 2005. My truck is a March build with a HD serial number #03829 I wonder if they ever made 5,000 of them?

Brad

It is under warranty... Take it back and have them fix it.

Mine is # 0018

Wow, 0018!! What is the build date of your truck?

Rear center console, right rear bucket seat, something in my driver door and one of those "you'll never find it" dash rattles. Also, if you go over anything sharp, like railroad tracks, you get that squeeky chatter in the rear end until it settles a bit.

I am confident that real shocks will take that flutter out of the front end (it did on two previous 4x4s I had - 1 Ford SuperDuty and a Dodge Ram). I think there's more to the steering wheel jiggle than just stabilizer. Neither my Excursion, nor my Ram exhibited that level of steering wheel shake, even with bad stabilizers. I'll wait until I do the stabilizer before I start looking further.

Cheers,
Norm