2017 Platinum F350, 6.7 here. Fox steering stabilizer installed which was an improvement for sure. Took it up a forest service road to do some spring high country fishing (Colorado). Road had not been maintained since last fall and wash board was heavy and long. Truck spent most of the ride going sideways. I know the shocks need improvement, but, I'm asking for advice on how to go. Fox 2.0 IFP? if so, is there a specific setup I should look at (if available)? I'll spend much of the summer on these types of roads. Trailer on most, but roaming around without once camped.
Coming from a Dodge 1500, this ride was quite a bit different, to say the least.
Thanks in advance.
Del

 

If you're going to do a lot of offroading, I would spring for the Fox 2.0 Remote Reservoirs. You can get the off the shelf versions that have been tuned for the F250, or you can order from a place like Accutune Offroad that will tune the valve stack based on your front and rear axle weights. Solid front axle will never ride as good as an IFS suspension. But a good shock and spring will go a loooooong way in the type of roads you're hitting. If you get the adjustable compression dampeners you can further tune the ride for unloaded, towing, offroading, etc. on the fly.

 

I'd go at least 2.5" RR's. King or Fox. Read up on Accutune and Filthy Motorsports. FM has tons of really good youtube vids you can use to learn about shocks. Watch this and you know more than 99% of people out there:

Get that tire pressure down. And some skill practice. The washboards will have a certain bit of "harmonics". Go just the right speed and they'll smooth out, go exactly the wrong speed and the trucks will go nuts and lose grip. Every suspension has a weak spot at a certain Hz, even good ones.

Sadly, the "right" speed is often fast enough to be a bit hard on the truck. Check all the suspension bolts regularly.

 

Yes, I agree with the practice recommendation. Some history. Back in the 70's/80's, we just ran the F250 (1976) hard. The theory was, the less time you spend on any bump, the less time the suspension has to react with it. We'll just fix things later. And we did.
Skip ahead to 1990's. These F250s were pussies (in my opinion). Running drift boats up and down rivers just let us know how many things can break or rattle. I gave up on a "perfectly" good, 1991 F250 with 52K miles because it was shaken to death. Even the slide-in camper was trashed by washboard. The floor was completely detached from the camper walls.
The 2011 Dodge was ok, just ok, but weak for towing even a small bumper pull.
This F350 needs to help grandpa, yep, that's me, come and go. I can find the harmonics on washboards but they usually occur at a speed that is, well, grandpa-like. Not so good.
I gather that I should be calling and asking specific questions to get specific recommendations rather than ordering stock stuff from Amazon/Ebay. I can't even decipher the specs for Fox reservoir shocks, let alone the front/rear tuning.
Oh yeah, I did play with tire pressure. Does make a difference.
Thanks Fellas!

 

Nah, truck shocks are easy. Err towards valving them firm. Firmer comp the better. Front rebound can be very light, rear rebound has to be much firmer than normal thanks to our oversized rear springs.

FM and Accutune do all the work for you, we ain't their 1st Super Duty customers.

 

I've been on some of those CO washboard Forest Service roads with the OEM shocks. That was an eye opener. I now have the Rancho 9000XL shocks but I have yet to hit the same dirt roads. Pavement is much improved.

 

Tricon is speaking the truth. I had the Fox 2.5 remote reservoir with DSC adjusters, front and rear installed last week. I ordered them from Accutune, My 250 is not lifted or leveled. These shocks have a made a world of difference in the ride and performance of the truck. Worth every penny!

 

It will also help on wash board roads to use 4wd even if you don't need it. The front pulling will help the rear not skate around as much. Lower your air pressure, there's A LOT of forgiveness in the tires at say 30psi (depends on the truck and engine, driver etc) over 70 PSI. From there only shocks will aid in making it better. A good 2" shock with the right valving is more than enough shock for your average everyday person, a shocks job is to dampen the springs by making heat. I doubt most of us will ever over heat a good 2" shock. A 2.5" remote reservoir shock is pretty big but will handle a lot of heat and for the most part you would need to drive for hours on pretty beat out roads to heat a 2.5" shock up.

If you want to spend a bunch of money custom rear leaf springs and coils will net great ride improvements and make good shocks even that much better, but you'll need to put air bags in the rear for sure once you lighten up the springs to ride nice.

 

My 2.5's are too hot to touch after about 30 minutes in the desert. The rears are too hot to touch after towing on completely flat hwy after a while. I choose suspension parts like I choose my motors, bigger the better

 

Too hot to touch is just where their supposed to be, you should get worried when the stickers start to burn.

 

When towing on rough gravel, particularly going up hill, I put the truck into 4hi so I'm less likely to be spinning the tires. Seems to help a little.

 

I put the adjustable fox 2.0s on the rear with the remote reservoir and put Sulastic shackles on and make a HUGE difference. my truck would bounce around like crazy before and now it stays planted and I can drive much faster, but in much more control. Cant tell which made the biggest difference, put them on at the same time.

 

Miniwally has the best advice. Lowering the tire pressures will help the most, and without being loaded up to near GVWR there is no reason not to drop to 50 psi or so. After than, using 4x4 on dirt will indeed aid stability and help keep the 4x4 system well lubed (at the cost of a little more fuel).

The Fox shocks are an improvement, but there is nothing inherently wrong with the factory shocks other then being cheap. Shocks aren't what's causing all the jolting, they just help to dampen the jolting a bit. You went from a 1500 to a one-ton. You are operating with much stiffer springs, and the "unsprung weight" (everything not above the springs like your axles, brakes, tires) is much heavier than it is on a half-ton so bumps cause it to exert a lot more force against the truck's stiff suspension. Although these new trucks ride better than heavy duty trucks used to, they still are a stiff ride.

 

I was more alluding to the fact that if my yuge 2.5's with 12" reservoirs were too hot to touch...imagine what those little Ranchos would be at...likely glowing haha.

 

I have a 2019 F250 6.7 and recently installed the Carli Commuter 2.0 and Fox TS Steering stabilizer and love how much better the truck rides and handles. No more feeling the steering wheel rattle over slight bumps and the truck rides much softer.