95 f350 ride quality

Centurion_guy

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Hey guys so I am looking to improve the ride of my truck a little bit. I have 2" drop shackles on the back. I have been debating on pulling my overload springs out. You can see in the picture they are quite close and that they have been touching. I haven't hauled anything heavy in 6-7 months so I feel like they must be hitting the pads under normal circumstances. Heaviest things I haul are car parts the last of which was a 7.3 motor otherwise it is large but light items. The truck also needs shocks and I think I want the Bilstein 5100s. Is there an issue running these with the drop shackles? I don't want them to be firm all the time. Are there any other shocks that will be better suited for what I use the truck for? I am not expecting a Cadillac ride but if it could ride more like my buddies 16 f250 that would be great.
 

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Centurion_guy

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Slow day at the shop today. I was looking at my truck trying to figure out how I wanted to go about the overload/auxillary springs. I had the idea to remove the perches on the frame rather then the springs them self, that way I could use grade 8 hardware to bolt them back in when I needed the capacity and remove them when I don't. That eliminates having to mess with the spring pack and u bolts. Has anyone tried this before?
 

Strokersace

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Slow day at the shop today. I was looking at my truck trying to figure out how I wanted to go about the overload/auxillary springs. I had the idea to remove the perches on the frame rather then the springs them self, that way I could use grade 8 hardware to bolt them back in when I needed the capacity and remove them when I don't. That eliminates having to mess with the spring pack and u bolts. Has anyone tried this before?



Have a torch/grinder/air punch ready. Those rivets aren’t pleasant to remove.
 

brewer

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Have not been happy w/ the Bilstein 5100's. They seem to have hardened over time; others have had similar experiences. I am planning to try Fox 2.0's next time, sounds like others have had better luck w/ those.

Other options are the Super Duty B-Code rear spring swap. Many threads on this around. Would require drilling out the shackles or switching to the Sky Manufacturing shackles made for this swap.
 

ford_trck

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I have the remote reservoir Fox's on the front of my 99 and the difference is amazing. My truck is off road a significant amount too. I have icon's in the rear and have been super happy with them as well.
 

Centurion_guy

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I just noticed I forgot to mention earlier my truck is a 2wd dually. With the 2" drop shackles I am concerned about having to find rear shock in a different length so the valving doesn't make them unnecessarily stiff. We have been doing a lot of driving in her recently. We put 10k miles on it in the last 7 months. I am trying to fix 3 issues we have. 1st being the rocking/waving in the front end like a boat. 2nd being the bouncing from driving over longer stretches of state highways with allot of seems and joints. I think both of these will be fixed by shocks. The 3rd being the rear end hitting HARD with pot holes, speed bumps, and transition from road to bridge. The truck has almost had the rear end change lanes after hitting a pot hole **cough** i35 near tulsa **cough**. Like I said, I know what I bought and don't expect the ride to be smooth but there is definitely room for improvement here.
 

Denver

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Lower the air pressure in the tires. That is a big improvement over anything if they are always at 80 psi. Try swapping B code leaf springs from a superduty.
 

Centurion_guy

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I have heard that the frames crack with air bags due to the frame being loaded in a spot not designed to carry that load. I want to have the ability to quickly reverse what i do so we can carry a large load in case we need the dually to pull the gooseneck instead of my friends 6.7. I am torn between removing the pads for the overloads and reinstalling with grade 8 hardware when needed or pulling the leaf and running bags. I am curious which would be the safer option.
 

Denver

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These trucks will never ride smooth. Try the superduty spring swap. It may raise the rear a bit but the trade off is a better ride. On the overload leaf, take it to a spring shop and have them flatten it out a bit so there is more contact travel. If you're going to tow a heavy load use the 6.7. 7.3s are great, I own 2, but would send the trailer down the road on a 6.7. 6.7 has better brakes compared to the obs. I had a 95 psd...
 

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