Front suspension upgrades

[cousinjc]

I have my 8ft CO Alaskan on a 97 F250 HD diesel regular cab. I have rear suspension upgrades of Timbrens and a sway bar. The rear end seems pretty stable but the front end of the truck seems very light due to the load in back. What type of upgrades can be done to the front end? I have tried to locate a sway bar but have found none offered for this year truck. Any ideas?

 

[banderswipe]

Hi I did a search in the forums for suspension mods. This thread might help.

Cheers,
Kevin.


http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/index.php?/topic/3131/page__hl__Front suspension upgrades__fromsearch__1

 

[Barko1]

I have an early 99 and all I have done was to put airbags in the back and a 2" leveling kit up from. New springs in the rear and new shocks all around. And the best E rated tires I could find.

 

[DanoT]

I have 1991 Dodge CTD 4x4 with a Kelderman Air Ride suspension and Monroe shocks all around. I have also had the front springs re-sprung and an extra leaf added.

The Kelderman is designed to soften the brutal 1991 Dodge ride and it does a great job and also works as a load leveler when carrying a big load by adding extra air to the large rear air bag. The front system has an air tank and 2 6" air bags mounted beside the shocks. When filled with about 20lbs they raise the front end about 1".

 

[banderswipe]

Hi jc, It seems to me that if it feels light on the front,your rear suspension is still not stiff enough and you might want to go to E range tires. The walls on stock tires are to flexable for the weight of the camper.I am probably wrong but changes to the front suspension might not resolve the problem.I drive an F350 with stock 1 ton suspension and Godyear wrangler E range tires(tire pressure is 50 psi) and my camper is a 10' NCO Alaskan and I still get sway when going from 60mph to 70mph.At 50 to 60mph it is fairly solid. I am learning to live with it. I use it as an economy measure, I get better gas mileage between 50 and 60mph.I might put 5 to 10 pounds more pressure in the tires to see if that helps.
Kevin.

 

[cousinjc]

Thank you for all the ideas.

 

[Kilroy]

Hi jc, It seems to me that if it feels light on the front,your rear suspension is still not stiff enough and you might want to go to E range tires. The walls on stock tires are to flexable for the weight of the camper.I am probably wrong but changes to the front suspension might not resolve the problem.I drive an F350 with stock 1 ton suspension and Godyear wrangler E range tires(tire pressure is 50 psi) and my camper is a 10' NCO Alaskan and I still get sway when going from 60mph to 70mph.At 50 to 60mph it is fairly solid. I am learning to live with it. I use it as an economy measure, I get better gas mileage between 50 and 60mph.I might put 5 to 10 pounds more pressure in the tires to see if that helps.
Kevin.


50 PSI is way under inflated for Load range E Tires. Every E tire I have seen is rated for there highest rating at 80 PSI. Might use 50 if truck is unloaded. Probably be about 60 though.

 

[banderswipe]

Hi Kilroy, thanks for your comments on my tire pressure's being low.I thought they were at 50psi because thats what the service guy at my ford dealer told me they were at.He did not know I was going to put a camper on the truck, otherwise I am shure he would have set them higher.I checked them any way and they were all at 62psi, go figure. I now have them at 76psi all round and the sway has almost gone away at the higher speeds 55-65mph and the ride is much more stable. I am trying to find a local scale to weigh the truck and camper on( fully loaded )to set the pressure more accurately. The max load for the max pressure for goodyear wrangler rts tires is 3400 lbs for 80 psi according to the goodyear tables. I am hoping my weight is arround 22- 2300 lbs. I will post the loaded weight of my rig when i get it.I have attached the Goodyear inflation tables for everyones perusal.
Thanks,
Kevin.

 

[Rusty]

I'm usually not a "high pressure" guy.....but

I've been keeping 65-70 both in the rears and the bags as a standard for years and had little sway....after some consulting with a few guys I fish with...I went to 80 for this last trip...both in the bags and the rears.....what a difference

The truck never looked better or rode better carrying the load....and with the boat on ....what a dream..

I'm a high pressure guy now......where's my omron

 

[ntsqd]

...... I am trying to find a local scale to weigh the truck and camper on( fully loaded )to set the pressure more accurately. .....

When I had my Ranchero weighed on a non-certified scale I was told that my total weight was too close to total error range for them to give me a truly accurate number. With a heavier truck this is less likely to be a problem, but with their design weighing mass being 8X-10X the weight of your truck I wonder how accurate they can be?

Below is a tool that I used on race cars to get the corner weight roughed-in. It is not as accurate as is needed to fine tune corner weights on a road racer, but I've since used it to 'weigh' trucks to select coil-over springs and to set the pre-loads on those springs. How it works is to use a beam type torque wrench in the square hole. The reading on the wrench is multiplied by the ratio of the length from the fulcrum point to the pin in the wrench's handle divided by the length from the fulcrum point to the lifting lip.

The process is to set the fulcrum pin's height such that the cross-beam is ever so slightly high at the wrench end. The goal being for the cross-beam to be level when the tire is only-just-barely off the ground. Place the lifting lip inside the wheel. With steel wheels my preferred spot is the shallow groove of the safety bead. With alloy wheels we would put masking or duct tape on the lip and choose a spot on the wheel where it won't slip. Push down on the wrench far enough to lift the tire off of the ground and slide a piece of paper under the tire. Set the tire down. Have a helper gently pull on the paper while you slowly push down on the wrench. When the paper slides the helper should say "Mark" or something. At that point you take the reading on the wrench. Multiply by the lever ratio and you'll have the wheel weight for that corner. Repeat at the other corners of interest.

This is a model that I made in SolidWorks of the real tool once when I didn't have a picture of the real tool. Next is a picture of the real tool. How you actually achieve taking a measurement this way is less important than getting the results needed. If you're anywhere near 93003 you're welcome to stop by and we'll make these measurements. If not, I'm hoping that seeing this will inspire some method of doing a similar thing to get those numbers.

 

[banderswipe]

Hi ntsqd, your system for finding the wheel weights looks great. It might be scary accurate I am not sure whether I am ready to find out what my two back wheels are carrying because that's where most of the weight will be. I can live with spreading the weight over four wheels at a scale but like you say it is not likely very accurate or representative of the actual weight. I think I read somewhere that the DOT uses a small portable scale to check wheel weights individually for total weight.
I would like to pop in and get the weights and shoot the breeze with you but I am a little far away, Ontario Canada. If you don't mind though I will save the pictures and the formula and see if I can duplicate your fulcrum scale for my own use. If I hear of a different system I will let you know.

Thanks,

Kevin.

 

[ntsqd]

I can see a piece of scrap rectangular tube, an old socket, some scrap strap metal all combined with a buzz-box welder, and a short piece of angle iron siting on an appropriately tall jack stand working. One of likely a thousand possible ways to do it.

The accuracy problem stems from the resolution of the beam torque wrench. If one had a digital wrench that reads out the actual torque to one decimal place as it is being applied I can see where the accuracy would improve by at least one order of magnitude.

Yeah, Ontario is a mite far away. Maybe next year?