Truck springs

[Egon]

Since new I have always felt our Dodge 2500 series truck was to soft in the front end.

Recently I place some rubber inserts that extend for one coil of the spring. This has really stiffened uo the front. For some it may be too rough but suits my purpose and use of truck.

Any comments bad/good would be appreciate as I have never seen this item before.

Egon

 

[Boondox]

Egon -- I've never seen that, but I put timbrens on the front of my Chevy to handle the extra weight of my plow. Timbrens are replacements for the OE rubber stops, only shaped like a hockey puck and just about as hard. Without them, the front of my pickup dropped two inches with the plow raised; now it only drops about half an inch. As for the ride, I don't notice any difference.

Pete

 

[Egon]

Pete:

I looked at timberens. Told they would not help me by the dealer.

What I have seems to work but am willing to look at alternatives as I'm confused by most things mechanical.

Egon

 

[fishman]

Egon,

While I can't help you with that problem, it does remind me of a '76 Dodge pickup I once owned that had a lot more pulling power than bed capacity. The rear leaf springs were really weak, so I bought a set of coil helper springs that just u-bolted on. They didn't quite touch the frame when installed, so the nice soft ride wasn't changed. However, when loading it up with a bed-full of wood, the situation was a lot better. Best part was that they were only about $25.

So if you could find something like that designed for the front, I think it would help.

 

[Boondox]

Do those additional rear leaf springs (helper springs?) change the ride in a big way? Seems like you'd get a much stiffer ride unloaded that might make driving down dirt roads an adventure!

Pete

 

[Egon]

Coil springs on the front. I'm sure they could be replaced by ones that would meet my needs but beyond my means.

Egon

 

[RobertN]

I had issues with the front end on my old('89 F250 4x4) Ford. I too had a large 11.5' cabover camper. The back handled it fine, but I wanted a little more in the front.

The springs were sagging to begin with('80-90's Ford F250/350 IFS has issues with this). When I switched out my IFS for a real straight axle, I took the front springs to a spring shop.

They were able to rearch the springs to get rid of the sag problem. Then, they added an additional leaf. The extra leaf worked progressively, so what little ride comfort I had in a 3/4-ton 4x4 stayed, but when the weight of the camper was added, the extra spring came into play and really helped.

Now, my example is with a leaf spring suspension. But, the spring place here also worked on and/or custom made coil springs too.

My Dodge is fine in front, for my tastes. But, I have not had a camper loaded on it('80's Lance camper I had on the Ford would not fit in the newer style Dodge bed, so I sold it but have not replaced it yet).
Anyways, my expierience was good with the spring shop. I would recomend looking in to that.

 

[RobertN]

I had adda-leafs on my old Ford. They could be easily adjusted. They could also be set up that they did not come in to play till the truck was loaded up a bit, so the stock ride stayed(as good as a stock ride could be in an '80's 3/4 ton 4x4).

 

[Egon]

Thanks Robert.

Egon

 

[fishman]

Boondox,

No, in my case the helper springs weren't long enough to contact the frame. I actually had 1-2" of travel before they engaged. So regular driving was unchanged. When a load was added, the springs engaged and the truck rode a lot more level.

If there hadn't been sufficient room to put the helper springs in, I don't know that I would have done it that way. The other option was adding a leaf spring or two, and that would have been a lot more work.

I highly recommend coil helper springs to anyone with a saggy rear end. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Just make sure not to exceed the gvwr or bed capacity.

 

[Youare]

If your pocket book is willing the best cure for sag would be to change the coil springs to a higher load capacity or plow package spring. Placing spacers in the coils will limit the travel of the spring but not increase the amount of weight it will uphold.

You are still placing all that weight on the springs but limiting the amount of motion the spring can move, making it shorter.
The rubber spacer will compress after the spring has compressed to the point where the rubber compression is less than the spring compression.

This will put more wear on the coils that are free to move as they now have to flex more to absorb the weight and motion of the front end.

Randy

 

[Egon]

The springs have not sagged. It's just that the front end is too bouncy for my liking.

I agree that the rubber coil makes the spring shorter but so far it does exactly what I want.

Also realize a spring of proper length and stiffness would be much better.

These cost $22 dollars which is much less than new springs.

Egon

 

[RobertN]

Ok... It is too bouncy! Mine annoys me over the dratted speed bumps in our neighborhood...

How old are your shocks? Has it done this since new?

When I replace the shocks on mine('01 Ram2500 Cummins 4x4), I will go with the shocks I put on my Ford; Rancho RS9000's. They are an adjustable shock. I was able to tailor them to my tastes. They were easy to adjust when I had the added weight of the 11' camper, and readjust when I took it off too.

Seems to me the manual adjust model was about $225, but that was six years ago. They have a model that can be adjusted from a console in the cab, but I don't know how much they are.

 

[Egon]

I'm on my third complete set of shocks. The truck is fine for normal usage but with the camper and/or trailer I would like a stiffer front end. Current shocks are Monroes. $ 150 apiece up here. Could put a bolt on dual shock adapter but that would be about $1200. dollars by the time I'm through.

Egon

 

[RobertN]

You have a similar situation to what I had. I found the adjustable shock worked well. When the camper was off, I backed the fronts down. When it was on, it was a quick turn of the knob to stiffen it up. I did not worry so much about the back, although I would on occasion turn them up just a bit when the camper was on.

I will get them again for this truck. I am at 63k miles, and my shocks are ok, but will get replaced sometime soon.

I can't remember for sure, but think they were in that $225 range. They installed like any other shock, so I did them myself.

Here is some info: www.gorancho.com/dial_a_ride.stm#

I did a quick search and found them for $65/ea...(US)