F250 - Improve empty ride?

Okay, so I know the real answer to this is "buy a different vehicle" but I really like this truck.

1996 F250 Supercab 2wd long bed, 7.3L Popwerstroke that's never been modded or tuned, 8800lb GVWR

I bought this truck because we had a plan to buy a 25' sailboat so I would need a heavy tow pig. That plan changed, we opted for a 15' vintage ski boat instead (long story, mostly irrelevant.) We have towed the boat to the coast (3.5 hours one way) 4 times in the last 6 weeks. The truck does this great, but with only luggage in the back the ride is brutal. It rides like...well, a 3/4 ton truck. Yeah, I know.

As much as I like this truck, I don't really need this much truck. I've rebuilt a bunch of stuff, it's only got 240k on it, mileage is good, etc. Never the less, if I can't make it ride better I'm going to try and sell it and pick up something else - either an F150 or more likely an Expedition.

Current setup - I haven't changed anything on the rear since I bought the truck. The shocks seem okay but the front ones were completely blown, so new rears might be a good place to start. It cam with good Nexen AT tires (E rated) that aren't ancient but aren't brand new either. I run them at 50PSI, which is what's recommended on the door tag.

I know I could throw 500-1000lbs in the bed and it would ride great, but that's not really a good solution for safety, cargo space, mileage, and brake capacity reasons. I also don't want to permanently compromise the capability of the truck with radical changes.

What can I do guys? Anybody want to buy a solid tow vehicle?

What's the engine?

BTW I had a similar truck years ago, but an older model. It's a truck, a real truck. They don't ride nothing like the newer ones. The one I had was almost brutal on concrete interstates.

F150 rrar leaves and load bags?

In reply to spitfirebill:

Sorry, edited the original post to add that - 7.3L powerstroke that's never been modded, tuned, or screwed around with. That was the main selling point.

You are absolutely right on the interstate issue. We changed our route from I-16 to backroads after the first trip. The beating on the interstate gave me a headache on the first trip. Which is problematic since I bought this truck to haul a boat long distances for fun. I guess if it was a 7000lb boat/trailer it would have been okay but now that the boat/trailer in question is more like 1500lbs, I have a problem.

Let 10 psi out of the tires and see if that helps. The recommended tire pressure is assuming you're loading the truck like it was designed to be loaded. Less weight means less air needed.

Some plush long travel suspension should take care of it:

Make sure the leaf packs are moving freely and not binding. If they're rusty and binding, they'll be a lot stiffer than they should be.

Beyond that, you'll want GOOD shocks, not parts store stock replacements. And don't run the tires at max pressure when the truck isn't heavily loaded.

Anything else above that will reduce the truck's load carrying and towing abilities, so I wouldn't bother.

Dusterbd13 wrote: F150 rrar leaves and load bags?

I wondered about this too, btu the F150 springs are 1/2" narrower and 3/8" shorter eye to eye. The length would probably be okay, but the width change I'm not sure about. Seems some people have just removed one leaf from the stock springs, but opinions are mixed about this causing issues.

KyAllroad wrote: Let 10 psi out of the tires and see if that helps. The recommended tire pressure is assuming you're loading the truck like it was designed to be loaded. Less weight means less air needed.

Thought about this. I know when fully loaded they are supposed to run 80PSI, so I figured 50 WAS the unloaded PSI. Anybody have opinions on what the lowest safe PSI in an E-code AT tire might be?

I have exact same truck with only 80k miles. I love it but accept what it is. Fully Loaded ride is tolerable...unladden I feel your pain.

Solution? To paraphrase the line from "Jaws": YOU NEED A BIGGER BOAT

might consider a set of wheels with tires that don't have as stiff of a side wall. c-range. lower your carrying capacity but should ride a bit better.

In reply to ultraclyde:

Depends on how much weight is on the tires. You can sometimes tell by how much squish the tires have against the road. If they're not squished at all at the bottom, they're probably over-inflated. Just a tiny bit of squish is about right.

If you can find out the weight on each tire, there are charts available to give correct inflation pressure (I usually find tires seem happiest in terms of wear / ride / handling a few psi above what the chart says though).

When empty, the front tires will likely need more pressure than the rears (more weight on the front). 50 might be about right up front, rears might only need 40.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Some plush long travel suspension should take care of it:

this is probably the only reasonable solution...

Ha! Been there - My '95 Cummins was the same way. The only times it ever rode "well" was with a couple thousand pounds of firewood or mulch in the bed.

I second the "remove leaves and add bags" suggestions. Might have the positive side affect of lowering the back end an inch or so. I'm sure the current stance is a bit raked forward (my Dodge was).

Check out the Ford Truck Enthusiasts forums (the best Ford truck forums I've found). I'm sure this has been done.

Ian F wrote: Ha! Been there - My '95 Cummins was the same way. The only times it ever rode "well" was with a couple thousand pounds of firewood or mulch in the bed. I second the "remove leaves and add bags" suggestions. Might have the positive side affect of lowering the back end an inch or so. I'm sure the current stance is a bit raked forward (my Dodge was). Check out the Ford Truck Enthusiasts forums (the best Ford truck forums I've found). I'm sure this has been done.

It is raked. I've actually wondered if the front springs were starting to sag. I've looked through the FTE forums and the diesel specific forums. lots of discussion but no verified answer.

I can get a 5000lb Air Lift kit for about $350. This may be the cheapest thing to try. Well, after dropping the rear tire pressure anyway.

Any thoughts on greasing the spring packs while I have them apart? I remember a discussion of the autoX jeep here that included greasing leaf springs for better articulation or something...

I suppose greasing the leaves is worth a try. I think HD trucks leaf springs are greased.

I'd be weary of lowering the pressure too much. I'd run it at whatever the minimum is. If the side wall deflect more than they were designed to, the tire will generate more internal heat which will shorten the fire life.

When I bought the 17" wheels for my truck (to replace the incorrect offset 16.5" wheels it came with), they came with P265/70-17 tires. The P tires definitely rode better than the E-rated LT tires I replaced them with.

Greasing the spring packs will most likely help. And the truck is intended to be raked so it sits level or just slightly tail-down when fully loaded. If it sat level when empty, it would look very saggy when loaded up.

Yes rusty leaf springs do contribute to a rough ride. So grease then up.

I had a E250 van that rode OK but when I switched from "E" load range tires (215/80 X 16) to "D" load (235/75 X 16) the ride was almost car like on smooth roads. The "D" tires gave me a max load of 8900 lbs where the "E" tires would have allowed me 12,000 lbs gross. The trucks max gross was 8500 lbs. Since I never loaded the truck anywhere close to max the "D" tires filled the bill quite well.

On going with F150 rear springs. If you also use some of the hardware from a F150 the narrower springs should not present an issue. Even the heaviest duty OEM F150 springs will end up softer then the ones you have.

I asked this same question 2 years ago when I bought D load tires for my 1/2 ton suburban and the consensus then on this very forum was that while 65 psi was their MAX pressure, they were perfectly happy at more reasonable pressures and I usually ran them at 40. Otherwise they bounced like basketballs over bumps in the road.

jimbbski wrote: Yes rusty leaf springs do contribute to a rough ride. So grease then up. I had a E250 van that rode OK but when I switched from "E" load range tires (215/80 X 16) to "D" load (235/75 X 16) the ride was almost car like on smooth roads. The "D" tires gave me a max load of 8900 lbs where the "E" tires would have allowed me 12,000 lbs gross. The trucks max gross was 8500 lbs. Since I never loaded the truck anywhere close to max the "D" tires filled the bill quite well. On going with F150 rear springs. If you also use some of the hardware from a F150 the narrower springs should not present an issue. Even the heaviest duty OEM F150 springs will end up softer then the ones you have.

On tires - I'm correct in assuming the math is basic - tire weight capacity X 4 = total capacity, and that must be over the vehicles GVWR, right? Not GCWR? I would think the trailer load falls on the trailer tires (other than tongue weight.)

On springs - So use the F150 springs, shackles, etc, right? Hmm...

IMO, any tire should be rated for about 20% more than 1/4 of the vehicle's weight at minimum. Weight isn't necessarily evenly distributed, plus there's some safety margin to be gained from running a tire at less than max load (especially in hot weather).

Looks like it doesn't matter. Load range D tires in the size I need are almost nonexistant. I'm seeing reports that all "LT" tires below load range E are generally being phased out because people just bought Pcode tires instead. And P code on a 250 is a bad idea generally, for the reasons rslifkin mentioned

GOOD tires, like Michelins, and a set of Bilsteins will probably make it ride about as well as it can, assuming everything else is in good working order.

They ride like crap though, try sitting in the nack seat with on unloaded

New shocks, pull a leaf out of the existing spring pack, add air bags and drop the rear tire pressure when empty.

APEowner wrote: New shocks, pull a leaf out of the existing spring pack, add air bags and drop the rear tire pressure when empty.

I'm thinking I'll go this route. I can try it out for under $500 in parts. The spring pack is a 4+1 where the bottom is basically an overload - a straight spring whose ends don't touch until it's loaded down. I think I'll pull the first leaf above the overload. That would be the bottom leaf of the bound spring pack.

Question - how much d'ya think that will drop actual load capacity? I'm wondering if I could do that before adding the airbags if I don't load it. I figure I'd be running the airbags at minimum (5psi) when unloaded anyway, right?