Ski Bum Truck V2.0, F450 Rough Road RV

java

Expedition Leader
Dude, you gots to give us a pic of the finished product. Don't leave us hanging. LOL
The pizza? It didn't last long enough for a picture :D black garlic, pepperoni, chicken, blue cheese, onions and mushrooms.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 

java

Expedition Leader
Big truck little roads!
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As stiff as the M608's are they still deform at street pressure under a heavy ass truck.
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Not bad at all.
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Climbed til it was too damn hot and went and jumped in the river for the rest of the afternoon. Beware of nude beach :D
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Stopped for lunch at a lake, its SUPER low, we are literally parked 1/2 mile into the lake. Its good and solid where its dry.... Muddy areas not so much, I avoided those like the plague.
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Now onto a serious topic. Coilovers (or other options....). I need to do something to get this thing to ride better on FS roads. If you may or may not remember I have kelderman air ride leveling kit. Its honestly marginally better than the OE coils. I have to run ~80psi in the bags to keep their suggest ride height. I think this is likely very close to the OE spring rate. Its at 6200lbs on the front axle.

Airing down helps, but honestly its a ********** for say 10 miles of gravel.

Running Bilstien 5100's in the front, perhaps a better shock would help? Not really sure, it doesn't seem bouncy, but harsh on any impacts.

Thoughts or suggestions?
 

HowardH

Adventurer
Airing down is only an issue due to the time to stop, air down - run - stop, air up. Consider an AIR-CTI kit. Expensive, until you compare it to the cost of a full blown suspension modification. Air up and down from the comfort of your cab.

Also don't worry about airing down those 19.5.s I have ran hundreds of miles on mine set at 30 front and 20 rear; back when I still had duels and 245/70R19.5's. Your 285's would air down even better.
 

java

Expedition Leader
Airing down is only an issue due to the time to stop, air down - run - stop, air up. Consider an AIR-CTI kit. Expensive, until you compare it to the cost of a full blown suspension modification. Air up and down from the comfort of your cab.

Also don't worry about airing down those 19.5.s I have ran hundreds of miles on mine set at 30 front and 20 rear; back when I still had duels and 245/70R19.5's. Your 285's would air down even better.

30psi on the highway? I'm not worried about airing down, its just the time it takes to air up an down for say 20 mins of gravel driving. Wife hates airing up LOL

If its 50 miles of gravel airing down is a no brainier, its when its 10 that it becomes a PITA.

I'll take a look at the Air CTI, but I don't see those exposed hoses being long lived on my truck. Branches would remove them rapidly I think.
 

HowardH

Adventurer
30 psi anywhere. It's the speed and resulting heat buildup not the road surface. That low of air I held my speed to 35 max and never got heat build up.

Yes I get the worry of the exposed hoses. They have a YouTube testimonial from a logging company that states they have almost no issues with damage from use. Good enough for me.
 

java

Expedition Leader
30 psi anywhere. It's the speed and resulting heat buildup not the road surface. That low of air I held my speed to 35 max and never got heat build up.

Yes I get the worry of the exposed hoses. They have a YouTube testimonial from a logging company that states they have almost no issues with damage from use. Good enough for me.

Right, Low is fine for slow, but I generally do a couple hours of highway to 10-30 mins of dirt. Its that transition that I would like to figure out quick....

Maybe a bigger air tank is a start. If I could air up in 2 mins it might be ok..... Still sucks when its dumping rain etc tho. Hence if CO's could handle it without air changes for short stretches I might entertain the $$$ outlay.
 

HowardH

Adventurer
HI Gabe, what are CO's? Not sure a bigger tank would do much...............you are not going to get a tank big enough to air up all your tires and once it's drained you have to fill it up before you can continue airing up.

My AIR CTI is new but so far I am happy with it. I will of course keep you posted on how it works out. Right now my truck is in Valdez AK. My son and a buddy drove up; arrived yesterday.
 

HowardH

Adventurer
BTW even airing down to say 45 psi would make a big diff and I think that would get you 50-55 mph on the highway without heat build up. Buy one of those infrared thermometers and monitor them.
 

Ozrockrat

Expedition Leader
Have you considered a full airride system rather than the helpers. Leave a couple of spring leaves in place to center the axle and use either coils or air springs to provide the suspension.

I have a hybrid system on one of my land cruisers in Australia that is basically a spring conversion using this method. Makes for a much smoother ride and better articulation.

If you go with air springs you could run different heights for on/off road.
 

HowardH

Adventurer
Have you considered a full airride system rather than the helpers. Leave a couple of spring leaves in place to center the axle and use either coils or air springs to provide the suspension.

I have a hybrid system on one of my land cruisers in Australia that is basically a spring conversion using this method. Makes for a much smoother ride and better articulation.

If you go with air springs you could run different heights for on/off road.

Sounds interesting. Who makes such a system and what does it cost?
 

java

Expedition Leader
I figured out CO = coil over

:D Yes coilover.

Looks like Dana/Spicer has a CTIS system also. Can't find anything on the D60 front, but defiantly have parts for the 110 rear. Internal system it looks like. Might be worth looking into.
 

java

Expedition Leader
Have you considered a full airride system rather than the helpers. Leave a couple of spring leaves in place to center the axle and use either coils or air springs to provide the suspension.

I have a hybrid system on one of my land cruisers in Australia that is basically a spring conversion using this method. Makes for a much smoother ride and better articulation.

If you go with air springs you could run different heights for on/off road.

Its full air in the front. Running firestone bags only. The issue I think is the bags have an internal bump stop, they need to be infalted to 8" minimum to give 3" above the bumpstop.

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