2009 F150 with ATC Cougar suspension question

[Bayou Boy]

I bought a used Cougar last Friday to put on my 2009 F150 4x4 Supercrew.

The truck drives fine as is but there is definitely room for improvement.
I found a local suspension shop that can rebuild my factory spring pack with a few additional leaves to help the rear suspension handle the weight and get the truck back to level. I'm wondering about shocks. The stock shock damping is just not up to handling the additional weight and adding the extra springs...
I'm currently debating just doing the spring mod and a swaybar in the rear and changing to a set of bilsteins in the rear or spending much more money and adding a full set of Fox 2.0 coil overs in the front with matching shocks in the back.

The fox setup is much more money but would allow me to add an inch or so of lift in the front and have them build the rear springs to have that same lift in the rear as well.

Any thoughts?

 

[78Bronco]

I will mention air bags as the easiest and best solution for adding levelling capability in the rear. Adding leaves to the spring packs will make the ride stupidly stiff in the rear when unloaded. Airbags can be adjusted based on your load to be comfortable. They do not increase the trucks gvw so be weary of overloading your truck. The biggest killer of shocks is heat causing shock fade. I would look at installing the best you can afford but I think you will find the airbags help a lot.

 

[Bayou Boy]

So I ordered the rear sway bar and firestone bags today. They should be in later this week. I decided to go with the bags mostly because I can install them in the driveway and I didn't know when I would be able to find the time to take a day and a half out of my schedule to have the springs reworked. Report after the weekend. :smiley_drive:

 

[Bayou Boy]

The sway bar arrived today and I threw it on as the sun went down. Easy install. Maybe an hour and a half with crappy light and dusk. Then I went for a quick ride around the 'hood swinging it around corners faster than I should have.

Wow! Just the sway bar makes an enormous improvement in the ride. It sways almost like stock with the extra weight of the camper on. We are taking it on our first trip this weekend so I will see about five hours of highway driving. I'll give another report after that.

The bags come in tomorrow so I hope I'll be able to install them before we leave.