Bilstein 5160s

[ramblinChet]

Allow me to spoil the party by suggesting you don't even consider different springs at this point - weight your vehicle on a certified scale and let's look at the numbers first.

You have an F-350 so I am guessing your payload is in the 3,500-4,500 range. Take a look on the inside of your drivers door jam and share your factory payload rating with us. Once we have your factory payload rating along with the actual weights of your vehicle on the front and rear axle then we can identify where you are relative to percentage of payload being used. Your target for an ideal set-up should be 50-75% of your factory payload being used by your actual payload. For example, if your factory payload was 4,000 lbs then you would be fine carrying 2,000-3,000 lbs around full time and your springs would be perfect for your application.

If your actual payload is in the 75-100% of your factory payload then it may be time to consider new springs for the rear and possibly for the front. The reason for this is that front and rear springs each have a natural frequency which determines how quickly the front and rear suspensions oscillate when hitting a bump. These oscillations must be tuned so the rear can react in a way that is similar to the front despite carrying a different load. In a worst case scenario, your upgrade your rear springs but not your front and now the front and rear suspensions are 180° out of phase with each other and your vehicle pitches (porpoises) even worse.

And once the spring issue has been settled, only then do you select shocks. The shock absorbers are designed to compliment a known spring and system rate. I hope this helps and I am looking forward to hearing more numbers.

 

[MOAK]

Allow me to spoil the party by suggesting you don't even consider different springs at this point - weight your vehicle on a certified scale and let's look at the numbers first.

You have an F-350 so I am guessing your payload is in the 3,500-4,500 range. Take a look on the inside of your drivers door jam and share your factory payload rating with us. Once we have your factory payload rating along with the actual weights of your vehicle on the front and rear axle then we can identify where you are relative to percentage of payload being used. Your target for an ideal set-up should be 50-75% of your factory payload being used by your actual payload. For example, if your factory payload was 4,000 lbs then you would be fine carrying 2,000-3,000 lbs around full time and your springs would be perfect for your application.

If your actual payload is in the 75-100% of your factory payload then it may be time to consider new springs for the rear and possibly for the front. The reason for this is that front and rear springs each have a natural frequency which determines how quickly the front and rear suspensions oscillate when hitting a bump. These oscillations must be tuned so the rear can react in a way that is similar to the front despite carrying a different load. In a worst case scenario, your upgrade your rear springs but not your front and now the front and rear suspensions are 180° out of phase with each other and your vehicle pitches (porpoises) even worse.

And once the spring issue has been settled, only then do you select shocks. The shock absorbers are designed to compliment a known spring and system rate. I hope this helps and I am looking forward to hearing more numbers.

Thank you Chet, all of the above has been done- scaled it all out and am about 400 lbs less than the GVRW including all our gear and full tank of gasoline. I’ve spoken to Jeff @ Deaver and he is working out a solution to improve the spring rate. Here is a copy of my CAT scale readings. All told we are about 600 lbs heavier than I thought we would be. Interestingly, Jeff and I have a commonality, I used to work and later became friends with one of his father’s friends and his customer going back to the mid 70s. The phone call was like old home week as we reminisced about our histories in Southern California- it is indeed a small world.