F250 Shock Absorbers & Air Bags

Brian,
When you are in the neighborhood, you are welcome to see the Rangers Effie. While I have seen about 100 done now, 40 on the BOG, mine has about the best works of the overall majority I have seen...

Brian, if you go airbags, it is best to go for the guages inside and paddle wheels to adjust on the fly... AND DOUBLE INDICATOR GAUGE for the rear with paddle lever on each side, SO YOU CAN SIDE TO SIDE LEVEL THE LOAD... Mine was starting to drop on the drivers side an inch, me alone in there, long range tank full more often than not, and fridge on that side..... So now I run 10 psi more on the Drivers side.

Springs sag a bit in the front, and that is a good reason to put the airbags in the front as well. When you get a bit of miles on, it is that or you have to replace the original Ford Springs all together, with an aftermarket sort of 5-6 leave set here in OZ as the original Factory ones are exxy. The originals in the front do not take a re-set or re-temper well. If you replace them you have to go an original say 6 leaf set of conventional springs...

For the rest of the Boggers: Air bags in the front as well, is a bit unnecessary at first. Nice to play with but not a high priority item. The big 4500 kg hitch yes, bullbar yes, WDH kit yes, a dozen things would have precedence.

Horses for courses with the Ranger doing it out there full time....

Brian,

As my BT is not ready until late March early April I cannot assist with towing arrangements. As my F250 has only done 30,000km's the spirings and shockies are still like new.

Still I have the truck in at ARB at present getting it fitted out with numerous accessories some of which are a steel bullbar with 15,000lb Warn winch, 270 litre tank which will add extra weight than standard and Polyair air bags in the rear only.

I am going to see what it travels like when I go and pick up the BT. Before I started to add all the accessories I measured all four corners and front and rear of the vehicle to a certain point.

In regards to each wheel I measured the distance from the bottom of the wheel arch to the bottom edge of the rim, not the ground to allow for different tyre pressures that might occur.

By doing this I will know how much each corner has sagged once the accessories have been added. Then I will see if front air bags are needed.

I have used Lovells Springs and Koni shockies in the past on other 4WD's and they were exceptional, but you pay for them. ARB said they did not have a suspension kit for the F250 but I have been reading up on the Top Dog big bore, I think 45mm piston, shockies and they seem to have the biggest bore of them all.

Lots of choices, good luck.

Stewart

Hi Brian,
I have just had to have my truck fixed.
On Alf Horns recomendation I went to Carol Springs Brisbane ( I think there is a branch in Melborne).
They removed the front springs and shocks replaced shocks and fited a new 5 leaf pack to the front. removed the rears, reset and added a leaf, shockies OK on the back. cost $1600.00
Best days work I have had done since ordering the BT the ride is great not a brick just right, when they remove the 2 ( strange front springs ) you go back to an under hung spring pack just like the back.
I have air bags front and rear had em for 2 years, we now have them down to 15psi and I think I could remove them.
So if there is a Carols in Mel give them a call the shock brand they sell is EFS
and the front spring pack has the No.Ford 29e printed on them.

Graham

Brian

I have gone with the Big bore adjustable tough dogs on my 05 F250 with only
10000klm on it ,I also have firestone airbags.

The combination of these two items should i'm told prolong spring life.

The addition of the tough dogs have greatly reduced the rock front to rear that long wheelbase vehicles get.

I also have tough dogs my 100series live axle and have had no troubles in 40000k's
around australia.

OME shocks are OK but not a patch on the tough dogs

Brian,

We have the same bags and in cab adjusters as Steve -

We also have the Rancho Shocks that we adjust in the cab -

We have now down 70,000 and all is well.

If you go with the shocks put some type of shield over the adjusters as the gibbers can - and did - small a couple of the valves.

I believe Paul Swift in an old post had pictures of the aluminum protectors he put over his shocks.

I suggest you contact the Firestone people and they will refer you to an installer in your area - same for the Shocks.

Cheers, Jay

Thankyou everyone for the replies.

I went shopping for Shockies today and the genuine Ford is over $400 each. TJM have one that will be out of stock until about the end of next month, ARB don't do any with their Old Man Emu range, and when the local TJM man rang around all the suppliers they couldn't find anyone with replacements that would fit the standard height suspension, except one.

I am told that the Rolls Royce of shockers, are Bilsteins, and they are available from Sydney for just over $200 each so I have ordered a set of them.

I might wait until I return home before going ahead with air bags.

Brian,
I am probably too late as I have just seen you post about shockies for an F250.
I recently imported some Bilstein shocks from the US for my F250 and they
worked out a lot cheaper than here.

I fitted them a week or so ago and have to date only driven around town but you
can definately notice the difference. The vehicle has only done 12K so the
origianls were OK but just wanted a better quality unit. Incidentally for those
who may not have done this sort of thing before they are easy to fit

The Aussie F250's are different to their US counterparts as we have 4 shocks
on the back and the following is what my supplier in the US said when I asked
do I need to put 4 back on.

"I can tell you that in the US there are no SuperDuty trucks with 4
shocks on the rear from the factory. Usually that would be done if you
have a truck lifted very high with much oversized tires that were very
heavy. On trucks that run 36" and smaller tires you would almost never
see multiple shocks on the rear. Many people will do 4 front shocks
while installing a lift and larger tires, but even that is reserved for
larger tire sizes".

For the record I had a similar response from suppliers here in OZ, only put 2
on the back.

I paid $64 USD per shock x 4 = $256 USD. The shipping was the killer at $165
USD. All up $421 USD or $562 Aussie Dollars delivered to my door.

If anyone is interested this is where I got them from.
Discount Powerparts. sales@discountpowerparts.com
The fellows that are likely to respond are Larry Musgrave or Pat Cerone. Be
patient as they are not the fastest responders to e-mails. Tell them Bill James
from Australia put you onto them.

There are so many places over there you could get them from and with a bit of
shopping around you may even do better than $64. A word of caution though,
watch the rates for shipping as they seem to vary all over the shop and
sometimes it is the same shipping company. Not sure if some of the parts
places are pocketing a bit or it is simply a refelction of where it is coming from in
the US.

Anyway if your looking for shocks I don't think you will do better anywhere else.

Regards, Bill

Brian,

I removed all four factory shocks on the rear and put the 2 new Bilsteins on the
outside of the chassis rails.
When I spoke to Bilstein in Sydney told me they just put 2 back on the rear but
they put them on the inside of the chassis rails behind the axle. From what I
can see if you are only going to run 2 it does not matter much where you locate
them.
I personally can't see the sense in changing to a better quality shock to improve
handling, ride and spring control and then leave the other inferior units in
place. It would seem to me they are likely to work against one another rather
than help. If I wanted 4 on the back I would go with 4 Bilsteins as the price is
right and the units are the same.
Steve has probably got a point with running 4 on the back if you have a fully
loaded F250 and a Bushtracker in tow. I don't carry much if anything in the back
tray and I only tow an 18 footer.

Cheers, Bill

One more shockie note....

My new F-350 Kings Ranch Crew Cab Dually, is the Top of the Line American Truck built in Kentucky. It has an option for extreme 4x4, called FX4, which you will see as a Decal on the rear mudguards. What that gives you is additional engine and transmission oil pan skid plates, and INTERESTINGLY RANCH SHOCKS... They must be fairly highly regarded to offer that combo as an alternate. I have no idea of cost on Ranchos, but their reputation is very high. If they go on Fords Top Truck, it is worth looking into.

I have never heard a bad report on them, only top gear reports, but I don't know costs.

OH, and the pictures in this Thread are of my F-250 for Sale, specifications are on the thread below "Looking for a Crewcab Style side bed..."

Regards from the Ranger...

I have just bought Koni adjustable shocks for my truck (Isuzu 4X4) for just under $200 each. Even on the lowest setting, they are better than the original especially on the rebound. The adjustment has 0 to 2 1/2 turns of the shock absorber and they are fully rebuildable at $100 each (Half price) so you have them for life. I hope this information helps somebody. I have only done 4000km so far and still to play with the adjustment.

Regards
Brian