I never thought about the axle wrap and I've never seen another manufacturer do that. All the Ford's, Chevy's, etc have the same angle in the same direction. Interesting.

Of course the shock is best when inside the coils, hence, coil-overs. The outboard shock or Hotchkiss design is nothing new, well, perhaps in the new all mighty best ever F150! LOL! The design does have its pros and cons.

 

horatio102:

It might be worth your while to get your alignment checked since your truck took a big enough hit in some way to damage your shock mount.

Also, an excellent resource for suspension info I always recommend is Fred Puhn's old book, "How to make your car handle (HP Books, 1981)." It is still in print after nearly 25 years (for good reason), often cited by others, and still packed with useful info. It is a nice mix of theory and practice and is quite cheap at places like amazon.com and is usually on-the-shelf at Barnes and Noble's brick and mortar stores.

One benefit of the book's age for truck owners is that it has a section on tuning leaf-spring suspensions, which one will not find in more contemporary texts.

And, yes, Osteodoc... as stated staggered shocks have become common with leaf springs due to spring-wrap, especially on vehicles with more powerful engines.

All the best.

 

i finally got the rancho 9000's on the rear. much better. i leave them set on 7 and now it rides with just a little stiffness, but not the bounce as before.
as a guy who used to race dirt track, i'm liking the suspension talk. i can't remember who made the post about the the front end jerking, or bobbling on bumps, but mine is the same also. i don't like the torsion bar set-up they used, i'm sure a 2 wheel drive model would be much better, but on a 4x4 that's a little more difficult, but still do-able. i'm not as concerned w/ the front because it's just a little jerk on potholes and rarely am i doing 90mph on corners where it would be an issue (but here in Missouri we do have some of the nations worst roads). anyway, the rancho's have taken care of the issue i had with the rear end, or maybe i just wanted an excuse to spend money on the truck. next will probably be the stock exhaust causing too much back pressure and burning valves up so i'll need a new, less restrictive exhaust.

 

I need to use that one...


Good to hear you got the everything figured out...

 

Thanks for the tip Avanti, I'll check it out.

And I took my Ram for a drive the other night paying attention to th bumps - I noticed the same bounciness frequency as in the Dakota, but the movements were MUCH less. The nose of the truck would dip an inch at most whereas the Dak seems to go up and down 2" or so. I'm not fond of the torsion bars either, mainly because they're a completely foreign concept to me. I like springs. Round ones or flat ones, but not bars. I understand the other ones.

 

Ha by george i think hes got it! Anyways glad it worked out for you. And just so you know, dont drive the 2006 trucks cause they changed (read: made better) the frontsection of the frame and switched from torsion bars to coilovers.... D-oh! Dont mind that though as it happens to all of us. anyways the new trucks are funny looking. BTW, did you notice the stock air filter is a bit restricitve? if you do go fo rthe better exhaust to help that back pressure, your gonna create too much vacum on that filter and suck the intake valves right open!

 

i've already opted for the new k@n fipk intake, put it on about 4 months ago, can't say i've noticed much difference other than it's louder now due to no resonator on intake. but it's a good thing i changed it, i didn't want to crack the intake valve guides, but those exhaust valves, they're probably on their last few hundred miles, i better baby it, no driving over 2000 rpm. if my wife believes that, i'll have to shoot myself for getting married to someone so ignorant.
i also spoke too soon about the shocks, i finally took the long drive out to some of the "problem highways" and i still have the bounce, my spare tire still jumps up and down (not the spare on the truck). the rear suspension is definately improved during the other 95% of my driving, but when you take a long trip and you hit 10-20 mile patches of highway that just bounce the **** out of you and everything else, it's not fun. i should take the service manager out on a ride, hopefully he's a fat guy, really get his gut bouncing. time to blame it on something else, like those damn torsion bars, time to trade it in on a 3/4 ton cummins-solid front axle, or maybe some c-4 will help. of course i'll take the intake and shocks off to sell on e-bay first

 

Just throw some weight in the back. 250-300 pounds over the wheels ought to quiet things down for you.

 

Well, Mine is an 06 4 door 4x4 hemi drove like a truck when I bought it nice andsmooth . after 5000 km it started, the box bounes (2-3) after a bump!I have been to the dealer 5 time (also a vibration issue)
tells me the frame is made from thin steal and flexes all 1500 series do it. They replaced the shocks ( oil leaking from one) I have also tried rancho 5000 ( only shock availble) no difference. Now for the kicker when you watch the box you can see the drivers side bounce 3-4 times after but only the drivers side??? Anyone heard of bad tempered springs? you can move the whole box pushing with one hand! Everything inside (extra hitches, straps) all jiggle after bumps? my 98 ford never was that way with 300k on it?

 

My reg cab short bed does not bounce much.
The 05 Chevy 1500 long bed i used to drive for work bounced like crazy even with top tier Monroe shocks. Not just a Dodge thing for certain.
Skyjacker rear leaf springs and Rancho rs9000x adjustable shocks make a huge difference.
I will have a set of used skyjacker leafs for sale very soon.

As for a solid front axle...my 1500 will be sportinga Ford high pinion 9"in a bit over a month. As well as a 1 ton corporate rear. It's gonna be sweet!