Truck lowering scheme

[Sludgy]

My F350 sits high on its stock suspension. I'd like to lower it, but not so low as to make it a dog off road. My thought was to buy lowering shackles for the rear, but also add air shocks. It needs new shock since I have about 105000 miles on them.

The net effect would return the truck to normal height when off road, but gain the benefits of lowering on the highway where I do a lot of my driving.

Anybody hear of someone else doing this iewth good results?

[dkjones96]

What about the front? Lowering the front and back then using air shocks can work. Unless you have torsion bars then you just raise and lower the front all you want.

Seems like you are on the right track for the back tho. A buddy of mine used to have a normal ride height in town but would jack up the back of his car for drag racing that way. No experience with going off road with air shocks tho.

[theholycow]

I don't know about fuel economy results, but there's plenty of people bagging full size pickups. Check forums about F-series trucks, you'll find out how much it will cost and how to do it right. It will be quite expensive, I think.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

is that really that high of mileage on a 2004 vehicle?

my wife has a 2004 honda element and it is around 122k miles. she does drive some for her job.

that makes them just shy of 6 years old. I've always driven 15-20k miles a year so maybe I just get used to those kinds of numbers.

[theholycow]

If I drove less than 15,000 miles per year, I'd probably never have gotten into hypermiling...

My 2002 GMC has 185,000 miles on it and I haven't driven it much in the past couple years since I got the VW.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by theclencher

WTH are you guys doing?

Driver's seats must have perfect *** shaped divots in 'em.

Until I moved to an urban area I regularly drove over 20,000 miles/yr. Where I used to live it was 5 miles one way just to get to 7-11. Work was about 25 miles away, and the rescue station I volunteered at was about 12 miles away. I was splitting my mileage between 2 vehicles though... Currently I think I'm driving about 8,000 miles/yr between the Hooptie and The Beast. Work is 3 miles from home, the grocery store is 3/4 mile, and I drive about 4 or 5 miles total on my daily errands. I believe "normal" usage is considered to be between 12,000 and 15,000 miles/yr.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by theclencher

WTH are you guys doing?

Driver's seats must have perfect *** shaped divots in 'em.

I used to do >30,000 miles per year because I liked it and because my girlfriend lived 25 miles away.

Then I did >30,000 miles per year because I drove for work (hence the truck). We often did projects 75 miles away or even more.

Now that I'm married, homeowner, and have a normal "commute to work and stay there all day"-job, I drive about 20,000 miles per year. My commute is 38 miles each way. I already owned my house; I can't and wouldn't want to sell it. I found the only decent job I could find, which I really like.

The commute isn't on some nasty backed up highway, though. It's 23 miles of lightly-trafficked rural/small town roads and 15 miles of lightly-trafficked freeway. It's really a nice ride, and I'd get to enjoy some alone time with my music if my wife didn't carpool with me because she goes to school where I work...

Yes, my truck's seat does have a perfect butt-shaped divot, except where I kneel on it when reaching across to the passenger side to grab something that I've left on the seat or whatever. There's a small rip with a metal seat support visible (and if I kneel on it just right I can feel it).

[Sludgy]

Originally Posted by theclencher

How many miles do you put on in a year?!?

Maybe move to Maine?

Lesseee.......

I told you it has 105,000 miles..... It's a 2004 truck. It's 2009 now....

105,000 / (2009 - 2004) = 21,000 miles per year.

My commute is just 10 miles, butI put on a lot of miles, not just to Maine. My company's home office is about 100 miles, and one on the plants is about 50 miles.

[theholycow]

Lowering might make more difference on a truck with exposed solid axles than a Tempo whose stuff is already tucked in...

[Jay2TheRescue]

I think it depends on the 4x4. My 4x4 has factory skid plates in front of the underbody drivetrain components. It looks to me that these may act as air deflectors, and clean up the underbody airflow a bit (as compared to a 4x4 that didn't have the skid plates installed.) I agree though. I can get the same, or better mileage in my 4x4 than many get in an equivalent 4x2.