IHC 3/5 Performance Lowering Kit on 2024 RCSB

[EL5_Zero]

So far, I have a little over 4K miles on the truck, 3.5K miles since installing the IHC Performance 3/5 lowering kit with 22 x 10 Forgestar X12 on 305/40R22 tires. Over the last 4 weeks, I have adjusted the shocks and tire pressure to get a good feel on the adjustability of the suspension. It's quite surprising just how much of a difference 1 click makes on the QA1 shocks. So far, to me the best overall suspension setting for street driving is Front 38 psi with C-4 / R-5 & Rear 35 psi with C-2 / R-1 and traction bars set with 1/4" gap. I also added a bump stop and 2* axle shims similar to the ones that come with the Ridetech lowering kit.

All in all, the truck drives and looks how I expected. However, since day one I have had a vibration at speeds above 70 mph. Like most, I went down the rabbit hole of trying to eliminate all vibration. I was told by many on this forum that it was the "junk IHC Kit" that was causing my issue. Sure, I added a shim and bump stop, but this is expected when fine tuning a kit. I'm glad to say I have 100% REMOVED ALL ADDED NVH, and the truck is back to OEM levels.

Yesterday, I drove down to the same tire shop that mounted the 22's, and I had them mount and balance my stock wheels. Two wheels took .5oz, and the other 1oz to balance. As soon as I got up to highway speeds, the difference was night and day. Smooth as silk with the stock steel wheels. The issue on my truck is the aftermarket wheel / tire setup.

Today I have an appointment at Americas Tire. They have the road force balance machines. The wheels where previously balanced on a traditional wheel balancer, and I personally saw them zero out the wheels. However, they were not Road Force balance.

I will report back this afternoon with the results. Hopefully the technician is fully train on how to operate the equipment.

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[JCsTruck]

Interesting! I kind of like the stock steel wheels. Great work and thanks for sharing that information.

You know you’re parked in a handicap spot right. ?

 

[EL5_Zero]

Interesting! I kind of like the stock steel wheels. Great work and thanks for sharing that information.

You know you’re parked in a handicap spot right. ?

Just trying to share my experience and hopefully help others with their trucks.

As for the handicap parking, thank you for the reminder. I've been planning on relocating the parking sign to the other side of my office. That way it's closer to the main office entrance instead of the fabricating shop entrance.

 

[JCsTruck]

lol ??? I knew it!

 

[NavyChief]

I like the steelie look as well, I really wanted to find a place that could widen them and put wide 17“ drag radials all the way around.

 

[EL5_Zero]

As previously stated, the 22" wheels were dropped off, and "rebalance" with a road force machine at Americas Tire. When I picked them up, I asked about the results, the teenage manager confirmed that everything was within specs and that I should not have any issues.

After closely inspecting the wheels, I noticed the weights were all placed at different depths in the wheels, some close to the spokes, some as much as 3 inches from the spokes. At this point I was not too confident that my vibration issues would be over.

After confirming my suspicions, I call the shop and informed them of their shitty work and that I still had vibration issues at 75 mph. They responded with, that is the best they can do. And the next best thing to do would be to purchase another set of tires.

Moving on, I also noticed every time I drove over very rough sections of broken asphalt or train tracks, the tires seemed to lose contact with the road causing the rear end to shift left and right at speeds 30-40 mph. I removed the inboard QA1 shocks and replaced them with some spare Fox 2.0 shocks and bolted them to the stock location.

I went straight to the rough section of road to test them out. Surprisingly the truck remained stable over the rough area and absorbed the bumps WITHOUT bottoming out. This might seem why the Ridetech lowering kit uses FOX shocks and is better suited for street driving. I will be running these shocks for the next few weeks to get a good feel for them and report back with any new changes.

 

[rspecturbo]

As previously stated, the 22" wheels were dropped off, and "rebalance" with a road force machine at Americas Tire. When I picked them up, I asked about the results, the teenage manager confirmed that everything was within specs and that I should not have any issues.

After closely inspecting the wheels, I noticed the weights were all placed at different depths in the wheels, some close to the spokes, some as much as 3 inches from the spokes. At this point I was not too confident that my vibration issues would be over.

After confirming my suspicions, I call the shop and informed them of their shitty work and that I still had vibration issues at 75 mph. They responded with, that is the best they can do. And the next best thing to do would be to purchase another set of tires.

Moving on, I also noticed every time I drove over very rough sections of broken asphalt or train tracks, the tires seemed to lose contact with the road causing the rear end to shift left and right at speeds 30-40 mph. I removed the inboard QA1 shocks and replaced them with some spare Fox 2.0 shocks and bolted them to the stock location.

I went straight to the rough section of road to test them out. Surprisingly the truck remained stable over the rough area and absorbed the bumps WITHOUT bottoming out. This might seem why the Ridetech lowering kit uses FOX shocks and is better suited for street driving. I will be running these shocks for the next few weeks to get a good feel for them and report back with any new changes.

Sounds about right. I had the ihc shocks and they were horrible. Any little thing and the whole back end felt like what you described. I switched to fox ones and its gone away but, the ihc kit I got didnt include bump stops so I bought some low profie ones from vasfab. Hopefully this is the last thing I need before needing bags....

 

[EL5_Zero]

Sounds about right. I had the ihc shocks and they were horrible. Any little thing and the whole back end felt like what you described. I switched to fox ones and its gone away but, the ihc kit I got didnt include bump stops so I bought some low profie ones from vasfab. Hopefully this is the last thing I need before needing bags....

IHC Performance Kit as a whole, should be viewed as a track / smooth road spirited driving only kit. It does not work well in bad road surfaces. The front coil overs work very good in all surfaces, the spring rate is great and the adjustability in the compression and rebound are great. The rear end kit as designed, does not work well for street driving. The combination of shock placement, shock design, and limited suspension travel make the rear end feel all over the place when on bad surfaces.

This weekend I will be installing the Ridetech airbag kit. The plan is to lift the rear end 1-2" and firm up the suspension. I hope with the added suspension travel and firmer spring rate from the airbags, paired with the FOX 2.0 shocks will return a smoother ride over rough roads.

I'll report back with my test results.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

I had talked to a handful of people regarding the IHC kit using QA1 shocks, and they had mentioned there's been a lot of quality issues with them. Also, I had a lot more confidence in the Fox shocks than the QA1 to start with, which is another reason why I ended up going with the Ridetech setup.

Tthe inboard shock setup seems to be a moot point, as there's plenty of trucks running Ridetech and VAS kits with the stock shock locations and running 9 second quarter mile passes and zero issues. I don't feel like the inboard shock setup with less suspension travel and losing the spare tire is anything worth it at all.

All I know is the IHC 4/6 kit I previously had had almost ZERO suspension travel in the back. It was like the axle was bolted solid to the frame.

 

[EL5_Zero]

I had talked to a handful of people regarding the IHC kit using QA1 shocks, and they had mentioned there's been a lot of quality issues with them. Also, I had a lot more confidence in the Fox shocks than the QA1 to start with, which is another reason why I ended up going with the Ridetech setup.

The inboard shock setup seems to be a moot point, as there's plenty of trucks running Ridetech and VAS kits with the stock shock locations and running 9 second quarter mile passes and zero issues. I don't feel like the inboard shock setup with less suspension travel and losing the spare tire is anything worth it at all.

All I know is the IHC 4/6 kit I previously had had almost ZERO suspension travel in the back. It was like the axle was bolted solid to the frame.

I remember a few months back you brought up these issues regarding the IHC 4/6 kit. I was under the impression that since I bought the "performance" kit, I would have a better outcome. However, after 6K miles of testing and adjustments, I too reached the same conclusion as The_Auto_Tech

I believe most of us get caught up in the "race" or "performance" labeled kit, that we buy thinking we "need" such setup on our daily drivers / weekend warrior vehicles. However, 99.9% of the time we use them to commute down the same shitty roads going to work or to get ice cream.

So where do I go from here you may ask? This weekend I will be adding the Ridetech Airbag kit. The plan is to add 1-1.5" of suspension travel and see how it handles. Why Ridetech airbag? Simple, it's a better design than the IHC airbag. The_Auto_Tech brought up some good points regarding the mounting locations, and I also agree with him. Ridetech mounts the airbag directly on the axle as appose to the leaf spring. This directly puts the load on the axle and tires.

IHC mounts the airbags on the leaf springs. If you look at it closely, you can see how this design will sooner or later cause a U-bolt to fail because you are adding the weight to the leaf springs that are hanging off the axle.

I'll report back this weekend.

 

[MGF150]

IHC Performance Kit as a whole, should be viewed as a track / smooth road spirited driving only kit. It does not work well in bad road surfaces. The front coil overs work very good in all surfaces, the spring rate is great and the adjustability in the compression and rebound are great. The rear end kit as designed, does not work well for street driving. The combination of shock placement, shock design, and limited suspension travel make the rear end feel all over the place when on bad surfaces.

This weekend I will be installing the Ridetech airbag kit. The plan is to lift the rear end 1-2" and firm up the suspension. I hope with the added suspension travel and firmer spring rate from the airbags, paired with the FOX 2.0 shocks will return a smoother ride over rough roads.

I'll report back with my test results.

I have the Ridetech air bags and the steel springs with the overloads removed.
I run the bags at 12psi and I believe the shocks are 8 clicks counter clockwise. The front coilers are set at 5 or 6 clicks.
I believe once I found this balance, my truck actually rides great unless it is a really rough road.
I have (measured from the top of the tire, over the center cap of the wheel, to the fender) 4" in the front and 4 1/2 in the rear. I finally leveled the suspension side to side with the coilers this weekend.
I still have 1 or two tires that I need to replace, but I have been so happy to finally drive it, that I have not messed with it. I am smooth up until about 80 and I finally get a little tire shake.
I will try to get you some pictures of how it sits tonight, I believe you are a little lower than me.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

I remember a few months back you brought up these issues regarding the IHC 4/6 kit. I was under the impression that since I bought the "performance" kit, I would have a better outcome. However, after 6K miles of testing and adjustments, I too reached the same conclusion as The_Auto_Tech

I believe most of us get caught up in the "race" or "performance" labeled kit, that we buy thinking we "need" such setup on our daily drivers / weekend warrior vehicles. However, 99.9% of the time we use them to commute down the same shitty roads going to work or to get ice cream.

So where do I go from here you may ask? This weekend I will be adding the Ridetech Airbag kit. The plan is to add 1-1.5" of suspension travel and see how it handles. Why Ridetech airbag? Simple, it's a better design than the IHC airbag. The_Auto_Tech brought up some good points regarding the mounting locations, and I also agree with him. Ridetech mounts the airbag directly on the axle as appose to the leaf spring. This directly puts the load on the axle and tires.

IHC mounts the airbags on the leaf springs. If you look at it closely, you can see how this design will sooner or later cause a U-bolt to fail because you are adding the weight to the leaf springs that are hanging off the axle.

I'll report back this weekend.

The funny thing is that although Ridetech doesn't label their kit as "performance," "race," "track," etc., they are the only ones who sell a kit that can add a rear sway bar, as well as a traction bar system that specifically fits their setup. I was told by one of their reps they have sent a handful of their kits to people like Cleetus McFarland, and their kits are also what the Super Snakes, Roush trucks, etc. are using as well. So it's not as if they shouldn't be labeled as a performance kit as well, just that they know how to make the truck perform but also ride nice as well.

The IHC airbag kit definitely concerned me with how it was engineered. From "clamping" around the frame for the top mount, to "pushing" on the leaf spring itself for the lower mount, it just seems poorly designed. The Ridetech kit has brackets that bolt to the frame on top, and then to the axle on the bottom, so that the bag is effectively working between the flat of the frame and the flat of the axle. It's also adjustable on angle too, depending on your setup. The IHC bag angle sucks because it's pushing against the angle of the leaf spring as well.

 

[INADAZE]

I was told by one of their reps they have sent a handful of their kits to people like Cleetus McFarland, and their kits are also what the Super Snakes, Roush trucks, etc. are using as well.

I figured Ridetech is what they were running on their blue RCSB and the new "Dale Truck".

After my truck is paid off, my plan is to get the Ridetech kit. Buy once, cry once!

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

I figured Ridetech is what they were running on their blue RCSB and the new "Dale Truck".

After my truck is paid off, my plan is to get the Ridetech kit. Buy once, cry once!

I'm not sure what the Dale Truck is running, as I would imagine it's something more race-oriented with the 4-link in back, but I believe the previous gray giveaway truck and the current blue one are both running Ridetech. Also, I know for sure the red GMC RCSB truck they are building is running Ridetech for sure as it was mentioned specifically in the build video. Based on what I had seen in the videos while they were working on the blue truck it looked like Ridetech components.

 

[MGF150]

I have the Ridetech air bags and the steel springs with the overloads removed.
I run the bags at 12psi and I believe the shocks are 8 clicks counter clockwise. The front coilers are set at 5 or 6 clicks.
I believe once I found this balance, my truck actually rides great unless it is a really rough road.
I have (measured from the top of the tire, over the center cap of the wheel, to the fender) 4" in the front and 4 1/2 in the rear. I finally leveled the suspension side to side with the coilers this weekend.
I still have 1 or two tires that I need to replace, but I have been so happy to finally drive it, that I have not messed with it. I am smooth up until about 80 and I finally get a little tire shake.
I will try to get you some pictures of how it sits tonight, I believe you are a little lower than me.

I posted some pictures of my ride height here, I did not want to clutter your thread.
https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/2024-rcsb-build.25689/page-5

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