Max Tow Stiffness

[Popplemer]

E rated tires on 20s are to blame for your ride. Also a bed with no weight in it as others have alluded to. If you look at the weight rating for a load range E tire, multiply it by 4 and compare it to the gvwr on your truck you'll see how crazy it is to run that much tire on a 1/2 ton. Sure many people do it but it's super overkill. I had that setup on my previous truck and it rode terribly. I now have a max tow with stock tires and it's 90% better unloaded and 100% better with weight in the bed. My $.02

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[Buyer2021]

It's such a nice rig you have @Buyer2021

Thank you, Sir, it's proven a wonderful setup for me.

Of course as you know I don't have the plus of the onboard generator that you enjoy, but my solar mods on the trailer meet my boondocking needs quite adequately (800W nominal rated PV array, 400Ah lithium battery, 3000W inverter).

 

[Snakebitten]

There's more than one way to skin that electron cat!

 

[Snippy]

See my signature block for my 2022 truck specs (Max Tow, Non-PB, 7050# GVWR / 1848# Payload).

I reduced the un-loaded rake by removing my rear 1-1/4" spacer blocks, not adding any lift kit. I'm happy with the resulting unloaded rake. When my 5th-wheel trailer is hitched the bed rails settle to "level" as does the trailer. I have installed Billstein 5100s on all four corners set at the OE ride height.

Before the 5100s I considered the Max Tow ride comfort good, but a bit under-damped as evidenced by continued 'bounce' on rippled pavement common to my area (too much of the 'Buick-float syndrome').

After the 5100s I love the ride in every respect, IMO very comfortable. It's a heck of a lot more comfortable than the 2005 F150 also described in my signature block.

One subjective opinion. YMMV.

thanks for the insight. Did you have jack up the vehicle to remove the blocks, or is it as simple as unbolting and removing them?

 

[Buyer2021]

Did you have jack up the vehicle to remove the blocks, or is it as simple as unbolting and removing them?

You can't pull the blocks without lifting the truck's weight off the spring perches. The axle has locating-nubs that fit into recesses in the top of the blocks and the bottom of the blocks have corresponding nubs that fit in holes on the spring perch. So ya gotta create 'clearance' for those nubs between the axle and the spring perch, then you can lift-out the blocks.

I have the equipment so elected to use 2 jack stands under the lifted truck and two rolling floor jacks under the axle which was easy for me and met my criteria for safety when working under the truck. Please don't work under a truck supported on floor jacks!

There are certainly many ways to do the job but you need to anticipate that the axle will need to be 'jockeyed' a small amount to align the locating-nubs on the axle into the corresponding holes in the spring-perch when the blocks are removed.

Supporting the axle on rolling floor-jacks makes that easy. I loosened the U-bolt nuts on both sides but at no point did I remove the U-bolt nuts on both sides at the same time. Only after both sides were located in-place without the blocks did I finally torque the U-bolt nuts all around.

Oh, and I did buy the shorter 2WD non-spacer U-bolts to retain a completely OE appearance, some folks have done this keeping or cutting the long U-bolts (I think washers may be required if you do that because the threads on the long U-bolts don't go up far enough?).

Hope that helps.

 

[Calson]

10-ply tires are gross overkill on a F-150 with its payload rating. I put E tires on my 1-ton rated truck that regularly carried a 3700 lb camper load in the bed. The downside for me was needing to carry a Viair compressor in the truck as I could never get 80 PSI at the gas station air pumps.

My 2022 with the Max Tow has the smoothest ride of any car and truck I have owned. Softer ride than my Mercedes coupe and on par with my Chevy SUV crossover.

 

[Snippy]

As far as 10 ply tires go there’s only 1 version of the wildpeaks around 35” that are not 10 ply. Unfortunately I’m not running that size

 

[Polo08816]

10-ply tires are gross overkill on a F-150 with its payload rating. I put E tires on my 1-ton rated truck that regularly carried a 3700 lb camper load in the bed. The downside for me was needing to carry a Viair compressor in the truck as I could never get 80 PSI at the gas station air pumps.

My 2022 with the Max Tow has the smoothest ride of any car and truck I have owned. Softer ride than my Mercedes coupe and on par with my Chevy SUV crossover.

He's also running one of the heaviest Load Range E tires. A 10 ply tire like the Michelin Defender LTX M/S2 probably would not be as stiff as a Wildpeak AT3/4W.

 

[Snippy]

Just had the tires tested for balancing. The front tires measured 45+ on the road force machine. I think that'll do it.

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