Suspension mods for 2WD

[MGF150]

Yeah, that was my thoughts as well that the Ridetech geometry on the leaf springs/axle was far better, probably why the IHC setup sometimes has vibration issues.

Did you need the raise the rear end then? I believe mine is set on the tallest slot, which would lower it the most.

Mine is in the second hole from the top. That height matches the front IHC kit in the front. The truck looks good to me and seems to have plenty of travel for a nice ride. I figured when I put the spare tire back under the truck and a bed cover it might be a little low again, but I have not installed the air bags. With 12 to 15 psi in the bags it will raise it a little as well.
The Shelby trucks look to ride a little higher than my truck judging from the pictures.
I also noticed the left rear sits about a 1/4 lower than the right. That could be the IHC stuff in the front loading the rear, so I did not worry about it at this point.

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[The_Auto_Tech]

Mine is in the second hole from the top. That height matches the front IHC kit in the front. The truck looks good to me and seems to have plenty of travel for a nice ride. I figured when I put the spare tire back under the truck and a bed cover it might be a little low again, but I have not installed the air bags. With 12 to 15 psi in the bags it will raise it a little as well.
The Shelby trucks look to ride a little higher than my truck judging from the pictures.
I also noticed the left rear sits about a 1/4 lower than the right. That could be the IHC stuff in the front loading the rear, so I did not worry about it at this point.

When I take the 1" block back out of the rear I'll probably drop the bags to 5 PSI. It's in one of the reviews on their website. I have a bed cover, spare tire, totes, bed mat, and two Swing Cases loaded with stuff in my truck, so there's a little more weight in the back. I wouldn't worry about it being off 1/4" left to right. It's hard to get a vehicle to be perfect all the way around, especially when you can't infinitely adjust the height. The Shelby trucks have Ridetech kits on them supposedly, but I have no idea what they set them at either.

 

[MGF150]

I started cleaning up my mess last night so I could install the bags this weekend. Bolts on with basic hand tools my ass LOL!

 

[MGF150]

As a follow up on this thread, I removed the IHC soft ride front kit last weekend and installed the Ride Tech.
The Ride Tech kit installed without any problems and rides 100% better. There is absolutely no comparison in the parts quality either.
The Ride Tech kit is expensive, but it is damn sure worth it, if you want a good riding truck.
I am going to just the front coilers to raise the front up about 1/4 inch for my final setting and call that good.
I have an alignment scheduled for Saturday morning, then I will be able to put some miles on the truck finally.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

2800+ miles later from Iowa to Florida and back. Did absolutely amazing handling everything, especially going through the Smokey Mountains. Would have loved for some more power pulling the long hills, but the 10R80 made excellent use of the 3.3 V6 power. Average fuel economy for the trip was 19 MPG feeding it cheap fuel.

For the rear I'll be pulling the Eibach 1" lowering block out of the back and replacing the spring plates, u-bolts, and hardware, as well as adjusting the traction bars. Testing with lowering the Ridetech kit an extra inch bottoms it out against the bump stops too much and makes it ride like crap unless you've got 35+ PSI in the bags to keep it off the axle. I like the look, but it's not worth the sacrifice on the ride performance. It's not as bad as the IHC 4/6 kit, but it's definitely not ideal.

For the front I am trying to find some "helper" springs that will keep the coilover springs seated when the vehicle is unloaded on a hoist. The springs are too short with the current height that they don't sit in the upper and lower spring seats, so you need a second person to hold them in place when loading the suspension back up. I already broke one of the nylon washers because of this.

Waiting for Ridetech to get back with me to see if they have any recommendations.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Got ahold of Ridetech today on the phone and spoke with them about the truck. Like I had imagined, they had spent a ton of R&D time into the kit for the Gen 14's. They're supplying the kits for all the Super Snakes and Saleens, etc. They've also been supplying the suspension for a lot of the YouTuber trucks as well.

I had asked about what their reasoning for the 5" max lowering in the back was, and they said going lower meant issues with the axle hitting the frame, the driveshaft hitting the cab, and also clearance issues with 4WD trucks. 5" was the furthest they thought was "feasible." I spoke to them about the issues with the IHC 4/6 kits and the axle basically sitting on the frame at rest, even with removing the bump stops, and they said they have gotten many complaints about that kit, and was another reason they didn't do more than a 5" drop in the back. I mentioned that I noticed that even at the 5" drop the helper bags were pretty flat, and that was another reason for not wanting to go lower. The bags would end up needing to be relocated to an unfavorable position instead of between the middle of the axle and the frame, where they work best.

I asked if they had any intentions of offering a 4 link kit and the rep said it's something that's been discussed, but that it would be a down the road offering when more guys are more willing to cut up their trucks. I mentioned that most likely to make full use of it to go lower than 5" would require a C-notch and potentially notching out the cab as well to fit the axle and driveshaft. Lots and lots of work, and no guarantee of ride or load handling capability on that route.

As mentioned in the above post it made it easy to verify all of these issues that Ridetech had also found during their R&D. After running the IHC 4/6 kit to start with, and even trying to run the 1" Eibach lowering block in the rear on the Ridetech kit to see if it was just an issue with the IHC components, the truck still has issues with the axle hitting the bumpstops. If you wanna go lower than 5" in the rear without clearance issues, plan on C-notching the frame and even potentially having to notch the cab. I'm gonna be pulling the 1" block out of the back and running the truck with the Ridetech kit how it was intended without any modifications. Sometimes it's just best to trust the experts unless you wanna do your own experimentation.

I'll be curious to see who C-notches and tries to go lower than 5" without a 4-link or massive suspension modification and how it ends up. I would imagine there's going to be shock travel issues as well.

 

[Graygoose2021]

YT David Van Doris, owner of Coyote Direct goes into one of his videos, says the Ridetech is by far the best setup for 3/5.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

YT David Van Doris, owner of Coyote Direct goes into one of his videos, says the Ridetech is by far the best setup for 3/5.

I would absolutely agree. I by no means am knocking the Ridetech kit at all, it handles and rides amazing, and the quality of the components are awesome. This really was just more me feeling out to see why IHC sold a 4/6 kit, and everyone else is doing 3/5 kits. After having the IHC 4/6 kit, and then the Ridetech kit with the 1" lowering block in the back, it all made sense why they're doing 3/5 kits.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Forgot to mention - when I was on the phone with Ridetech I ordered new u-bolts, washers, nuts, and spring plates. This will allow me to pull that 1" Eibach block out of the rear and set it all back up as the Ridetech kit was originally setup, so I won't need to keep putting 35PSI in the helper bags to keep it off the bump stops.

As far as the front is concerned - when I spoke to the rep at Ridetech he had said most likely the coilovers are set a bit too low and that's why the springs unload in the front when picking it up on the hoist. I had asked him about needing the delrin washers for the springs to sit on since mine broke when I set the vehicle back down and they weren't sitting on the perches properly. He said he personally doesn't bother with them, as they really don't "do" anything. They were there more to try and help the spring spin during level adjustments, but he said personally he's had no issue adjusting the spring heights without them, and I have had the same experience. I believe he said the spring height when loaded should be about 15.5", so I need to double check that on mine. Worst case scenario I just have to have someone hold the springs in place when setting the vehicle back on the ground after completely unloading the suspension.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

YT David Van Doris, owner of Coyote Direct goes into one of his videos, says the Ridetech is by far the best setup for 3/5.

Got a chance to watch the video finally.

Would definitely agree with all of his points. IHC makes a great kit if people are on a budget and just want it to be low, but not necessarily ride well. They do make a "performance" kit which is more similar to what VAS offers, but it costs the same basically, and I'm not sure why you'd go IHC at that point. VAS definitely seems to be more geared towards the drag trucks, but is definitely going to give a better ride than the cheap IHC kit. Ridetech offers the best ride/street setup without a doubt, but can easily be used on a drag truck as they offer traction bars that go with their kit too.

If you look at Ridetech's offerings for a lot of things, they don't cheap out in places that they feel are necessary. Like mentioned in the video, their kit comes with upper control arms, whereas the other kits do not. I definitely feel like that's a poor choice on the other kits, as you will want the arms to get the alignment back to where it needs to be. I have seen this with their kits for other trucks as well where Ridetech will include replacement leaf springs, a sway bar, etc. in their "base" kit, but other brands offer nothing besides the minimum stuff to get it low.

Personally, I'm just looking forward to getting everything properly setup on the suspension, steering, wheels, and tires and piling some more miles on. I'm just about there. <3

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

Should have the replacement parts for the rear towards the end of this week. Looking forward to getting the suspension all back to the "proper" setup. Was definitely interesting trying out some different setups to see the pros and cons. Highly recommend anyone who wants to lower the truck properly go with the Ridetech kit for sure and run it as it comes.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

VAS is fine if you're wanting more of a drag truck, but Ridetech is pretty well known to be the best street setup.

 

[EL5_Zero]

Should have the replacement parts for the rear towards the end of this week. Looking forward to getting the suspension all back to the "proper" setup. Was definitely interesting trying out some different setups to see the pros and cons. Highly recommend anyone who wants to lower the truck properly go with the Ridetech kit for sure and run it as it comes.

You are 100% right! I am currently on the IHC Performance 3/5 kit and after 5k miles of driving, I can see why Ridetech is superior on street ride comfort. I have made modifications to the rear suspension to be as close to Ridetech, and the truck rides 10X better. I added a 2* shim, bump stop, and moved the shocks outboard to the OEM location modifying the brackets the kit came with. Now the truck rides smooth, and maintains contact with the road when going over railroad tracks, and severely rough asphalt.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

You are 100% right! I am currently on the IHC Performance 3/5 kit and after 5k miles of driving, I can see why Ridetech is superior on street ride comfort. I have made modifications to the rear suspension to be as close to Ridetech, and the truck rides 10X better. I added a 2* shim, bump stop, and moved the shocks outboard to the OEM location modifying the brackets the kit came with. Now the truck rides smooth, and maintains contact with the road when going over railroad tracks, and severely rough asphalt.

Yeah, I know a lot of people complained about vibration issues with the IHC kits as well and needed to change the pinion angle with shims. Also, the lack of bump stops is definitely concerning as well in their kits, as Ridetech does not remove them. I think the only reason to run the inboard shock setup would be if you were running like an anti-roll bar that was built into the shock setup, similar to 4-link drag cars, but then you also lose the spare tire and have to change the exhaust routing too. From what I have seen the inboard shocks hasn't been a needed upgrade at all, as a lot of the fastest street driven F-150's are still running the regular outboard shock setup.

 

[The_Auto_Tech]

I've got all the parts here to get the truck back to "original" for the Ridetech setup. Plan is to get all the parts installed, get the front coilovers setup height wise again, get the pressures dialed in for the rear bags, and then get it re-aligned. Should be all good to go on the suspension and steering then.

I believe the only other options would be to go to a 4-link in the back, inboard shocks with the anti-roll bar, or doing a frame notch. After talking to Ridetech about going lower than 5" I'm leery about the frame notch and potential issues with the driveshaft hitting the cab, and that I would also need to do a custom load leveling bag setup as the bolt-on kits would no longer fit with the frame notch. Also, the inboard shocks require removal of the spare tire, and it's been shown that having the outboard shocks isn't a hindrance to the performance of the suspension. Also, the 4-link requires massive overhaul and welding work, plus looking at pictures it doesn't sit any lower than the leaf spring setup.

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