Excessive Concrete Highway Bounce

Alright so yes I understand that Concrete sections of a highway will give a general bounce either in a car or a truck. That being said, I feel I am experiencing excessive bouncing beyond that. I recently installed a Rough Country 4" lift on my 1994 F250 7.3 IDI, which did help a lot with the highway bounce. The kit came with new Front leafs, pitman arm, drop bracket (for the TTB) and all new shocks.

Since the bulk of the suspension has been upgraded, I'm kind of left scratching my head on what I can do to lessen the bounce. I do have a few things on my list to update within the next few months, such as new tires, tie rod, ball joints and body mounts (which are badly worn). Now all this in mind, do you all have any suggestions on what may be adding to the excessive bounce or is this all known and nothing to do but hold on

SOCAL_Redneck said:

Rough Country 4" lift... TTB....excessive bounce

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This combo is going to act like this no matter what, your best bet for good ride is either get rid of the rough country and/or get rid of the ttb and go with an rsk d66.

Rough country stuff is generally higher spring rate than oem springs. Different shocks might help. What size tires and what air pressure?

Thewespaul said:

This combo is going to act like this no matter what, your best bet for good ride is either get rid of the rough country and/or get rid of the ttb and go with an rsk d66.

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I gotcha, well the rough country suspension was needed. When I bought the truck a month ago, the original suspension was still on the truck severely worn and caused a bounce much more intense than now. I have looked at replacing the TTB but won't be feasible for some time.

Black dawg the tires are 34s and not sure what the tire pressure is at the moment.

Thewespaul said:

This combo is going to act like this no matter what, your best bet for good ride is either get rid of the rough country and/or get rid of the ttb and go with an rsk d66.

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I beg to differ. While the Rough Country isn't the "best", I've had mine for almost 7 years and while it isn't a D60, it doesn't bounce on Ca freeways that bad. It isn't smooth (this is a 3/4 ton Ford after all), but it doesn't bounce. The Rough Country shocks lasted about 30,000 miles and I replaced them with Rancho (Front RS55165, Rear RS55112) and it helped some.

I was in a similar boat, stock suspension was wasted (pivot for right side was down to only 1 of 4 bolts :***, no time or money for a swap. Other kits were out of my price range so Rough Country it was.

As far as the bounce, shocks can be bad from the factory or as stated earlier tire inflation could be a factor. Also, define what you mean by bounce. Does it keep moving up and down when you stop, does it "hop" on the expansion joints (could be a fact of life because of your wheel base verses the distance between the joints, that can be a huge factor in how it works on different hwys), does it act different on different hwys where the expansion joints are a little closer/farther apart?

I have been a professional truck driver for over 35 years and the wheel base of the vehicle (tractor, trailer and combo of the 2) is a huge factor in how much the road beats me up and how the truck responds to the road imperfections.

I guess that kit you got comes with shocks? That was my first thought, the Bilstein HDs I put on all 4 corners helped mine out a ton. (Edit: no lift kit here, so not a direct comparison)

+1 define what you mean by bounce

Mulochico said:

I was in a similar boat, stock suspension was wasted (pivot for right side was down to only 1 of 4 bolts :***, no time or money for a swap. Other kits were out of my price range so Rough Country it was.

As far as the bounce, shocks can be bad from the factory or as stated earlier tire inflation could be a factor. Also, define what you mean by bounce. Does it keep moving up and down when you stop, does it "hop" on the expansion joints (could be a fact of life because of your wheel base verses the distance between the joints, that can be a huge factor in how it works on different hwys), does it act different on different hwys where the expansion joints are a little closer/farther apart?

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I never considered that the shocks could be faulty but hard to tell if that's the case. The bounce or "hop" is most excessive from the shorter Californian expansion joints. I don't think the wheel base would be a big factor considering that I have an extended cab long bed.

Check the tire pressure. This can affect the ride more than anything

SOCAL_Redneck said:

I never considered that the shocks could be faulty but hard to tell if that's the case. The bounce or "hop" is most excessive from the shorter Californian expansion joints. I don't think the wheel base would be a big factor considering that I have an extended cab long bed.

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The problem isn't always the exact wheel base, but how it compares to the distance between joints. Sometimes a longer wheel base "bounces" more because it works against the joints. Generally the longer wheel base is better, but I have had trailers ride better that had the axle forward instead of all the way back. It is sometimes hard to wrap your head around how it works, but it is what it is. In semi's there are a lot of other variables (weight, weight distribution of the load, etc), but all things as equal as possible, the wheelbase/expansion joint differential has a lot to do with the ride.

You can always try the old school "rock the vehicle" and see how much it continues to move to check the shocks. If it rocks back and forth more than twice the shocks are suspect. This worked good on old school vehicles and was one of the things that got me looking at new shocks. I would back out my driveway and the truck would rock back and forth 4-6 times before settling down.

I looked into Bilstein's when I replaced my shocks. I couldn't find any for the TTB with any lift. I went with the Rancho's because they were listed for a 4+" lift.

But do check your tire pressures, I am running 285/75r16's and have the front around 45-48 psi and the rears around 38 psi empty.

Im going to side with the tire pressure comments. I keep my rears at 35psi empty and 75 towing. If I don’t air back down after I drop the trailer there is a very noticeable difference in ride quality


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@SOCAL_Redneck !!!!!!! Hey how did that tach sensor workout ?

1. You bought a rough country kit
2. Truck is lifted now (ride geometry changed)
3. If you have A/T tires it's gonna not help
4. If you want I can put some links on here to stiffen up your setup and it get rid of the bounce but then ride quality goes down so pick your poison

5. You could run a duel shock setup in the front I'f your 4wd , I can also include that link as well it's a CNC Fab ready to install bolt on kit that looks sickkkk and will fix 85% of the problem your contesting to (bounce)

5a. Bounce from experience refers to rebound which is controlled my the shocks in most vehicles

6. I would say check your pressure as well, for me I run 60 in the fronts and 65 in the rears unless towing then I run 75. But depends on what load ratings your tires are, I run 265/70/17 bF Goodrich A/T ko2s load range E , square

I also weight about 8k empty so that could be a factor and my wheelbase is 20 feet bumper to bumper I believe

Rough country suspension is hands down the worst mass market US lift kit available. Not saying it doesn't work for years on many trucks, but I've taken off hundreds of their kits for folks with ride quality concerns. On most of their kits, the springs are simply too stiff for shocks to matter at all . Most if the time you could take the shocks completely off and not notice a difference.

However, in this case, I'm inclined to believe that the real problem is as stated above, bieng wheelbase vs road surface. It is 100% responsible for what I called "porposing". I'm not sure what others have called it, but essentially when your front and rear wheels hit an expansion joint at the exact same time the whole truck lifts and falls in a repeatedly faster manner. Only solution that was practical was to take a different route or drive a different vehicle. Cclb was perfect for it here in middle TN on i65 north

Bilstiens will calm down your ride, but dont expect Cadillac ride. Expect 350-450 for the set or more. Rough Country RS5000-9000 are tough but very rough!!

Please don't take this to be rude, but in a effort to keep good information flowing,

There is nothing a shock can do to soften a very stiff spring. Shocks only control the rate at wich a spring moves, not spring rate.

In extremely specific scenarios, they may change the overall ride quality, but I don't believe it would change the op's scenario

Rough country- stiff springs.

Working with limited coin, first thing I'd try is playing with tire pressure. Another low buck option would be removing one or more leafs from the leaf pack. This will require some wrench time however it is reversible if it doesn't produce the desired change. Still another cheap idea would be adding weight. Cement blocks, sacks filled with sand, couple fat buddies, anything to "load" the suspension slightly.