1981 Mint 400 Flareside Race Truck

[Nothing Special]

Man, they've got some serious stuff in there! The length of the coilovers is amazing, so the travel must be amazing as well.

I quickly looked through parts of the thread again. Here are a few highlights:

This page has some good still shots of the truck jumping:

http://www.gofastbroncos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=864&start=440

Here's a short video of a jump, seen from outside the truck.

Some more good stills:

http://www.gofastbroncos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=864&start=720

And three videos of "test runs" shot from the truck. Look particularly at 6:53 in the third video. He commented that he probably should have slowed down a bit there.

[Gary Lewis]

I quickly looked through parts of the thread again. Here are a few highlights:

This page has some good still shots of the truck jumping:

http://www.gofastbroncos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=864&start=440

Here's a short video of a jump, seen from outside the truck.

Some more good stills:

http://www.gofastbroncos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=864&start=720

And three videos of "test runs" shot from the truck. Look particularly at 6:53 in the third video. He commented that he probably should have slowed down a bit there.

WOW! That's amazing! To see how still the truck is with reference to the horizon and how much that front suspension is working boggles the mind.

Just bumps on the highway make Big Blue ride rough. In fact, we are in Owasso and took BB to get here and we hadn't even really gotten out of town and Janey said "And we are going to ride how far to Colorado in this?"

[1986F150Six]

. In fact, we are in Owasso and took BB to get here and we hadn't even really gotten out of town and Janey said "And we are going to ride how far to Colorado in this?"

Hmmm... somehow, I am reminded of a story, maybe 3 years ago, where you and Janey went for a ride in Rusty and then Blue [formerly Big Blue] was ordered???

 

[Nothing Special]

WOW! That's amazing! To see how still the truck is with reference to the horizon and how much that front suspension is working boggles the mind....

Now I want one again

 

[Gary Lewis]

WOW! That's amazing! To see how still the truck is with reference to the horizon and how much that front suspension is working boggles the mind....

Now I want one again

Kind of addictive, huh!? Basically it looks like they put a lift kit on and then used the lift's height to install longer coil-overs. But since the springs are much softer it brings the ride height back to fairly normal? Is that essentially it?

[FuzzFace2]

Kind of addictive, huh!? Basically it looks like they put a lift kit on and then used the lift's height to install longer coil-overs. But since the springs are much softer it brings the ride height back to fairly normal? Is that essentially it?

Suspensions have come a long way since the 80's when I raced 4x4 off road on motoX tracks.

All you could get was thick leaf springs and hard to compress / extend shocks to use on street and what we used off road.

Multi shocks were used because it was thought 1 shock would over heat and not work so adding a 2nd would take part of the load and the 2 would take longer to over heat. We would only run 10 laps max, with 10 trucks, so over heating I don't think was ever an issue.

Now days they use progressive coil springs, part is soft to take up the smaller bumps and the other part is stiff for the ruff stuff.

Shocks now have reservoirs so they have more oil under pressure so they don't over heat ... as fast?

If you watch some of todays off road racing on TV and see how they "jump & land" is just amazing from outside & riding along.

No none of ours landed like them remember the heavy leaf springs & shocks!

I also did not like "getting air" its just not right putting a 2000- 3000 lb. truck in the air!

Dave ----

[Nothing Special]

Kind of addictive, huh!? Basically it looks like they put a lift kit on and then used the lift's height to install longer coil-overs. But since the springs are much softer it brings the ride height back to fairly normal? Is that essentially it?

Softer springs with more travel, yes. But also progressive spring rate to allow more free movement lower in the travel, and then stiffening up to avoid too hard a "bang" at full stuff. And carefully worked out shock valving (with massive shocks with huge remote reservoirs as Dave pointed out). And with all of that there are still points in the thread where he's fixing stuff that got bent or broke when he stuffed it into the ground like a lawn dart (his term, not mine).

I kid that I want to be able to do that, but I'm way too much of a chicken to ever follow through.

Still, there's a lot to be learned there if you want to make an early- to mid-eighties F-250 ride better . That truck has a linked rear suspension with something like 4 foot long coil-overs. But a lot of the go-fast trucks are running leafs in the rear. Longer and softer, and if you didn't want to lose the payload of a 3/4 ton truck you'd need to figure out some sort of helper springs. But all do-able. In the front I really think the leaf sprung TTB was not a Better Idea. Swapping to coilovers with not quite as much travel as that truck has could make a really nice package. There's a lot to work out, but there are people doing it.

If I opened up a rabbit hole that you don't want to get lost in, I sincerely apologize!

[Gary Lewis]

Kind of addictive, huh!? Basically it looks like they put a lift kit on and then used the lift's height to install longer coil-overs. But since the springs are much softer it brings the ride height back to fairly normal? Is that essentially it?

Softer springs with more travel, yes. But also progressive spring rate to allow more free movement lower in the travel, and then stiffening up to avoid too hard a "bang" at full stuff. And carefully worked out shock valving (with massive shocks with huge remote reservoirs as Dave pointed out). And with all of that there are still points in the thread where he's fixing stuff that got bent or broke when he stuffed it into the ground like a lawn dart (his term, not mine).

I kid that I want to be able to do that, but I'm way too much of a chicken to ever follow through.

Still, there's a lot to be learned there if you want to make an early- to mid-eighties F-250 ride better . That truck has a linked rear suspension with something like 4 foot long coil-overs. But a lot of the go-fast trucks are running leafs in the rear. Longer and softer, and if you didn't want to lose the payload of a 3/4 ton truck you'd need to figure out some sort of helper springs. But all do-able. In the front I really think the leaf sprung TTB was not a Better Idea. Swapping to coilovers with not quite as much travel as that truck has could make a really nice package. There's a lot to work out, but there are people doing it.

If I opened up a rabbit hole that you don't want to get lost in, I sincerely apologize!

I'm not wanting to get into desert racing. But it is interesting that the suspension systems have come that far. And the movement they are getting would not only help the ride but would also greatly help the traction when on a trail. The tire could follow the terrain much easier w/o lifting the other side and spoiling its traction.

But, I think I'll be happy to get BB's rear suspension softened - significantly. We were down to two vehicles that were roadworthy earlier today and so took him on a 50 mile jaunt. It was a rude reminder of how stiff that rear is. And, how high it sits. We were sitting at an intersection and a Honda, maybe a Civic, pulled up behind us and the roof of that car was lower than the top of the tailgate on BB. And I'm sure the hood of the car would easily have gone under the bumper.

So, I really do have to pull some leafs out and both soften him up as well as drop the rear end, which will also raise the front a bit and help the stance.

[Nothing Special]

I'm not wanting to get into desert racing. But it is interesting that the suspension systems have come that far. And the movement they are getting would not only help the ride but would also greatly help the traction when on a trail. The tire could follow the terrain much easier w/o lifting the other side and spoiling its traction.

But, I think I'll be happy to get BB's rear suspension softened - significantly. We were down to two vehicles that were roadworthy earlier today and so took him on a 50 mile jaunt. It was a rude reminder of how stiff that rear is. And, how high it sits. We were sitting at an intersection and a Honda, maybe a Civic, pulled up behind us and the roof of that car was lower than the top of the tailgate on BB. And I'm sure the hood of the car would easily have gone under the bumper.

So, I really do have to pull some leafs out and both soften him up as well as drop the rear end, which will also raise the front a bit and help the stance.

Do you know if there is any difference in front springs between an '85 F-250 and a '97 F-250? As you might remember, I used to have an '85, and I loved the truck, but I was really glad to switch to the ride of the '95 F-150 I got next. The rear was bad, but the front really wasn't good either.

Now I have my '97. It's a crew cab with a fiberglass topper, so it has more weight on the rear axle than the standard cab '85 had (with an aluminum topper very occasionally). And it has a 460/E4OD so there's more weight on the front than the '85s 351/NP435. But the '97 rides SO much better than I remember the '95 riding (edit: I meant my '85 F-250HD, the '97 F-250HD does not ride better than my '95 F-150 did. Not a lot worse, but not better). Maybe it's just the weight, but I wonder if the spring rate is different.

Big Blue has the 460, and I'd guess the ZF5 he's getting will be closer in weight to an E4OD than an NP435. So maybe if you get the rear dialed in he'll smooth out a lot. But it might be worth looking into springs for a newer TTB F-250

[Gary Lewis]

Do you know if there is any difference in front springs between an '85 F-250 and a '97 F-250? As you might remember, I used to have an '85, and I loved the truck, but I was really glad to switch to the ride of the '95 F-150 I got next. The rear was bad, but the front really wasn't good either.

Now I have my '97. It's a crew cab with a fiberglass topper, so it has more weight on the rear axle than the standard cab '85 had (with an aluminum topper very occasionally). And it has a 460/E4OD so there's more weight on the front than the '85s 351/NP435. But the '97 rides SO much better than I remember the '95 riding (edit: I meant my '85 F-250HD, the '97 F-250HD does not ride better than my '95 F-150 did. Not a lot worse, but not better). Maybe it's just the weight, but I wonder if the spring rate is different.

Big Blue has the 460, and I'd guess the ZF5 he's getting will be closer in weight to an E4OD than an NP435. So maybe if you get the rear dialed in he'll smooth out a lot. But it might be worth looking into springs for a newer TTB F-250

I don't know about the later springs. The ZF will be heavier, but I have a T19 now, so I'm not sure how much heavier. However, with the dual batteries, front receiver, and the winch plus Warn bumper there's lots of weight up front. That's one reason I wasn't too worried about the weight of the rear bumper.

Anyway, if I get the rear smoothed out and the front is still stiff then the next step would be to check out the later springs. I think I scrapped the springs off of Huck, but he was just a '90 and I doubt rode any better than BB.