Ride Problems - Oooouchhhhh!

[grey beard]

Welllll, I just got back from a 275 mile trip from my home to North Jersey. Took it in two days. Now I know why everybody says they have a "108 Pilothouse B1B."

These short wheelbase pickups are just the ticket for a spin out for ice cream or a run to the big box store, but how many of you have spent four hours in one at one sitting? I guess the keyword here is "short." As in, better make the trip a short one in your short pickup. After this trip, I'm thinkin' of naming my Pilothouse "stubby."

The ride gets decidedly choppy, to say the least, especially on the rough back roads of New Jersey. My neck and shoulders are still sore. Please bear in mind the fact that this truck has new gas shocks on all four corners, four new radials tuned to 32 psi. . . . . . . why, I even have a new vanity mirror on the sun visor, so you can't say I'm not trying. But it still rides choppy.

Surely to goodness, there has to be a remedy for this small glitch in our favorite trucks. Just now I'm thinking of adding two or three hundred pounds to the back end somewhere - mebby fill up the rear bumper with heavy stuff, so it won't show. I'm sure that those 8-leaf rear springs don't flex much when she's haulin' sail boat fuel, what?

Any of you clear thinkers have a better idea? Please know that your suggestions are welcomed.

P.S. Short Trip Report . . .

Whilst on my way Jersey-ward, I lost a bunch'a horsepower. Just wouldn't "huss" like it used to. This is with a fresh engine that has less than 500 miles on it. Got to my brother's place, and we soon discerned that I was getting only in the neighborhood of half throttle at the carbonater in the "pedal-to-the-medal" mode, just as hard as I could.

Long story short, that new $30 repro rubber gas pedal Roberts sells doesn't really fit very well. Here the short link from the bottom of the gas pedal to the bell crank that goes across the back of the block had rubbed aganst the toe board at the lower edge of the hole enough to make a sharp barb that actually kept the pedal from going the whole way in against the floor.

A little file work and some English to the repro gas pedal - likely made somewhere south of here - and I had WOT again (wide open throttle).

The trip home went a whole lot faster, and I got up the long Pennseltucky hills a lot quicker then on the trip out.

Free horsepower is always a welcome thing. Remember the days when your mechanic would stretch customers' throttle return springs on each tuneup, so it felt like it was really going faster?

If you never checked it out, get a buddy to sit behind the wheel of your beastie and push down on the hammer pedal whilst you feel the carbonater for full wide open travel. It may be the cheapest horspower you'll ever find, if your linkage isn't up to snuff. I've seen several worn out block brackets for that cross shaft above the bellhousing that your throttle operates.

Oh, by the bye, with 215 x 85 R 16's and a 4:10 rear cog, I can keep up a steady 60 mph with no real fuss, but to be completely honest about it, 55 is really a little sweeter - and a whole lot quieter. Sure wish I had a 3:54 in that housing . . . . . .

Now, quick - tell me how to make my empty truck ride a whole lot softer!

Check it out!

[greg g]

Well somebody lowered the rear end of my Bugeye sprite by restacking the springs. They are 1/4 elliptical and they took three of the shorter ones and put them on top of the mainspring. That lowered it at gave it a softer ride also. Perhaps a leaf or two out of the stack would make it more trip friendly. Might be worth a thought if you not planning on halling grain to the mill of towing the 30 foot camper to the fishin hole on a regular basis.

My studie has a T bird rear end and 5 springs per set, still seams pretty stiff but without the bed and fenders on yet. Guess putting some weight back there is counter productive.

[pflaming]

My dad welded a 12" cube, filled it with metal filings from the blacksmith shop, then mounted it up where the spare tire should/ would be. That gave him a better ride, better traction, and was not in the way. FWIT (for what it's worth).

So the trucks do not ride like the cars? Don travels all the time in his vert. Maybe put car spring in.

[Merle Coggins]

Well Dave, I did over 7 hours in mine when I drove up to Mopars in the Park. And even though I have 8" on you my truck is also a 3/4 tonner with even stiffer springs. It does get a bit choppy on rough roads, but I'm not expecting it to ride like my '06 F150.

And even at 116" wheel base there are roads that are "perfect" for that length. There's a road that I travel frequently between my home and my work. It's a littlt bumpy in my modern truck, but when I take the Ol' Dodge up that road you'd swear that the tires turned square. It'll beat you to death. It's a concrete road with seams at regular intervals. I suspect that they are 116" apart.

Merle

[PatS....]

On my daily drver pickup I have 3 of those 24X24 concrete patio pavers. It was originally for traction in winter, but the ride is SO nice I didn't take them ot the last couple of years.

They are nice and flat so I can still haul crap with it AND nobody wants to borrow it when I say they are there and NOT coming out. Breaks me all up

[Vintrader]

Dave, I don't know if you have thought about some kind of Utility/Tool box that you could put in the bed when you needed it? And for Long Hauls you could slide it to the back and fill it with anything heavy, bags of sand?

That would also give you a place to smuggle Scrapple to you brother in NJ.

[grey beard]

Scrapple Smuggling? Dutch, surely you jest! Betcha' those hilligans in NJ don't know the meaning of the word "scrapple." If you can't eat a bagel with it, they don't want it.

But seriously, I didn't realize one had to be clandesting when hauling scrapple - sorta like moonshine during prohabitiion days, what? Mebby I'll weld up that little foot square box Paul Flaming told us about and haul my plunder to NJ in there.

What I think I'm gonna' do is put a pad in my bed and load up about a dozen cinder blocks, and then play with the weight until I find a sweet spot insofar as a less choppy ride is concerned. One guy took out rear spring leaves until his Pilothouse sat level - front-to-back. Only had about half the leaves left when he was finished. Wonder how that one rode?

Scrapple smugglin' . . . . . . drat it all . . . . . .

[greg g]

Just took a look at my Studie. It has a 7 leaf setup but they arre stacked so the bottom two act like helpers when the weight of the load pushed them into cotact with the ones above. So basically it will be riding on 5 when not loaded, the studebaker wheel base is 112. I will be running 15 inch radial tires with a P rating rather than truck tires. Probably at 30 32 lbs when empty.

[DanOlson]

I removed the two shortest springs when I did my rear axle swap. It sits ever so slightly higher in the back and the ride is much improved even with bias ply tires.

Dan

[grey beard]

Here's how I finally resolved my ride problem. This morning we pulled the U-bolts and torched the center bolts on the rear springs. Please remeber this truck sat more than an ince lower on the drivers' side. So, with all except the main leaf off and laying on the floor, I compared leaves, expecting to find the drivers' side less arched than the passangers' side.

Not so. Couldn't see any difference in similar leaves when comparing them next to each other. So, what to do? I finally decided to leave three leaves out of each side. Of the seven original leaves, I dropped off the second, forth and fifth from the bottom, and swapped all the leave stacks left to right, with the exception of the main leaf.

What I got from that exercise was a truck that now sits three inches lower at the very back, measuring from the ground to the end of the bed side rolled edges. It now sits enough lower that it is easier to get in and out of, and I now can put my knee on the rear bumper and flex the suspension almost like a passanger car. Before, I could only get an inch or two bounce or flex from the springs, and nothing more. A level on the top of the bed sides says it is still just a little higher in the rear than the front, and the running boards show the same thing. Sure does ride a whole lot more gentle.

When we pulled the U-bolts, one broke. I was all set to go out and hunt for one, but as it turned out, removing the three leaves from each side made the pack so much smaller that the broken bolt stuck through long enough that I could still get a nut on it up past the broken end. The other bolts, of course are now much longer than needed.

The bad news is that my truck still sits about 7/8-inch lower on the drivers' side. I've decided the frame is likely bent. I welded one crack in it at the front of the bed last year, and I know it had lots of body work, so anything is possible from the many years of rough service I'm sure it saw in its lifetime.

I like the ride, but I saved the leaves I took out.