Hey all,

Here's some feedback from an amateur on how well my suspension has been working out for me.

My "test" areas have been:
Solo2 racing : Tight, curvey courses with top speeds of ~60ish. Most curves are hard turns (90+ degrees) taken at 25-45ish mph.
Street driving : Do to the love of "peppy" vehicles, I am a "spirited" driver. High speeds, fun curves, but nothing too crazy. (I like my truck and myself too much for that)

The suspension consists of:
ROUSH springs (front and rear), 2" drop.
HOTCHKIS sway bars (front and rear), 2" drop ready end-links
HAL QA1 shocks (front and rear)
M&M Sports PanHard Bar
TrukTrak ladder bars
Action911 Clunk washers

Rough cost w/install : ~$2000

From a handling perspective, the performance increase in my Solo2 races has been nothing short of fantastic. The truck has minimized body roll and is extremely stable in the short corners. When the shocks are turned up solid (12/12), the truck becomes easy to drift and exhibits some understeer if you don't throttle things. Last Solo2 even, I ran 7/7 and it seemed like a good fit. The difference in body roll, which was something I had tons of previously on the Solo2 tracks, is the greatest.

From a feel perspective, steering has much more of a "performance" to it. You can very much so feel road-feedback now, and you -feel- like you're hugging curves.

For daily driver people, the setup may be too harsh. I'm sure swapping out the springs for something softer would remedy that, though you'll lose some of the performance. If you set the shocks less then 4, things start to feel a little spongy because the springs are so stiff. I drive around town with them at 7, and while its sometimes bumpy, its something I wanted.

There are some new squeaks, but that is from the fact that a few of the former rubber bushings are now poly. cest'la'vie.

All in all, if you are looking for a track (not drag strip) suspension, this one seems to be turning out well. Of course Stan's IRS setup would be nicer, but this one is $3000 less. :P The only change I might make is swapping out the rear shocks for a new Penske setup. The Penske's are about $1250, have remote resevoir, and allow you to adjust rebound as well as compression.

Daniel

PS
While I know the ROUSH springs are stiff, ROUSH will not give me their actual rates, does anyone have them?

 

 

 

The new stance:

 

me needs QA1's

Dan,

What is the spring rate of the Roush front coils?

Bob

 

Dan

What's the "spring Rate" for the rear leafs?

 

People didn't read the whole post:

Daniel

 

sniff. . .

I'm getting all misty-eyed over here looking at the first picture of your L in the open parking lot.

Nice looking ride- and I dig the hunkered down stance!

Your set-up sounds fantastic. I think anyone interested in performance suspension upgrades for their L should take a look at your truck as a positive example of how to do it well. Speedin_Bob and Chickenears also have pretty trick set-ups IMO.

Again- good job on the handling mods!!!


---WrongdayJ

 

Thanks J. It was alot of work trying to figure out which pieces from where, and I just want to thank everyone that over the last two years has discussed, tried and given adivce on performance suspension stuff (BABolt, Nathan, Ruslow, Spike, WrongdayJ, CaptO, SpeedinBob and others)... I appreciate it, and its been a great learning experience for me.

Thanks!
Daniel

 

Ughhh sorry Dan, just busting your chops
Just surprised that you bought the springs not knowing what you where getting, but if your happy, I most surely am

 

:P

Heheh...yeah, it was a decision to do it. I had no idea what I really needed for spring rates and the advice I always got was "what you need for your application". lol... I knew ROUSH was a more "tested" spring-rate package, so I took it. Neither ROUSH or HOTCHKIS will tell you what their rates are, they consider it "proprietary" info...guess they're afraid of people going out and getting their own springs cheaper for the same rates.

Daniel

 

I can understand they wanting to keep it hush hush, when I decide to lower the Lightning, I am leaning towards Roush, why? I like Mark Martin and besides I figure Jack knows Fords I am looking forward to checking out your ride this weekend, you making E-town saturday

 

I was just thinking about it. Though "am" and "saturday" are words that usually don't work for me, but I think I might make the effort. I really wanted to buff my truck this weekend, but my Zaino isn't here yet.

Daniel