Washboard Roads

[zrodwyo]

Anyone ever attempt to optimize suspension for washboard? I travel on dirt roads almost exclusively and I’m sick of getting beat up.

Is it even possible to build a suspension system on a truck with rear leafs that can eat up washboard?

Billy 5100s ain’t it and running around aired down isn’t really reasonable.

 

[justinspicher]

The only thing that seems to remotely work for me is 4H and even that is suspect.

 

[nobody]

Air down your tires. Squishy tires eat up small bumps and washboards better than any suspension upgrades

 

[WRO]

Great shocks eat washboards


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[cmahoney]

I think airing down is the only way


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[Steve300xcw]

Hit em hard enough and you'll only feel every 4th one........

 

[wyosteve]

I have Fox shocks and different coil springs on my Ram and they improve the ride a lot. I have to drive 2 miles of washboard each way when leaving the house, not to mention county/Forest Service roads.

 

[Skerhunter]

I drive them every day! We went over 2 years without having a grader operator for our area, so the country roads were worse than FS roads!

Won’t own another solid axle truck unless I move, they beat the crap out of you no matter what. Billstein 5100s helped a lot and keep the truck from floating around, still chatter some. 1 ton with air bags and 5100s does a lot better than my half ton. Wife’s GX will need new shocks soon, will probably put a better shock than 5100s on that just to see the difference!

Rode in a nice raptor once down our road. Huge difference there but that thing was decked out!

 

[RockAndSage]

Yes, it can be done, but it's more than just swapping out shocks. There is a whole ecosystem of suspension geekery on youtube, where guys tune their trucks for anything. Most off-road shops will know how to tune your suspension for heavily washboarded roads, too.

 

[Hunt_Jefferson]

F150 here, crew cab 6.5" bed - I put Bilstein 6112's on the front and 5160 reservoir shocks on the rear. Combined with airing down a bit and finding the right speed it's fairly pleasant on washboard.

 

[Poser]

Airing down modestly, you don't have to go to full off road PSI, will make a HUGE difference.
On my wheel size, 265/70/R17, I run 35 psi on the highway (32 adjusted for altitude), 20 PSI, sometimes 15, for chunky, technical offroad. 25 PSI will smooth out washboards to the point I barely feel them, no loss of traction or losing the rear end on turns and I can absolutely haul ass without compromising sidewall stability of a lower PSI. I'll pass every other vehicle on the road, sometimes even SxSs.
Note that I'm using 10 ply tires.

 

[gbflyer]

Air down is good. I maintain 20 some odd miles of poorly constructed road with too much traffic, way too much rain, and sorry material. I bought an old gen 1 Raptor. Best thing ever.