The truck camper is leaning to one side and the air bag is not the problem. Must be a broken shock or spring?? Well, from April 2nd to now we've gone over 5,000 miles...up and down, in and out of Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Death Valley, Carlsbad, bounced across Texas on a horrible interstate (I20??) but the road construction around Chicago (North Avenue/hwy 64 to be exact) and one railroad crossing in Elgin was the final straw.
It's a 1999 Ford, 1 Ton, Crew Cab. Someone gave me excellent advice on the tranny cooler when we blew a seal in California... I'm looking for pointers on this problem. What should we put on there to carry the load better.
A lot of people talk about there air ride, air bags, as superior to springs. I know Firestone make them, along with a lot of other brands out there.
This might solve your problem.
It's not a shock because shocks don't support weight. Shocks job is to control and slow motion of the suspension. If it's sagging all of a sudden and wasn't before then something has broke or bent. If it's not an airbag or broken airbag mounting bracket then I'd suspect you're right in thinking a broken spring. You're going to have to crawl around on the ground and look at all the leafs and their mounting brackets. I wouldn't think the trucks frame bent but anything is possible if the bump was big enough. Good luck!
Fords have a habit of breaking springs, especially the SuperDuty's. I have personally known 4 different people that had rear leaf's broken. If this is the case, make sure to upgrade to a higher spring-rate spring. This will help ensure that there won't be a problem later. It seams to be more prevalent in the 1999-2001 trucks, and it usually breaks near the center of the spring-pack near the u-bolts.
Hope this helps,
Garry K in Kodiak, AK
Garry K
Wife + 4 kids
Retired Military Family.... Alway's on the move....
2002 F350 CCSB 5.4 6spd 4x4 in AK
1966 Avion C-10 Truck Camper
Once you have the spring problem taken care of you may want to look into better shocks . Poor shocks are often why the springs break , no dampening on the rebound .
If it's a spring issue highly recommend replacing both rear springs. The new spring will have a different spring rate than the old stock. In my mind the old spring is now the weak link. I prefer custom made springs to stock. However, being broke in the middle of nowhere would bring a different perspective.
sleekcrafter wrote: Elgin Spring, Or Hartman's BeeLine can get you going. Both are in Elgin, and hae been around for ever.
Elgin Spring was highly recommended by our local friends and they got us in today. They did a great job and we had our truck back by 4pm, too.
The main problem was the air bag bracket was broken. Three bolts gone and only one bolt holding the bracket. They pointed this out to us in mere moments. After the camper was off the truck, it was easier to see.
Seems they said the existing shocks were not bolted tight (I might have gotten this part wrong.)
The frame was fine. The leaf springs were not broken but they added 2 more leafs. They suggested better shocks so we did that too, today,
We sure ride a lot higher now.
We put the camper back on but have not driven it yet. That will be tomorrow morning.
Offline
