improvements sa high-speed ride / handling

[RS Sprint]

OK guys,

Another question waay left!

I'm more a car guy, and the diesel pick-up I have is more for work. I have my own toy car which is slowly being modified as an almost purely track car.

Question now is, what can I do to improve the high-speed ride / handling of my pickup? Its Ford Ranger XLT. Again, I have a general idea of what to do, but I'm looking for specific suggestions from people who've been using diesel rides / SUV's / pick-ups / AUV's etc as their primary car.

Also, what about wheel alignment? I've had much success playing with my car's alignment specs. What about for pick-ups in general and the Ranger specifically? And tires? I still want all-terrain tires pero yung mas biased parin sana sa high-way. What are your recommendations?

Again, thanks! ;)

[roydok]

I was advised once to change the OEM shocks to good aftermarket ones. They say it may improve the ride quality. I am currently planning to do it with my Strada. :D

[Dakila7]

up ko lang... interesado ako sa mga isasagot nyo dito eh

[vinj]

On my pick-up, since i have no budget for a shock upgrade and wheel upgrade, i play around with the tire pressure... I get better road feel and stability at the 32psi (cold) range for all four tires.

On tires, it's nicer to play around with slightly wider tires (my stock Goodyear Wranglers are POS). On alignment, thats the achilles heel of my pick-up now... i cant seem to get it done perfectly the way i want it. Now i'm experiencing uneven tire wear (and to have some suspension parts checked).

SOme shops like the Ride, Carryboy and teh 4x4 shops sell aftermarket rear anti-sway bars, polyurethane bushings, shocks, etc for the pick-ups and 4x4's. I'm eyeing the Rancho gas shocks for my pick-up, they also have a model with adjustable dampening.

[RS Sprint]

Hmm, yun na nag rin naisip ko, better damped shocks like RANCHO or Old Man Emu. Worth it ba yung rear-sway bar upgrade? Sure, on cars OK siya, pero just how fast can you take a curve with a live-axle high CG truck? As for the tires, thanks! I forgot about the tire pressure!

[1.8T]

I have the 2001 Xl7 and it can max it to 115mph speedo limit, but the ride feels floaty. I would install better shocks/springs.
on twisty roads it can hang on with some of its small brothers,I was doing 75mph at reno's twisties, I have the stabilizer bar.

[splerdu]

the sway-bars are worth it, even more in a truck because it helps remove some of the "boatiness" of the ride. better damped shocks plus the swaybar will work very well.

all-terrain tires are nice, but if you spend most of your time on-road, i wouldn't suggest it. much less grip, much less stability all for the sake of looks. you'll experience longer stopping distances and lockups under braking on wet roads. if its just for the sake of looking good, you might as well get bigger wheels and lower profile street tires. the j-top pajero came stock with 18"s, so that might be a good starting point.

[RS Sprint]

Just had a fun drive in the pick-up. Hmm, ideas are: soften the rear suspension (spring rates, pwede ba yun sa leaf spring?) to help eliminate pitching and some softer compound street biased tires. Tires were locking up all too easily, even while heel-toeing.

Granted, I'm driving it like how I drive my car, and s**t it can haul serious a** for a diesel! :D

Wheel alignment is all wrong for my use of the pick-up. :roll: Dang drum brakes.

[splerdu]

OT: isn't it hard to heel-toe on a pickup? the pedals are usually way out of place..

[wildthing]

RS,

Soften rear suspension ba 'kamo?!? Yes that is possible...bawasan mo ang leafsprings ng at least isa....but your loading capacity ng pick-up severely decreases. Sabi ng iba just buy aftermarket leafsprings (mas softer ang rear yet you could load the same capacity) - but then again I don't have a first hand experience on that.

Another suggestion for performance improvement that I got from another pick-up site is to replace the brake lines (OEM are usually rubber hose) with a steel braided ones. It would give great improvement on the braking power with a "small" investment cost.

Second possible mods is to change the rear drum brakes to disk brakes...or isama mo na rin ang harapan and get those ventilated and bigger disk brakes.

Splerdu,

"isn't it hard to heel-toe on a pickup?" Not with a ranger....car po talaga halos ang configuration sa loob unlike typical pick-ups.... its pedals seems okay naman ang set-up.

my 2 cents.

[RS Sprint]

Splerdu,

When you get used to driving your car a lot on the track, kahit anong oto mamanehohin mo like it is a track car! ;)

Wildthing,

Yup I guess I can do that, but the Ranger is about a week old, so sayang yung factory warranty, baka ma-void. I'm waiting for the OE tires and the suspension to give so I'll have justifiable reason to buy the Old Man Emu suspension. ;)

As for the brakes, the stopping power is fine. My problem is the tires and suspension. The tire's grip are easily overpowered by the brakes and the suspension pitches too much under hard braking, further reducing load on the rear tires and helping them lock-up.

The SS brake lines are a bit too much, since the controls of the pick-up are on the soft side, which I would like to keep. If I oput them on, I'll be increasing pedal effort, the last thing I wanna do. ;)

Para hindi hassle ang daily driving sa traffic.

[vinj]

BTW, be careful on wet roads, based on experience, the rears tend to slide out unexpectedly or the rear brakes lock up easily when the truck has no load.

BTW, is your Ranger a 2.5 or 2.9?

[RS Sprint]

Its a 2.5 TD XLT.

I really think its the rear leaf springs that are too stiff.

Hmm, maybe I can remove ONE of the leaf springs......................... Hehehehehehehehehe ;)

Don't worry vinj, I'm somewhat of a crazy driver, driving the pick-up like my car, pero I'm not stupid to test its wet-weather capabilities YET especially since its a bnew truck for work, not play. :D

[ARB]

i also drive a pickup and the improvements ii make to make it handle better are

installed aftermarket shocks (OME) by the way works very good and durable. 5 yrs.

changed the rubber bushings in the sway bar in the front to polyurethanes.

got one leaf out and inverted the overload spring.

put a 60 kilo ballast in the rear so that rear tires will gain more traction in the curves and mud.

as for the tires i suggest you use dunlops pt1. softer compound for the street.


hope this would help imrove your pick up.

[splerdu]

i think you should stiffen the front to reduce nosedive. softening the rear will keep it from bouncing about, but under braking the car will still pitch if the front is soft.

interestingly, natutuwa ako paglaruan yung adjustable damping ng pajero. the nosedive on braking is reduced quite a bit by setting it to "hard" mode.

[RS Sprint]

splerdu,

As it is, the fronts are already stiff. Any stiffer and I'd get bounced off the road. You should know, yung Lancer mo masyado na matigas, kawawa ka nun sa STAR tollway. ;)

[splerdu]

actually, my car feels horribly slow and dim-witted everytime i leave the karting track. everything seems to be in slow motion, until i check the speedo and read 160kph =)

my suspension is progressive to an extent. the car doesn't quite bounce off (as tested along the c5 flyovers) as it used to under the harder settings. i'll try bringing the height down a bit and then see how the handling changes. tell me how your ranger works out, and your car too.