Fox 2.0 suspension kit on washboard roads

[NvrFinished]

Does anyone with the standard Fox 2.0 or Ford Fox 2.0 kit have experience with them on washboard roads? If so, how did it perform? Much of my off road excursions are in the desert southwest where you can sometimes encounter a few miles of these roads at a time. The stock suspension is horrible for this and was wondering how the Fox kits performed.

Icons tend to be stiffer in the choppy slower stuff, so this is why I wanted to get feedback on the Fox kits.

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[runner69]

I drive plenty of washboard roads on our way to climb 14ers. My ranger is an FX4 and I put the Ford/Fox kit in. The stock FX4 was a little smoother on the washboard but the Ford/Fox does much better on everything else. The F/F was worth doing for the other 75% of the time

 

[NvrFinished]

I drive plenty of washboard roads on our way to climb 14ers. My ranger is an FX4 and I put the Ford/Fox kit in. The stock FX4 was a little smoother on the washboard but the Ford/Fox does much better on everything else. The F/F was worth doing for the other 75% of the time

Thanks for the info.

 

[Alpinist]

Thanks for the info.

It's been my experience that air pressure helps most with washboards. We've got a ton of them here in the NW, airing down seems to help. A little.

 

[jcru1017]

Does anyone with the standard Fox 2.0 or Ford Fox 2.0 kit have experience with them on washboard roads? If so, how did it perform? Much of my off road excursions are in the desert southwest where you can sometimes encounter a few miles of these roads at a time. The stock suspension is horrible for this and was wondering how the Fox kits performed.

I was curious about this too. I have the Ford/fox 2.0 and wanted to know how it performs going faster on dirt roads, washboards, etc

 

[NvrFinished]

It's been my experience that air pressure helps most with washboards. We've got a ton of them here in the NW, airing down seems to help. A little.

Yes, I know that airing down helps. Sometimes though, it's not worth doing that for the few miles on the washboard.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Does anyone with the standard Fox 2.0 or Ford Fox 2.0 kit have experience with them on washboard roads? If so, how did it perform? Much of my off road excursions are in the desert southwest where you can sometimes encounter a few miles of these roads at a time. The stock suspension is horrible for this and was wondering how the Fox kits performed.

Icons tend to be stiffer in the choppy slower stuff, so this is why I wanted to get feedback on the Fox kits.

Hi Shea,

We have washboard roads in cement on our proving grounds at Ford. We call then sinewaves. Both two inch crest to trough and 4 inch crest to trough. Both surfaces are some 300 ft long. We drive them and various speeds until we hit vehicle resonances for the purpose of understanding resonant responds. For example...during the Formula SAE competition at Ford, I was director of Operations for dynamic events, and for the static events, my secretary and I hosted tours of our Dearborn Proving Grounds and included the sinewaves in the tour... We were in a Econoline 15 passenger bus, I was the narrator and Carol was the driver. We approached the 2 inch sineways at 13 mph and the steering column went crazy... Then we hit the 4 inch sinewaves and no response...The college kids were blown away.

So when on washboard roads that are terrible....Speed up...you can smooth out almost all of them with speed...you get to where the tires just skip over the tops like it is a smooth road. Living in the Green Valley area...we have old mining camps that are on washboard roads. On one, Margie was being beat to beat the band, so I sped up..she complained but found the ride smoothed out to the point of being a non issue.

Okay....your suspension upgrade should not be determined by washboard roads unless you do not want to change your speed. FX4 on my Ranger at some 37 mph to the Helvetiaa mining camp are quite smooth. At 15 mph...pure hell.... Other washboards require you to vary the speed to smooth out the dirt road.

Choose your suspension on other than washboard roads... JMO...

Best,
Phil

 

[Pinepig]

It's been my experience that air pressure helps most with washboards. We've got a ton of them here in the NW, airing down seems to help. A little.

Yep, I have the Ford fox and airing down to 25 or so makes it much much better.

 

[WOADKIL]

So when I did tons of off roading in my lifted ‘95 EB 4x4 Explorer, as an engineer I always observed and wondered why almost all washboard roads had nearly the same pitch (bump to bump distance). How does “nature”/truck tires create such similarities in such varied locations.

Just wondering….

 

[Sako887]

I have an FX4 and got the Ford performance fox 2.0’s. 265/70r17 toyo open country at3. On washboards, the fx4 suspension was definitely smoother, but the 2.0’s are better in every other aspect. More compliant on curvy roads, and did a better job at not bottoming out off road over a variety of terrain. It definitely settled down the rear end, less rocking side to side. I usually air down to 22-24. In my experience, you risk debeading the tire with anything lower than that.

That being said, I wish more people would have brought up how sensitive/active the front end is over small bumps with the 2.0’s. There’s definitely more road feel.

I recently got the icon leaf packs in the rear, and that definitely smoothed out the rear (softer leaf than the stock leafs and handles weight better) Night and day difference. In my opinion, the icon leaf packs with the 2.0’s in the rear would be the perfect setup to soften the washboards and maintain a very comfortable ride.

 

[dondonbabyraptor]

Question. Forgive me I am a noob to trucks. When I off-road on washboards and I speed up I notice it’s easy for the truck tires to start changing directions accidentally from the bumps. Is that normal? Or… Not gripping the steering wheel hard enough to keep it straight? Not good enough front suspension(only have fox rears and non fx4)?

This is the only thing preventing me from going past 20-25 mph as it seems I don’t want to hit a bump wrong and the truck goes into a rock or off a mountain. I air down to 25 with the hankooks but I haven’t tried 25 or lower with the falken wildpeaks. I’d imagine it’s a lot better with the off road tires aired down.

 

[Flowgod]

I have the ford fox kit and it has performed really well on the dirt roads where I travel. Like said by a lot of people, speed and tire pressure make a big difference. I never went off road with my stock suspension so I cant really compare

 

[RecoilOperated]

So when I did tons of off roading in my lifted ‘95 EB 4x4 Explorer, as an engineer I always observed and wondered why almost all washboard roads had nearly the same pitch (bump to bump distance). How does “nature”/truck tires create such similarities in such varied locations.

Just wondering….

I found a decent explanation on the website below; from the several sources I read through it sounds like the concept of washboarding is still being studied. Also I am not an engineer so there might be better explanations out there that are just above my paygrade.

https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/ranch-life/what-causes-washboard-roads.htm

 

[NvrFinished]

I have an FX4 and got the Ford performance fox 2.0’s. 265/70r17 toyo open country at3. On washboards, the fx4 suspension was definitely smoother, but the 2.0’s are better in every other aspect. More compliant on curvy roads, and did a better job at not bottoming out off road over a variety of terrain. It definitely settled down the rear end, less rocking side to side. I usually air down to 22-24. In my experience, you risk debeading the tire with anything lower than that.

That being said, I wish more people would have brought up how sensitive/active the front end is over small bumps with the 2.0’s. There’s definitely more road feel.

I recently got the icon leaf packs in the rear, and that definitely smoothed out the rear (softer leaf than the stock leafs and handles weight better) Night and day difference. In my opinion, the icon leaf packs with the 2.0’s in the rear would be the perfect setup to soften the washboards and maintain a very comfortable ride.

Thanks much. This is the type of information I was looking for. I know that it's difficult to get a somewhat comfortable ride over washboards. I also know that going with larger shock can many times make it worse. Some are worse than others and why I wanted to get an idea of how these shocks performed. I'm looking to add the Icon rear leaf springs as well and this is the first I've heard of how they work with the Ford Fox shocks.

 

[NvrFinished]

Question. Forgive me I am a noob to trucks. When I off-road on washboards and I speed up I notice it’s easy for the truck tires to start changing directions accidentally from the bumps. Is that normal?

Yes, this is normal. The reason it's harder to control direction is because the tire contact patch is only coming in contact with the high points of the ripples you are riding over. Lower tire pressure reduces the jarring you feel when the tire comes in contact with those points.

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