THE RANGER BOUNCE

[P. A. Schilke]

Like almost every vehicle they are over inflated for shipping and tie down on a truck, train, ship.

Okay Folks,

This myth gets told over and over. Tires are not inflated for shipping. The tires are installed at the Assembly plant with a pressure that guarantees the bead of the tire seats on the rim. PERIOD. The vehicle is shipped with what ever pressure the plant uses. There is no adjustment of tire pressure until the dealer gets the vehicle, which it is part of the pre delivery, but rarely done. Every dealer should adjust pressures before any vehicle is used for a test drive.

My tires were inflated to over 55psi....adjusted down to the door label of 30psi the following morning...much better ride.
Complained to the salesman, he stated the plant does this. Asked him to check predelivery, Which to his credit he did and returned my phone call to tell me he was wrong...Pressure is to be adjusted by the dealer.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

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[Rp930]

Okay Folks,

This myth gets told over and over. Tires are not inflated for shipping. The tires are installed at the Assembly plant with a pressure that guarantees the bead of the tire seats on the rim. PERIOD. The vehicle is shipped with what ever pressure the plant uses. There is no adjustment of tire pressure until the dealer gets the vehicle, which it is part of the pre delivery, but rarely done. Every dealer should adjust pressures before any vehicle is used for a test drive.

My tires were inflated to over 55psi....adjusted down to the door label of 30psi the following morning...much better ride.
Complained to the salesman, he stated the plant does this. Asked him to check predelivery, Which to his credit he did and returned my phone call to tell me he was wrong...Pressure is to be adjusted by the dealer.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

I stand corrected. I just know when I worked at the dealer I let a lot of air out on PDI’s. (Not Ford)

 

[soloer]

Be careful... there are a bunch of different tire size options and a variety of different pressures. What works on your truck may in no way be the same as what Soloer has. Because you have the same "Trim Level" vehicle doesn't mean you have the same tires.

Good point. My door does say 30 though, so I didn’t think twice about it. I’m going to set to 31 with the thought they will lose another pound when the weather gets cold this weekend.

 

[HenryMac]

Okay Folks,

This myth gets told over and over. Tires are not inflated for shipping. The tires are installed at the Assembly plant with a pressure that guarantees the bead of the tire seats on the rim. PERIOD. The vehicle is shipped with what ever pressure the plant uses. There is no adjustment of tire pressure until the dealer gets the vehicle, which it is part of the pre delivery, but rarely done. Every dealer should adjust pressures before any vehicle is used for a test drive.

My tires were inflated to over 55psi....adjusted down to the door label of 30psi the following morning...much better ride.
Complained to the salesman, he stated the plant does this. Asked him to check predelivery, Which to his credit he did and returned my phone call to tell me he was wrong...Pressure is to be adjusted by the dealer.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

It's not a myth. It's a carry over from factual information that used to be the way vehicles were shipped. No reason the factory couldn't drop the pressure to what is specified on the drivers door placard. They choose not to.

 

[oubbascooba]

I'm on 265/70/17 nitto ridge grappler (not LT's) at 30 psi, 4x4 crew cab. I bounce more than Will Smith. And yes, I contacted Nitto directly to get the correct pressure for my vehicle weight and tire size application. About to try sandbags in the rear to deter mine if it is rear weight deficient, or 4x4 component weight from the front.

 

[AzScorpion]

I'm on 265/70/17 nitto ridge grappler (not LT's) at 30 psi, 4x4 crew cab. I bounce more than Will Smith. And yes, I contacted Nitto directly to get the correct pressure for my vehicle weight and tire size application. About to try sandbags in the rear to deter mine if it is rear weight deficient, or 4x4 component weight from the front.

Try bumping up the tire pressure a little. I'm running the same tires but have mine at 32 psi cold and they're perfect,no bounce at all. I've never felt it was bouncy with the stock ones either though.

 

[djrobb]

I installed the rears Eibach shocks today and drove around for an hour or so. I have a 4x4 non-fx4. So I was upgrading stock shocks (not the Fox FX4 shocks). My intent was to reduce the bounciness and I got advice from Stage 3. A couple of notes:

First of all the shipping and customer service from Stage 3 was great. I’d definitely buy from them again. They were drop shipped from Eibach in California and arrived at my house in Virginia within a few days. The install isn’t complicated but was physical. The shocks are simply held on by a bolt at the top and bottom. #15 socket and the stock shock came right off. I tried to install the new ones without jacking up a tire. Maybe someone stronger would have more success! After jacking up the tire it was doable but still tough. Had to use a lot of strength to compress the shock and line up the bolt. Used a little pry bar to help. Anyway, I’m not sure I’d do that myself again.

From a driving perspective I do think the truck feels more planted and settles down more quickly after hitting bumps. It’s a moderate improvement for a cheap price. It’s peaked my interest in doing the front Eibach struts too but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Doing the rears isn't a drastic improvement but I do think it made a positive difference.

 

[Mokume]

I stand corrected. I just know when I worked at the dealer I let a lot of air out on PDI’s. (Not Ford)

Same here, the Lincoln-Mercury/Honda dealership where I used to work at would have our body shop guys PDI the American cars, Honda's were done by the mechanics and all of them had tires inlated to 50-55 psi.
Back then Japan produced cars compromised 90% of all Honda's we received, the rest where from Marysville, OH.
I recall when I first saw an '84 CRX, it reminded me of an overstyled Honda 600.

 

[DavidR]

It's not a myth. It's a carry over from factual information that used to be the way vehicles were shipped. No reason the factory couldn't drop the pressure to what is specified on the drivers door placard. They choose not to.

The myth part is that the tires are inflated to max pressure specifically for shipping purposes. I was recently talking to a friend who works at a tire store about this, and standard procedure for mounting new tires is to apply a bead sealant and then inflate the tire to max pressure to seat the bead, which will be somewhere around 50 or so for tires like we have. Then the tires are aired down to normal before returning to the customer. At least this is the procedure in his shop.

So the factory is just following standard tire mounting procedure, they're just not doing the final air-down step. I'm not sure why, presumably they could do it if they want, but it would add some time to the assembly process (pennies count when you're building millions of vehicles) so why not let the dealers do it as part of PDI is my guess.

 

[Gizmokid2005]

The myth part is that the tires are inflated to max pressure specifically for shipping purposes. I was recently talking to a friend who works at a tire store about this, and standard procedure for mounting new tires is to apply a bead sealant and then inflate the tire to max pressure to seat the bead, which will be somewhere around 50 or so for tires like we have. Then the tires are aired down to normal before returning to the customer. At least this is the procedure in his shop.

So the factory is just following standard tire mounting procedure, they're just not doing the final air-down step. I'm not sure why, presumably they could do it if they want, but it would add some time to the assembly process (pennies count when you're building millions of vehicles) so why not let the dealers do it as part of PDI is my guess.

I noticed yesterday that even during PDI, my tires are still at 40PSI all around. I need to get out in the rain and drop them down to the placard (35?) and see if that softens up a bit of the ride a little. Though even at 40 things aren't bad IMO.

 

[Mokume]

The myth part is that the tires are inflated to max pressure specifically for shipping purposes. I was recently talking to a friend who works at a tire store about this, and standard procedure for mounting new tires is to apply a bead sealant and then inflate the tire to max pressure to seat the bead, which will be somewhere around 50 or so for tires like we have. Then the tires are aired down to normal before returning to the customer. At least this is the procedure in his shop.

So the factory is just following standard tire mounting procedure, they're just not doing the final air-down step. I'm not sure why, presumably they could do it if they want, but it would add some time to the assembly process (pennies count when you're building millions of vehicles) so why not let the dealers do it as part of PDI is my guess.

So true about time is money, I would not want to be the person tasked with airing down thousands of tires.
Can you imagine the poor sap that had to screw on all those door lock knobs when cars had those?

 

[T-Wrecks]

I'm trying to figure out what you guys are talking about. When you describe it as a "bounce" I think wallowing (no rebound dampening) so the rear will keep going up and down for several cycles like the shocks are worn out. Airing down tires typically makes this worse. Or is it a harsh ride causing the rear to jump over bumps? That's too much compression and/or heavy springs. Airing down will help this. So what is it?

All I can feel is a bit of harshness over bumps, it's not bad. I just picked up the truck a week ago so haven't check my tires but Fordpass says tire pressures are 44 all around. I will air them down to the recommend 30 which should make it ride even better, which I thought was pretty good already (better than my old Ranger and S10 ZR2 which were both off-road versions).

 

[DavidR]

I'm trying to figure out what you guys are talking about. When you describe it as a "bounce" I think wallowing (no rebound dampening) so the rear will keep going up and down for several cycles like the shocks are worn out. Airing down tires typically makes this worse. Or is it a harsh ride causing the rear to jump over bumps? That's too much compression and/or heavy springs. Airing down will help this. So what is it?

All I can feel is a bit of harshness over bumps, it's not bad. I just picked up the truck a week ago so haven't check my tires but Fordpass says tire pressures are 44 all around. I will air them down to the recommend 30 which should make it ride even better, which I thought was pretty good already (better than my old Ranger and S10 ZR2 which were both off-road versions).

I think it's a little bit of a combination. Ours is an FX4, and it definitely is a bit underdamped in terms of less rebound damping. If you get it rocking while parked with no load and then let go, it rocks 3 or 4 more times before settling out, whereas our old '93 Ranger damps in one rebound. It's better for off-road ride. I spent a week in Utah last month, and with that tuning and the tires aired down to 15 front and 25 rear (We have a popup camper on the rear), I went down some pretty wash-boarded dirt roads feeling almost like I was on pavement - way nicer than the '93. But it's a bit wallowy on-road. After a few months, I'm used to it now to the point that I only notice it in a few situations where the surface of the road happens to accentuate it.

It also does respond a little harshly over larger bumps, but to me, with the tires at the recommended 30 psi, it doesn't seem worse than I would expect from a truck that also needs to be able to carry ~1500 lbs. of payload.

 

[quirkybar8]

Hi John,

I can't answer these questions as I was not part of the development of the 5G FX4. Back when Marketing proposed the FX4, my Vehicle Dynamics engineer Doug S and I developed the Brand to mean something above the STX in off road performance on the compact Ranger 4x4 truck. How the team chose to develop the 5G to be true to the brand, I have no knowledge of that they chose for the suspension dynamics.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

I test drove and thought about buying an '03 FX4 Level II. Loved that it had real upgrades to it, including the Torsen locker, KO's and Bilsteins. If only I had lived where it could have been put to good use. Anyway, kudos to those of you who made it happen.

 

[Travis_88]

Found my Ranger bounce fix:
1. Towed something with heavy tongue weight for 2000 miles (Max allowable-700 lbs+.)
2. Replace rear shocks (Preferred 2.0 Fox $250)
3. Place at least 3 sandbags in bed forward of wheel wells (60lbs each for total of 180lbs)

Result: Truck now level and an absolute dream to drive.

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