2011 thru 2016 Ford F250/F350 SRW Spring Rates

Thanks Powerdude for letting me know of your experiences. I think you're just confirming what I know I'll have to do in order to get a good ride. I'll experiment with tire pressure and then change the shocks if tire pressure adjustments don't do any good and then as a last resort and probably necessary is change the springs.

There are some videos on youtube about changing the Super Duty springs and it looks like a very simple job.

When I bought my truck (2016 in my sig), I test drove a couple of trucks that had both the camper and the snow plow packages. They rode pretty stiff.

On the freeway, you could feel the up and down motion of the concrete in a serious way.

I eventually bought from a different dealer my truck, which only had the truck camper package. I could definitely tell the difference between both packages, and just the truck camper.

The truck camper package bumps the springs up one in terms of weight rating. Plus the snow plow package bumps you up one. So you are up two steps of springs, quite likely all the way to max spring rating.

That's F350 heavy suspension package equivalent. My butt would hurt.

I use 65 psi in the front of my dodge/Cummins with LT265/70-17" E pulling a 10k car hauler.....a 11200 lb 5th wheel rv.....a 16k GN triaxle stock trailer. And 70 psi in the rears when pulling my trailers.
The 5th wheel and GN trailers don't change my trucks front axle weights when hooked. Even the 10k bumper pull car hauler only adds about 1000 lbs on the back of the 2wd Dodge which raises front bumper measured height about 1/4".
A previous 2500 chevy 2wd 5.7 engine long bed with LT245/75-16 E worked great with 55 psi in the fronts......and 35 psi in the rear with a empty truck.
I run my LT tires from around 50k miles on up to 115k miles. I'm all rural and highway out here with no city to drive in so I'm easy on tires.

Use different pressures and see which rides better and still get good service and wear.

JIMNLIN wrote:
use this from Fleet Ford. Scroll down about 75-80 percent for front and rear spring ratings. Looks like 4000/4400/4800/5200/5600/6000 lbs rating on the 4x4 in all those years. Does your truck have the camper package or heavy service package ??
https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/topics/techspec.html

You won't find spring rating on the door tag certification placard...just FAWR/RAWR/GVWR.

Thanks JIMNLIN, that's what I was looking for. I have the camper package and snow plow package. I won't ever use a snow plow so I really don't need the heavy springs so I may look into have them changed or change them myself. A 4,800 lb. stock rating vs a 5,600 is quite a bit of difference so that may be where my problem is coming from.

I think I lowered the front pressure to 65 but left the rear alone. I think I'll experiment with the rear pressure before I spend any money.

Thanks for all replies.

danrclem wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

danrclem wrote:
I have a 2011 Ford F250 SRW, SC, 4X4, 6.2 with FX4, camper and snow plow prep packages. It has 48,000 miles on it. It rides well except when driving over choppy pavement and then it seems to dance. I'm just wondering how much these heavier springs that is on it contributes to the ride. I bought it recently and thought that it had a second pair of shocks on it but am second guessing that assumption and am going to buy a new pair for the front and the back.

For those of you who have the 4X4, 6.2, FX4 camper and snow plow packages what are your ride experiences?

My springs are DD on the front that have a 5,600# rating and LL on the rear that have a 6,100# rating. If you would please post your spring rates for your F250/F350 SRW trucks. This information can be found on your driver's side door tag. If the shocks don't work to my satisfaction I'll change my springs to the lightest ones for my model in order to achieve a better ride. Thanks

Empty or loaded?

What air pressure are you using?

The stock tire size and rating takes up to 80 PSI, running 80 PSI empty will shake the fillings out of your teeth!

You can safely drop your tire pressure from 80 PSI when empty, that will go a long ways to making the ride comfortable..

65 PSI is typically the low pressure limit for the TPMS on the F250s so I typically run 70 PSI in the front and 68 PSI in the rear when empty..

I would try that before making drastic changes to springs or even shocks.

It does it both ways but is actually worse when unloaded. I tried lowering the pressure in the tires but if that helped it wasn't much. All of the problem seems to be coming from the front.

Does anybody know what the lightest axle rating for an F250 of this year?

Axles ARE the same other than the fact you have the PLOW PACKAGE which will have a slightly higher spring rating.

I have 2wd which will not help you for spring ratings..

What you want would be the PART NUMBERS for the non plow package front springs.

Just realize however, IF you are planning to use a plow, changing the springs on the front will cause problems when the plow is on.

Personally, you could just go to a spring shop and have them custom build and install a set of springs with a slightly less rating.

You didn't say how much you lowered the pressure, but if it was only a few pounds try 65 in the front and 64 in the rear when empty.

Typically I find running the rear a couple of pounds lower than the front makes for a pretty decent ride when empty.. Too much in the rear and it gets bumpy when empty..

The TPMS on mine triggers around 62-63 so those numbers should be OK.

When loaded, you can experiment with pressures to find the butter zone provided you are not loaded to the max capacity..

I will typically run my front tires a couple of pounds lower than the rear when loaded. Typically run 80 PSI in the rear and 78 in the front while towing.

I had an older F250 and the best thing that I ever did was put Rancho 9000's on it so I could soften them when unloaded and stiffen them up when loaded.

use this from Fleet Ford. Scroll down about 75-80 percent for front and rear spring ratings. Looks like 4000/4400/4800/5200/5600/6000 lbs rating on the 4x4 in all those years. Does your truck have the camper package or heavy service package ??
https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/topics/techspec.html

You won't find spring rating on the door tag certification placard...just FAWR/RAWR/GVWR.

I have the diesel with the snow plow front springs. The camper package would add stiffer springs to the rear and that should be OK. The standard rear springs were extremely soft as stated above. I replaced my stock shocks with Bilsteins and that made the ride worse, especially on stutter type bumps, but control was improved a bit. To eliminate the excessive sag when loaded, I added air bags on the rear.

Other than replacing shocks, I have no good answer for you. Reducing spring rate will give a better ride but reduces the weight carrying ability of the truck.

I don't say do it or not, but I contacted Michelin regarding my 2015 F350 after weighing both front and rear and 40lb not to low ither front or rear with the tyers on the truck as supplied by Ford, but they could not recommend it for liability issues. I used about 65 so pressure senders not going off.
Frank.

Gdetrailer wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Don't have either 250 anymore but the 13&15 models I had were probably the squishy est springs I've seen on a 3/4 ton.
But as mentioned lower the tires to about 40 psi in the rear and try that first if you're running high pressure

40 PSI on those tires with the weight of that vehicle you may as well consider them flat.. You might get away with that pressure on sand, but on pavement not so much..

I have a 2013, and never would consider running lower than 60 PSI, otherwise you WILL take the outside edges right off the tires and they ARE extremely expensive tires at $250 each.

I find on my 2013 68-72 PSI to be the compromise number for ideal tire wear and decent ride when empty.

Loaded, I DO run them at max sidewall pressure.

It amazes me when people recommend running 40psi in a 8,000lb HD truck. I run 65psi regardless of load.