Hard to drive F250

Tires?

Tires were my first guess but it has always been squirrelly. Tires have been rotated, pressure adjusted etc., etc. He has driven a similar truck with the same tires and it is completely different. I am suspicious of the Camper Package Springs. He does not actually have a camper installed, and mostly drives the truck around lightly loaded.

Ed

Steering box or linkage? Rear wheel alignment? If the rear axle is out of alignment the truck will dogleg down the road.

Stephen N.

What tires are on it, size and load rating and how much pressure is he running in them? Over inflated "for the load" tires can result in a squirrelly handling vehicle.

Whitelightning

As well as size too (oversized rubber) Ford changed the front suspension desig in 05 and caster adjustment is difficult now and improper caster ( axle knuckle pivot pin angle from front to rear) can have a very big effect on stright line stabilty at time.. Also, I have never seen "squirrly handle from over inflated tires that were properly sized for vehicle but I habe seen it from under inflated ones.

----------------- The SnoMan

The Front end of my 2006 F250 4wd FX4 package Shakes so bad when you hit a pothole at 70mph the front end shakes as if the truck is coming apart. The truck is completely stock tires at the right pressure. I have talked to others I have run come across with the same model and they have the same problem. It seems to be a design issue.

I have a 2001 Excursion which had the same problems when the tires were too hard. May be completely different than this case, but overall sounds the same with the control issues.

I dropped the tire pressure from 60 lbs to the recommended 45 front and 55 rear (D load tires) and the problem is gone - I had always kept them hard no matter what I was doing - my mistake I guess....

Good luck...

Your mistake correction is costing you a little MPG too. The reason it helped your truck is because the increased rolling resistance cause by reduced air pressures changed the effective alignment of front end. If it is properly aligned, it will not be so sensitive to tire pressure.

----------------- The SnoMan

That's a good tidbit to know - at 12.9 MPG average I can use every little bit I can get.

Thanks.

Yes tire pressure, size and tread design can have a noticeable effect on MPG. you will get best MPG with smooth stock type tires at or near max rated pressure. (it will not help the ride comfort thought at times)

----------------- The SnoMan