Bobble head ride?

[scrmblr2]

Hey all,
So I just rolled over 2000 miles on my 23 3500 drw w/so Cummins. I have run into a few locations where the spacing/frequency on the highway results ina quite uncomfortable bouncing to the point the wife doesn’t want to ride in the truck. That means no family trips in the beast ram. This is likely due to the empty bed and the valving of the factory shocks?

I have read some chamge the front shocks, or the rears, and sometime all 4. If I want to go and try a bilstein 4600 upgrade, what is the general consensus on whether I should do:
Just the fronts?
Just the rears?
All 4 corners?
To attempt a cure of the unloaded harmonic bouncing I get on the highway?

FYI, truck does NOT have factory air suspension but I am considering a possible addition of bags in the future.

 

[Adam06]

I have the same issue but on a srw. I would also like a softer ride but not compromise on load. Any one have any thoughts?

 

[jsalbre]

What pressure are you running the tires at?

 

[scrmblr2]

Currently,
Been playing around with 60-70 in the front and 45-55 in the rears unloaded. That has def made the ride nicer but has not really addressed the bobble head on certain sections of highway.

 

[jsalbre]

That's definitely too high for unloaded. I'd guesstimate you're about 10 psi high front and rear, but to know for sure you should check the tire inflation chart for whatever tires you're running.

That being said, you are driving a 3500, so it's not going to be smooth if you're comparing it to passenger cars or 1500 trucks.

 

[AH64ID]

Currently,
Been playing around with 60-70 in the front and 45-55 in the rears unloaded. That has def made the ride nicer but has not really addressed the bobble head on certain sections of highway.

Drop the rears down to 35, 25 would probably be a good around town pressure empty but not for highway travel.

The fronts really depends on weight. For a 5,500lbs front axle you can drop down to 70
psi. For 5,000lbs you can drop down to 60 psi.

 

[joshuaeb09]

Since you don't have factory air you could look into sulastic shackles to help with the unloaded ride quality from the stiff leafs. I highly doubt they'd take out all of the expansion joint bounce, but I've ridden in a few DRW's from the big 3 with them equipped and they do help make a difference in the empty ride.

Different shocks can help with the issue, but if the truck is a 4x4 with the offroad package, then you already have 4600s on all 4 corners. If not I've never had 4600s "cure" the expansion problem - some trucks they helped a little others they didn't do squat.

 

[IndyRamMega]

Do thuren front coils and all 4 fox 2.0 shocks....ran that setup on my 22 drw and rode alot better...