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Explorer gets bouncy/kinda like floating above 80mph

Ditto. My V8 shifts at 5000rpm every day, and it happens easily about 20 times a day. I have to stop along some highway areas a bunch, and back roads without much passing space, so setting still and being easy with the gas just creates longer conflicts with drivers behind me. I hit the gas as needed to get up and beyond average speed, to reduce the amount of conflict with other cars. It's harder on the brakes absolutely, but my engines have done just fine at high throttle, any amount and as often as needed.

Give it the beans.
 



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Has anyone ever ran the Monroe load adjusting shocks with an add-a-leaf? The rear is starting to sag again, so an AAL is cheaper than getting a new pack. I want to know if there will be to much spring in the rear with both the shocks and the leaf? I don't care if the ride is super stiff as long as it's safe and not sitting low.
 






It’ll work, but will be less effective than a new pack.
 






It’ll work, but will be less effective than a new pack.
Alright, I might just get an f150 leaf and add it into my pack. I know that's a common thing since they are the same width. Since I don't want to buy a new stock pack that's just going to sag in a few years.
 






Has anyone ever ran the Monroe load adjusting shocks with an add-a-leaf? The rear is starting to sag again, so an AAL is cheaper than getting a new pack. I want to know if there will be to much spring in the rear with both the shocks and the leaf? I don't care if the ride is super stiff as long as it's safe and not sitting low.
Safe is a mixed bag with these vehicles. If you make the spring support too stiff, then the suspension rebound doesn't keep the tires in contact with the road as well on uneven road, beyond just getting bouncy stiff.

At the same time I feel like that's still a fair trade off to have body control on such a high center of mass vehicle.

How long have you had the Morone Load Adjust shocks? Maybe they are worn out. It happens.

I'd look at it more as a matter of whether you are hauling heavy loads. If so, add a leaf, but if not, a new spring pack will restore better vehicle ride quality but by that I mean, even new these had pretty busy ride quality without a load in the back.

The other thing I think about is, I have the Monroe Load Adjust shocks, but winter roads are salted here, and I wonder how much longer my shock upper crossmember can handle that. It already caused me to replace both my lower shock mount plates but those are bolt-on/trivial compared to the upper cross member. In other words, I would replace the entire spring pack before add a leaf plus depending on the Monroe shocks for the rest but again it is due to rust issues in my region.

New/stock-spec parts are a clear path to factory ride quality. Everything else is an experiment. How much is it sagging? What my plan was, is since my rear leaf spring shackles were rusting out anyway so need replaced, to just add 1/2" to 1" from longer shackles, then when that added lift is less than level in the future, replace the monroe load adjust shocks under warranty and rightly so since they are no longer providing the lift which was their purpose.
 






Safe is a mixed bag with these vehicles. If you make the spring support too stiff, then the suspension rebound doesn't keep the tires in contact with the road as well on uneven road, beyond just getting bouncy stiff.

At the same time I feel like that's still a fair trade off to have body control on such a high center of mass vehicle.

How long have you had the Morone Load Adjust shocks? Maybe they are worn out. It happens.

I'd look at it more as a matter of whether you are hauling heavy loads. If so, add a leaf, but if not, a new spring pack will restore better vehicle ride quality but by that I mean, even new these had pretty busy ride quality without a load in the back.

The other thing I think about is, I have the Monroe Load Adjust shocks, but winter roads are salted here, and I wonder how much longer my shock upper crossmember can handle that. It already caused me to replace both my lower shock mount plates but those are bolt-on/trivial compared to the upper cross member. In other words, I would replace the entire spring pack before add a leaf plus depending on the Monroe shocks for the rest but again it is due to rust issues in my region.
I've only had them for about 4-5 months. I'm kinda going it to the direction of lifting it 2 inch's so I thought messing around and changing leafs would be the best route. It's currently got rebound, when I hit speed bumps or bad pot holes so I'm use to dealing with that. Though I like the added stiffness of the Monroe's since it takes corners better. The biggest issue currently is if I level the front suspension with the rear, the front sits 1 inch off the bump stop. That is causing a very painful ride since it has no travel. If I can get the rear end up 2 inch's (at minimum I'd like a little more), then I can get the front up and off the stops.
 






How many people here regularly drive 80 mph? My motor is stock from the heads down and the transmission is original too. It drives great in the city but I feel like something would eventually blow up after an hour of doing 2,500 rpm on the highway, due to the age of the powertrain. Or am I paranoid?
:burnout:
I do. The highway speed limit here is 80. I get to that almost daily and cruise about 90-95 out of town. I will take it slow on tight turns and my gas milage is just over 11 a lot of the time, but part of that is oversized tires and 4.10 gears. I've had my truck for about 25-30k miles, and well over 1/2 of that is highway miles

Now when you are going 90 and a deer jumps in front of you that gets a bit crazy. I swear I almost had a 4 door on 2 wheels once. My 2-door SOHC seems to handle it fine though. It's not crazy stable, but i've learned to drive it where it handles fine. It's a bit slow to get to 95 right now because my fuel pressure regulator is failing, but i've had it to 110.

It's been a nice read here. I kinda want to try swapping out the torsion bars (don't remember the code, but I looked it up once and mine were the loosest ones) but on the other hand I don't want it super tight on dirt roads.
 












I put new bilstein 4600 shocks and new front end components on and was extremely disappointed with the amount of chatter I was getting on gravel roads. Eventually broke down and replaced the inner sway bar bushings up front and it’s a significant improvement. I haven’t replaced the rears yet but typically slop in the front suspension is much more noticeable than the rear.

80mph is perfectly stable, hell I’ll run a good 75mph pace down gravel roads, smooths the washboards out, don’t typically drive that fast through the hills at that speed maneuvering options are limited and I don’t have a cage…

The SLA torsion bar setup is pretty good as far as street handling and stability (most of the stability issues comes from the fast turning rack and steering and stock alignment settings I think, as long as you’re not getting airborne or smacking the bump stops it’s pretty solid.
 






It’s the shocks job to dampen the up and down movement, not the spring (a spring can’t). You need stiffer or new shocks. At or over 80 you’re in the single digits mpg wise.

If you’re bouncing 6 times on a single bump, your truck isn’t suitable to drive like that and you need to slow down before you kill someone. Tighten up your truck, or slow down.
Just thought you might be interested to hear, but I've just got back from a 250 mile trip averaging 75+ and about half of that doing 80mph, and I'm getting 17.5 MPG highway.

To be fair though, when I first got my SOHC in 2019, I was hitting 24 mpg average and got as high as 29 mpg highway (stock) but mpg has decreased down to 16 city and 18-19 highway in the last year and a half.
 






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