Bed tilts at tailgate, level at cab

[Sturat59]

Doing some mucking around on my B4000, noticed bed tilts down about 1/2" at the tailgate, passenger side but looks level at the cab. I'm thinking I'll loosen the u-bolts that hold the axle to the leaf springs, jack up a little on the trailer hitch and put a shim made of metal flat bar I can get at Home Depot in between axle and springs. I figure if it's 1/2" low in back and level in front then maybe 1/4" shim at the axle ought to do it? Does this sound reasonable? (yes I know how anal I am)

 

[adsm08]

No, that will not level the bed. If that is the biggest problem you have on a 7 year old vehicle then you need to go be thankful and not bitch about it.

A 1/4" shim will not leave the front alone, nor will it bring the rear up half an inch. I'd start by look at the body bushings to find the problem.

(yes I know how anal I am)

This is the problem you should be trying to fix.

 

[Sturat59]

Guess I was looking for the easy fix.

 

[96firephoenix]

Don't take this the wrong way, but if you think that putting a spacer on the leaf spring is an acceptable way to get rid of a bed twist, please do not work on your truck.

Or at the very least tell us what roads to avoid you on.

If you want an actual solution instead of my smart-ass-ness, pull the Pass. rearward 2 bolts from the bed, pick it up a touch, then slip 1 washer under the forward of the two, between the bed and the frame, then put 2 washers under the rearward of the two.

 

[Sturat59]

I'm not sure why you would need to avoid me, I probably would have torqued down the u-bolts to where my truck would not spontaneously fly apart. Had already thought about the bed-to-frame bolts, they're a pain because of the bed liner coating and thought a little differential lift might work. My real gripe is why I even have this problem in a truck that only occasionally does heavy work. I'm suspecting Ford's frontwards/backwards shock placement. Is that supposed to do some kind of great job of keeping the live axle under control or something?

 

[96firephoenix]

Its the "probably would have" that has me worried, more than my original concern. I was mostly concerned about when you put a heavy load in the truck and now it crabwalks down the road...

As for why Ford did the suspension the way they did, it is worth noting that the mounts are identical for both sides - much cheaper to do it this way than separate parts for each side.

 

[adsm08]

Stu, go hang up the wrenches and the ideas. Please.

The shock arrangement is mostly for clearance. This will not cause your issue, because the shocks don't do anything to hold the vehicle up, or down, unless something else is really wrong.

Now if your bed bolts are under a spray-in bed liner what you need to do is take the truck back to the place that did the liner and tell them to do it again, and do it right this time. That means taking the bolts out before putting the liner down and then putting them back in after it has hardened.


I'm gonna go back to my original premise which is you really need to find something better to worry about and stop trying to fix this. It has been my experience that the people who are most anal about minor appearance stuff like this also are the least anal about getting a correct fix. The word used to describe an incorrect fix is "dangerous".