The other day I catually hydroplaned and moved into the other lane on a bumpy road. Mind you, this is the first time this has happened to this extreme but, annoying and dangerous. Chevy is advertising hydraulic shocks for a smoother ride??? I hope, if effective, Ford can retrofit previous model years when they introduce this.

PS: my Lariat has heated mirrors but to my dismay, no rear window defrost. What sense does that make? I just presumed that with all the other features that I wouldn't have to verify rear window defrost. If so, that's pathetic.

 

Umm....what kind of shocks do you think you have on your truck now? All passenger shocks have a certain amount of oil in them and then charged with nitrogen. I looked all over Chevy's site and I couldn't find any mention of a "new and improved" shock. Either way unless they invented something completely new (doubt it) then its just a standard shock that they buy from somebody. At most it would have custom valving in it.

Now you said you hydroplaned on a rough road. Which was it, did you hydroplane or did the back end just fishtail? If it actually hydroplaned then the shocks don't make much difference. A good tire is what you need. If it was a rough road then just lose the crappy stock shocks for a set of good ones. You'd be supprised what a set of Bilstiens with Superduty specific valving will do for the ride.


You do seem pretty upset with the new truck, maybe its time to trade. You like Chevy's shocks and rear window defrost, so it seems like the right choice. Every truck I've ever owned I never expected much out of the stock tires or shocks, and I can't say I've ever missed having a rear window defrost. The mirror defrost IS nice though.

 

Me thinks you were going a little too fast if you were hydroplaning. Not really the vehicles fault

Also, go look at a couple of brochures for new vehicles, my coworker was telling me how the Nissan Pathfinder now has some great feature that "senses when your back tires lose traction and it puts power to the front tires" or something along those lines. He said they just invented it, yet my 1999 Expy had an A4WD set up also.

Every car company advertises crap that they make sound so advanced, yet it is plain old 4WD, or shocks, or "Auto Leveling cars" aka Air Bags. Besides Quadra-Steer or whatever it was chevy offered, most vehicles are exactly the same with slightly different layouts and different components.

 

Yeah, I realize shocks are hydraulic by nature. It was just a potentially dangerous event. Thankfully, no one was next to me. City road no faster than 40mph. Even my passanger asked me if the truck left the road. I notice this with the front end or rear end, at times. Never both at the same time though. Other than that point, and if I don't have rear defrost, I'm still not entirely certain, everything is great. I forgot that this site can be extrmely sensitive at times regarding "Ford". Forgive me for not saying Ford is great, first... Chevy is advertising hydraulic body mounts, whatever that is, for a more comfortable ride. Hell, even one positve review on the 2011 F250 I read said they wished Ford would have icluded this for a better ride. I wish so too! I will have to consider that Bilstien comment down the road. MFG's Gotta save something for the next model year.

 

You do realize you're complaining about how you drove too fast for the conditions and put people in danger, right?

If you want a smoother ride, keep 1000 pounds+ in the bed at all time.

As for the rear defrost, not everyone wants to pay for it, so it's an option. It's pretty much a premium feature because a lot of our trucks have done fine without it.

 

Are you sure you aren't referring to the new hydraulic body mounts that Chevy is touting?

Retrofitting Hydraulic Body Mounts

 

I never noticed that Chevy has hydro body mounts now. Dodge also came out with it for 2011, so its not really just 1 mfg doing it. Our 2011 Dodge 5500s at work have them on it, and while it does something I can't really say it did a whole heck of alot. When it comes right down to it, you're still driving an 8k+ 3/4 or 1 ton truck. They're not going to be Cadillacs, but they are getting alot closer.

As for the Ford comment, if there is something wrong with one of their trucks there are at least a few people on here who will call it out. Heck I don't even have my F250 anymore, I traded for a Dodge so take my earlier comments with a grain of salt I guess.

 

Yeah, the body mounts. Don't know if they work?

 

Let me go way out on a limb here and suggest that hydraulic body mounts will have a very limited effect on hydroplaning. Tires (and speed) have the most effect. Unfortunately, OEM tires generally suck.

 

1- It's hydraulic body mount
2- Rear defrost window is an OPTION.

 

1.) Like post#4 where it says hydraulic body mount?
2.) Heated seats, heated mirrors should equal heated rear defrost, logically.
3.) Do your parents know that you are playing on their computer again Pat?

PS: I love my Ford F250 Lariat

 

Why do you need rear defrost? The verticle rear window doesn't ever catch frost, and we get knarly winters here.

This is ignoring that fact that only a ***** need's to see out his rear window in a truck.

 

Found this: evidently someone does recognize this as a problem.

Application of Hydraulic Body Mounts to Reduce the Freeway Hop Shake of Pickup Trucks

When pickup trucks are driven on concrete paved freeways, freeway hop shake is a major complaint. Freeway hop shake occurs when the vehicle passes over the concrete joints of the freeway which impose in-phase harmonic road inputs. These road inputs excite vehicle modes that degrade ride comfort. The worst shake level occurs when the vehicle speed is such that the road input excites the vehicle 1 st bending mode and/or the rear wheel hop mode. The hop and bending mode are very close in frequency. This phenomenon is called freeway hop shake.

God damn - I "hop shaked" all the way into the other lane officier.

 

major complaint in.... unloaded trucks! If you want to damp any frequencies for all loadings, you'll have to get Magnaride or equivalent active suspension. Maybe air-springs could be a more economical approach, but I'm not sure.

 

Sorry i didn't read all the answer before writing mine.

And i'm 25 and have my own house.

But you know what, I'll give you the credit for being the mature one here...


P.S.: Not because i want heated seat and mirrors that i want the defrost rear window. It doesn't look good. I'm sure i'm not the only one thinking that... Maybe that's why it's an option.

I live in Quebec and we sure have cold weather here and i actually NEVER seen a truck with a rear defrost window in person. I guess the option isn't popular enough...