Well, I said I'd be the guinea pig for the board. As soon as Mark finished installing my carbon drive shaft I drove straight to Big Brand Tire in Oxnard and had them install a Roadmaster active suspension kit. http://www.activesuspension.com
When finished I took the tech for a little ride. Afterward I thought I would have to clean the passenger seat. I don't think he realized the performance capability of the L. But, to cut to the chase, I really didn't notice much difference. Still had an awful lot of wheelspin on launch off idle, or even off a rolling 15mph start. So we went back and he tightened the units up, and made sure the ride hight was the same on both sides, and we went for another ride. Still some spin, but I don't think quite as much. Don't really have enough miles to have a real feel for it. Also, I'm wondering what would happened if I really snugged it down, but I want to drive it this way for a while first. The tech suggested putting some sticky rubber back there, but acknowled that it wouldn't last very long. We'll see what happens on Nov. 4 before we get carried away.

------------------
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

'84 Alan Record Carbonio, Aerospoke wheels, Campy brakes.
'00 SVT Lightning, silver, G-tech Pro, JBA headers, cam bolts, 4.10 gears,
Swanson's chip, Pro-M, carbon drive shaft, Roadmaster suspension kit
2001 Kevlacat 2400, twin 115 Evinrude FICHT, Raytheon VHF, radar, autopilot and GPS chartplotter/fishfinder.

gmvye@pacbell.net

 

Sorry to hear it wasn't the best bolt-on you've done so far. Hard earned money is always difficult to justify when the mods don't give instant smiles!
Maybe after some tuning you'll have better results? Let us "street racers" know, cause I'm always looking for the upper hand!
Later,
Ryan

 

Alphadoggy, I hope things work out for the best, since I'm the one who gave you the information. Hate to you about something and it not work.

-Marcus.

 

Jeez, maybe I sounded too negative. I think it is a good mod, and I plan to leave it on the truck. I guess my expectations were too high. I think it does a good job of reducing axle wrap and keeping the wheels planted on the ground. I don't feel any wheel hop and the black streaks are nice and continuous. I think that's all you can ask is to keep the rubber on the road. If the motor is too strong and overpowers the grip then all you can do is get some nice sticky tires. Maybe that's next.

 

alphadoggy, How about cornering? Is your ride/handling effected in any other way?

If these can completely eliminate wheelhop without changing cornering performance, then I want some. Can you do the install yourself?

I mostly race at road courses not dragstrips so to me keeping traction is always a matter of throttle control.

Thanks,
Ross

 

Jekel, I can't answer those questions yet. The main thing that I notice is that there seems to be less wheelspin when I gun it around a corner, but with sufficient application of the throttle it is still easy to make a C turn. I do not really push it hard through the corners because I really don't know what the limits are and I sure don't want to exceed them on the street. That's why I was disappointed that I couldn't wangle an invitation to the No. Cal. on-track experience where I could get some instruction and explore the limits on the relative safety of the track.

 

Alphadoggy,

I don't have your active suspension, but I do have the adjustable Cal-Tracs on my BLack Beast and they really do help if they are adjusted properly.

With them adjusted to allow little or no axle wrap (pre-loading the leaf springs) I get some traction improvement, but more importantly I get a whole lot less drift under severe wheel spin. The truck tends to track nice and straight w/o drifting to the left or right. I too have nice, straight burn marks w/o any wheel hop.

When we're done at the track, we readjust the preload out of the traction bars and I can then run on the road w/little or no loss of handling.

I think the advantage you have with the active suspension is that you can still stiffen the leaf springs w/o having all that hardware hanging underneath, cutting into already limited ground clearance. I'm not saying that the Cal-Tracs are bad, I would replace them in a second if anything happened to them, but having all the hardware over the spring, instead of under it seems a bit cleaner.

Just my .10 worth....

The Wyldman

 

I think you are 100% right, Chuck. The installation is very clean and out of the way, but its still relatively easy to access the adjustment nuts. They claim it does not compromise the handling. In fact, they claim it makes it better. The rear end is certainly stiffer with less roll. And under hard accelleration, even if the wheels are spinning, the truck does not seem to want to get sideways. The more I drive it the more I like it.

 

BTW,

Adding a set of M/T ET Streets (along w/launching on the giggle gas) has reduced my 60' times to 1.75 seconds. Can you say back breaking launches? Take a look at the video that Tommy posted.
https://www.f150online.com/f150board...ML/006797.html

He swears there was daylight under the front tires. I'm not sure, but I do know that it felt good!

The Wyldman


[This message has been edited by Wyldman (edited 10-21-2000).]

 

The Roadmaster worked fairly well on my ext. cab maybe it has something to do with the the 4 link the L's have. But with a reg. f150 it tightens up the rear nicely.

 

I have read the post about the roadmaster and I am wondering if after everyone has had them a while what are your opinions on them.

 

Now that I have had them on for six months, and especially since I have done some boat towing, I am extremely happy with the active suspension. Even though I am towing roughly 6500 lbs. with a large cross section for windage I get minimal bounce or sway, even in a strong, gusty cross wind. And even though others have complained about wheelspin on the launch ramp, I have not noticed any as long as I modulate the throttle carefully. In regular driving it is seamless; I cannot tell it is on, except MAYBE the truck hooks a little better, although without a before and aft test the a$$-o-meter can't really be sure. I think this mod is well worth the money, especially if you're going to tow.

------------------
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

'84 Alan Record Carbonio, Aerospoke wheels, Campy brakes.

'00 SVT Lightning, silver, built 2/9/00, #133 of 4966, G-tech Pro, JBA headers, 4.10 gears, Swanson chip, Pro-M, NGK plugs, carbon drive shaft, Roadmaster suspension kit, TransGo shift kit, cam bolts, Jackson washers, Wet Okoles,
13.39 @ 102.5

2001 Kevlacat 2400, twin 115 Evinrude FICHT, Raytheon VHF, radar, autopilot and GPS chartplotter/fishfinder.
http://www.zing.com/album/?id=429389...4647875&idx=15

gmvye@pacbell.net

[This message has been edited by alphadoggy (edited 04-28-2001).]