Ride quality help

[Eastonspeedworks]

Hi everybody, I'm hoping to get a little advice on my truck. I've got a 69 c10 running a ride tech cool ride front end and a fairly stock rear suspension. Flipped trailing arm brackets and a 3" notch. Anyways I used to run 15's with white walls and the truck rode like a Cadillac. This winter I changed the truck to a short bed and 20' wheels with bfg g force tires 240/35. Now the ride is practically unbearable. It's rough enough my tight truck sounds like it's full of loose change. I knew I was going to give up some ride quality with the "cast iron" tires as my uncle calls them but it seems excessive. So my question is would a set of adjustable shocks ride tech or similar help take some harshness out of the compression? I'm currently running kyb gas shocks that have around 15,000 miles. Thanks for any help and happy memorial day!

[Shinysideup]

Cool truck. It seems you agree its your new tire/wheel combo thats the issue, why not put on a set with a bit more sidewall? Im not personally a fan of rubber-band tires even on those 20" wheels.
FWIW, I like the steelies better on your ride.

[Eastonspeedworks]

Well aside from the huge cost of that package I really can't run a taller tire without damaging my front inner fenders. The truck barely lays on the tires any taller and I'd damage them

[Boog]

You say it rode like a Cadillac with the 15's on it and now it rides like a brick with the 20's and low pro tires so you know why it rides that way. I don't think there is a shock available to restore the smooth ride with those 20's. You can have the ride or you can have the look. JMO

[HO455]

How much suspension travel do you have at ride height? To get the ride you want you will have to have at 6-8 inches of travel before contacting the bump stops. Then you will have to work with a quality shock manufacturer and you should also be prepared for the fact you may have to change your air bag size. The new cars of today that run low profile tires are engineered with lots of wheel travel and very sophisticated shock systems. With limited wheel travel the laws of physics are against you.

[Warrens69GMC]

in the rear alone, change the tires to 245/45r20 and save the tires you take off as front spares or sell them (or put them on another truck!!)

That would give you an extra 2" in sidewall an "cushion" the ride some,,,

[Eastonspeedworks]

I can't swap tires out at this point the only place that will touch these around here is 200 miles away. I don't have enough travel either I'm around 5" at ride height any more than that and I'm getting to much spring rate. I was really hoping lowering the compression on the shocks would be the ticket

['68 Newtricks]

yeah
I'd say short bed and tires did the trick. Short bed = less weight out back AND less weight over the front because of wheelbase/center of mass moved. Tires = cause really, sidewall FTW.

I'm in the same boat. Forgive the dumb question cause it looks like you are on bags already, but are you? You mention spring rate.

[hewittca]

I experienced a similar situation with my truck when I went from the 15" stockers to the 22" transits. Used to ride like a Caddy with the 15s and then rode like absolute garbage with the 22s. Granted, mine is not on air like yours, but I think the similarity might be that the larger wheels really emphasized the issues with my suspension that the lighter wheels and taller sidewalls sorta masked. I had to do a few things to get mine fixed. I have the same shocks, but I used the relocation brackets front and rear to get the shocks at the appropriate angles and to give me a little more travel out of them. I also had to readjust the toe, camber, and caster since all were out of spec. Of course, for yours, the important thing is that those alignments are correct at ride height. Just doing these few things drastically improved the ride and handling. It feels as good as it did before, just a bit stiffer.

[Eastonspeedworks]

Well the good news is I spent all my money and time ruining my nice truck 😂 I was just saying spring rate for simplicity it's on air so it would be psi. And the handling is absolutely bang on. Even with the narrow tires it was impressive. I've already done everything to get favorable shock angles maybe I'll toss a set of nice shocks on and then admit my choices were terrible

[skytop]

Short wheel base always rides more harsh than long wheel base vehicle.
20" Wheels and tires have an aspect ration that yields very short side walls which ride very hard and harsh. You have a recipe for a hard riding truck. Put in a set of custom selected Bilstien shocks which will give you some relief. Call the company customer support and tell them what about your problem.