International 4300 st8 truck stupidity

tknight

Veteran Expediter
Who in their right minds would order trucks to be built without rear shocks..... Stupid
And who would order a truck without air drier on it...? Stupid
 

greasytshirt

Moderator
Staff member
Mechanic
158_blister1.jpg
 

greasytshirt

Moderator
Staff member
Mechanic
Is there anyway to have rear shocks installed on these trucks!
Leaf springs actually have some dampening effect. The leaves slide against each other, resisting movement in both directions like a shock absorber.

Your spine probably doesn't believe me.

Sure, you can put shocks on it. I can't recall offhand how international does it from the factory, but one method is to put a shock mounting plate at the bottom of the spring stack. This means loosening the long u- bolts. Honestly its easier to torch them off and install new ones. You will need a couple of giant jack stands, an air jack, a torch set, and an impressive torque wrench to do this successfully.

You'll then need a pair of upper shock mounts and shocks of the correct length. Hopefully holes already exist for the shock mounts. If not, you'll want to get your hands on a mag drill.
The shocks will let you know if the length is wrong by snapping the rod. It's a feature!

How about an air-ride seat instead?

Many trucks of this size come with no shocks in the rear. Their purpose was strictly utilitarian.
 
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tknight

Veteran Expediter
Truck has air ride seats and new front shocks ride is still kidney damaging and freight destroying if fragile! The ac works imagine that ....
It's a 2006 4300 automatic air brakes that don't feel like air brakes. It's an old enterprise rental truck with a 26' box , I don't think the wheelbase is correct for this truck as it has a huge overhang almost 10' or more , probably made for a 22 ft box but they put a longer box on instead
Disclaimer : I do not own this pod but my friend does and he's asked me to help him with it ,I'm not really convinced it will ever ride right , and don't think it ever did. It literally shakes itself to death going down the road , jarring bumpy ride yuk
 

tknight

Veteran Expediter
I've seen provost coaches with 8 shocks in the rear that ride like a dream, maybe 2per side in the rear?
 

tknight

Veteran Expediter
General opinion dump this pos
Or move the rear axle back 5 ft or maybe more as measured the overhang is 13' from center of rear , way to much to try and do anything else ! And add shock mounts and hd shock or maybe air shocks or even bags to help improve it minimum likely 3.5-4k my opinion sell it!
 
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