After I cranked the keys up about 1", and the yellow jounces don't touch now. I have notice that I can feel every little bump in the road. I still have the stock shocks, I know I need new ones but I just got new tires so they will have to wait. My plan is lower the jounces, do you think that this will help my situation. And everything feels tight, no play that I have found. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing. Thanks.

I turned up my keys some, but mine isn't riding that bad, I know if you install the aftermarket keys it will feel like you're driving a 1 horse wagon. A lot of times the keys have to break in everytime you adjust them, don't know why, but I've noticed on a lot of my past trucks the truck rode better a week or so after I turned the keys.

It seems to me that the biggest part of the change you feel is due to your shocks. There's a little more tension on your front suspension now, so it's reacting more to small variations in the road surface. Shocks are supposed to moderate the rate of suspension travel, but if yours are shot it seems logical that cranking up the torsion bars would make it feel a lot rougher.

Also, I wouldn't wait too long to do shocks considering you've just bought tires. Bad shocks can wipe out a set of tires pretty fast, especially traveling at highway speeds. I know it doesn't seem like shocks could wear out tires, but I learned this the hard way. Are you experiencing vibration in the truck when it gets up to speed (if it's getting bad, you can usually start to feel it at 45MPH, comes back at 55MPH, gets worse as you go faster...)? This can end up affecting just about everything in your front suspension -- idler arm, tie rod ends, ball joints, you name it.

I turned up my keys some, but mine isn't riding that bad, I know if you install the aftermarket keys it will feel like you're driving a 1 horse wagon. A lot of times the keys have to break in everytime you adjust them, don't know why, but I've noticed on a lot of my past trucks the truck rode better a week or so after I turned the keys.

not sure what aftermarket keys you have run, but running the green keys with rancho shocks is doing fine for me. big difference with changing shocks. also, larger tires will absorb more shock than the 245s will. if by break in time, you mean the t-bars settle after a few times driving, this can happen. always measure before and after and check alignment when done.

When my truck was brand new I tried cranking my stock keys 7 turns (1.25") the ride was very harsh and rediculouis. Came right back and swapped for the green keys and cranked it up 2" and for the past 2.5 years the ride has been just fine. About equivilent to 3-4 turns on the stock keys. I am still running the stock shocks and understand that different shocks make it better but I plan on a 4" or 6" suspension lift when the tires are gone so I might as well wait. Just my $.02!

By turning up your torsion bars, your increasing your spring rate.
The ride will always suffer.

By turning up your torsion bars, your increasing your spring rate.
The ride will always suffer.

I agree. Cranking the keys or even replacing them just changes how much twist you're putting on the torsion bars, which are the springs that carry the weight of the front of the truck. By cranking the keys you ar applying more "preload" to the srings thus making them stiffer, this additional stiffness or rate is what allows the springs to push up harder on the truck ====> raised front end. Your ride will always suffer when cranking the torsion bars. Shocks help, it just depends on the amount of cranking and how good the shocks are. It's my opinion to do as little cranking as possible and buy the best shocks you can. Bilsteins are nice and not too expensive.

Just my $.02,

Chris

Noob trying to get this straight...

I have a performance motorcycle background, so those are the terms I will use. If they are incorrect, please correct me...

Cranking the torsion bars increases preload on the torsion bars. Much like cranking up the preload on a coil over shock, or set of motorcycle forks.

Putting in green keys changes the starting point of the work that the torsion bars do. Kind of like raising the ride height on a motorcycle.

If this is true...

At a given truck height and point of suspension travel, there is more tension on cranked bars than green keyed bars. Both would be higher than stock. Both need new shocks and an allignment for optimum ride quality/tire life.


Thanks!!

Jay

Motojay, you are correct. green keys are indexed differently/more to turn the torsion bar more to lift the truck.

So why would the green keys make it ride differently than stock, you still are putting the same load on the TB's, you just have different indexing on the adjustment bolt.

So why would the green keys make it ride differently than stock, you still are putting the same load on the TB's, you just have different indexing on the adjustment bolt. Exactly, differant keys or not you still need the same amount of torsion bar load to bring the front end up from stock the other keys just give you differant indexing so cranking up the stock keys is the same as putting the other keys on you still need the same amount of load on them to get the lift.

Cranking up the bars should not preload the suspension. If you have preload against the full extended travel, you have cranked/keyed too far. The ride hieght can change without stiffening the suspension. Your alignment will get messed up, but the reason the front feels stiffer is because off the new angle of the lower arm to the ground. But keyed or not keyed, if the torsion bar is cranked to the same place, ride should be the same either way.