Moog steering damper fitment.

[Gary Lewis]

The dual front shocks, called "quad shocks" by Ford, were available as part of the Handling Package, as shown in the excerpt below from the 1986 price list.

HANDLING PACKAGE (553)

Includes

•Front/Rear stabilizer bars

•Heavy-duty front springs (not included on F-250 HD SuperCab 4x4 models)

•664 Heavy-duty Front/Rear Shock Absorbers

•Quad Front and Heavy-Duty Rear Shock Absorbers (F-150 Regular Cab 4x4 only)

NOTE: High capacity rear springs will be substituted for the front/rear stabilizer bars on F-250 HD 4x4 models with 6.9L Diesel eng. and 572 A/C or 624 Super Eng. Cooling.

But there is no mention in the 1986 price list of a shock or damper for steering.  So I don't think there was any way to order one.

[Ray Cecil]

Ok. So there is a good chance my damper brackets are aftermarket, or taken off another truck?

Are the quad shocks an advantage? Would I be able to swap brackets and install them on little blue? What are they advantages to quad shocks?

[Gary Lewis]

I'd bet your steering damper is aftermarket.

As for the quad shocks, if done correctly they can ride and handle well, and they should give better jounce control than single shocks.  But not everyone realizes that there's supposed to be a different shock ahead of the axle vs behind the axle.  The catalog shows that, and Monroe knows that as they explained to me when I bought the Sensa-tracs for Dad's truck.  They really improved the ride and handling on the truck.  But many people just double up on the shocks, which stiffens the ride.

If you have all the hardware you can bolt it on, although you do have to take a lot off to get down to it.  Compare the illustrations on the Single Shock vs Dual Shock tabs on the 4wd tab here: Suspension & Steering/Front Suspension.

[salans7]

I did the quad shock upgrade on my F150. Only two things had to be added, and that was the shock tower itself, and the lower shock mount on the front of each axle beam. To install the shock tower, you have to first remove the old one by removing six to seven rivets on each side, one of those rivets being the same one that holds the engine crossmember to the frame rails. Once that is done, then you have to remove the coil springs, coil seat, and the upper and lower radius arm attaching bolts so that you can pull off the stock brace and install the lower shock mount.

All in all it's not a hard job, but it is time consuming. The holes in the frame rail for the spring bucket may or may not match up, I believe I had to drill one extra hole on each side.

[Ray Cecil]

Was it worth it? How did it change the handling characteristics?

[Blacktop]

This is all very interesting info guys😁👍

[salans7]

Ray Cecil wrote

Was it worth it? How did it change the handling characteristics?

I can't honestly say since I only drove the truck once after the swap and then parked it for an engine swap that I never completed before selling the truck. But on the test drive it felt a lot less bouncy going down the road. But I was also comparing 4x2 and 4x4 at the time since I did that swap as well. Hard to say for sure.

[Steve83]

This shows the PNs for the shocks I run:



When I added quad front shocks, I could tell a difference in ride & handling, but not huge except when towing heavy.