I’d like to talk about how an Advanced Design truck should feel when you drive it specifically a 3/4-ton. I’ve read where some guys describe their AD’s as having a nice ride. I understand that the call “a nice ride” is purely subjective and covers a wide range of opinions. I worked as a Chevy parts man starting back in 1959 in my last year of high school. People would still bring in AD’s for service once in a while and I’d driven several versions of them at different times even before starting at the dealership. Friends of mine had grain trucks and I’d driven a water wagon for a while at a sod nursery before I had a license. But I haven’t driven one for probably forty years and my memory has faded. I also don’t know anyone who can take me for ride in a stock AD so I really don’t have a feel for just what to expect.
I’m at the point where the only thing that isn’t completely new under the 1950, 3604 that I bought last year are the springs. I’m planning to have them gone over/rebuilt over the winter. I was very fortunate to have found an excellent candidate for restoration. It was in very good condition having served as the town fire truck from 1950 when it was new up until a few years back when it was replaced by a real fire truck. Kingpins were slightly worn but were replaced anyway, as were all of the brgs, steering components, shocks etc.
My first attempt at new rubber were four new bias plies, tubes and flaps, on the original 15” split rims. Looked real nice but the ride was just as everyone had warned me about, TERRIBLE! I could only tolerate that for about 700 miles and threw in the towel. Even after a ten-mile ride when the bias plies rounded out some, there was still lots of vibrations coming in at different speeds and lots of shaking in the tiller.
The latest approach to softening up the ride involves a new set of Cooper 16.5” tubeless radial tires on Chevy C20 rims. Truly a noticeable difference, no more square start-ups with the front fenders vibrating at a blurring pitch.
I’m getting a little drifting when on the road and even though the steering is quite free with the wheels off the ground she doesn’t snap back from a turn. I’m almost positive that the caster is on the light side or maybe even a little negative. I won’t know till I have the front end aligned. I think that having a little larger tire on the rear, 9.50R 16.5’s than the front, 8.75R 16.5 plus the fact that the front leaves are probably sagging a little is enough to reduce the caster to the point that it wants to drift some.
I realize that a 1950 3/4 ton truck is not going to ride anywhere near as smooth as a new 3/4 ton truck does. However I feel that with everything that has been done to this truck that I should be getting a little better ride than I am. Once over thirty and up to fifty which is as fast as I can drive her, I feel a periodic oscillation, a throbbing or pulsing felt through out the whole truck; it feels to me like the frame is flexing. It’s not in the steering wheel, which is nice and steady now and it’s not tire balance, we’ve spun the tires up on a brand new Coats dynamic balancer. I’m running the tires up at 50psi, 65psi is spec for full load on these ‘D’ load ratings but her hauling days are over. I suppose I could probably play around with tire pressure some.
The other factor in the ride may be the original springs. Very stiff and any factory assembly lubrication that was there in the beginning has long since been replaced with a thin film of rust, so the springs probably don’t do much work without a good big load, and my “big old wife” doesn’t qualify for that yet.
So I’d like to hear what you think of the way a stock Advanced Design truck should ride.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
