MORryde Shocks

Post project writeups, ideas, DIY mods and off the shelf modifications and improvements. Also "Known Issues" and their resolutions.
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caconcourse
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by caconcourse »

Xatlatc wrote:Would someone please post a photo of where the MORryde Shocks are located? I've been underneath the Chinook looking but I don't really know where and what to look for. Thanks.
Here are pictures of my new ones recently installed:
Mor-Ryde Rubber Spring
Mor-Ryde Rubber Spring
IMAG0981.jpg
PS. Skillet got a great deal on his installation. Mine cost $500 because they didn't know how to do it, and it took them all day.

After new tires (Hankook), shocks (Monroe), and Mor-Ryde spring replacements, the ride and handling is fantastic.

Clay
Clay
2001 Concourse
Santa Barbara, CA
Xatlatc
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by Xatlatc »

Thanks for the photos Clay. I'm going to take a look tomorrow.
Skillet
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by Skillet »

I worked with the sales lady at MORryde. When I purchased them thru her I asked if she could recommend anyone in my area. She called around to several springs shops to make sure they could do it. Then she emailed me with results. I was pleased with the whole process. Their website showed "approved" businesses but the closest one was 50miles away. She found one within 10 minutes from my house.
'02 Concourse where there's always a project going on...
dougm
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by dougm »

Hi, im a noobie here. I have the 05 Concourse and IMO the Moryde setup is an absolute joke. I purchase my Chinook with 40,000 miles on it from Texas so it has no rust underneath on the frame or any place else. The previous owner installed firestone helper air bags which IMO dont help. I am so sick and tired of the covered wagon like ride of this RV that i ordered a complete air suspension conversion kit from Reyco/Granning. It set me back just under 5 grand but i couldnt see throwing away money on new leaf springs and rubber blocks just to acheive a barely tolerable ride quality that doesnt even last 40,000 miles. Poor design IMO. I just ordered the Reyco kit earlier today so i plan to buy a camera and take pictures to post up of the install for others to see since i have searched high and low for information on air ride suspensions on this vehicle to no avail.
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Blue~Go
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by Blue~Go »

I'll be very interested to hear how you make out with that.

Just to add some perspective, when I went to Henderson's Line Up to have some suspension work done, one thing I noted was the somewhat harsh ride in the rear (my year Concourse didn't come with More-Ryde, just with the usual Ford springs). They said it's a common problem with E-350 and smaller E-450's --- they do a lot of work with ambulances, which are often on these chassis, and you can imagine how they don't like harsh bumps as they are trying to start IV's or whatever.

There is the More-Ryde, and then there are the Sulastic shackles. But apparently a new "thing" is parabolic rear springs. I guess the rear leaf packs tend to be harsh with either the smaller chassis (E-350) or a relatively lightly loaded E-450. The parabolic springs are supposed to help quite a bit, but I have not tried them. I found a combination of other things that made it pretty decent (and figured I can always do parabolic springs in future without "backtracking"). I have heard decent reports about the Sulastic shackles from someone with an E-350 van with duallies.

I have a buddy with a fully loaded ~28' RV on the E-450 chassis (~14,500# plus a tow car) and it doesn't have the same harsh ride. So maybe there is something to the theories.

Henderson's did mention that they had put (if I remember correctly) an air suspension on an E-350 Chinook that a customer of theirs was using for a toad (!) behind a large Class A.

Anyway, cool that you are going for it and I'm eager to hear how you like it. Will you be able to use it for leveling too, like a Foretravel? That would be a sweet bonus :D
1999 Concourse
dougm
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by dougm »

Reyco claims that the harshness of the ride is an attribute of the shorter wheel base versus other RV's. The distributor i ordered through has installed this system on at least one Chinook same year as mine and the owner claimed that his concourse rode like a baby carriage once the reyco system was installed. Guess i will find out, i just couldnt make myself believe that changing springs and or Moryde blocks was going to help a vehicle that had no obvious signs of suspension wear. I did however install new bilstein shocks on all four corners, i removed the factory front sway bar and installed hellwig bars front and back which made a huge difference in stability but the shocks didnt do much.. I just resigned myself that if i am keeping this RV its going to need major changes in the suspension, not just a replay of the poorly designed system it came with. I could easily throw away 1500 dollars putting different springs on it with new moryde blocks and not gain any ride quality so it just didnt make sense to me.
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Blue~Go
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by Blue~Go »

I'm all for doing things right - and an RV is for pleasure so why not upgrade it so it makes you happy. The air suspension sounds very promising. I can't wait to hear your review.

(And you are probably right about the wheelbase. Our rigs and ambulances are relatively short; my buddy's RV has a much longer one - 178" or something like that, IIRC, as opposed to our 136 (or 138.. I forget at the moment. I remember years ago buying a new Toyota pickup. Thought the short bed was cute, drove it, then test drove a long bed. What a difference... bouncy annoying ride vs. much smoother ride. I bought the "less cute" long bed and never had a regret.)

I also have the upgraded anti-swaybars front and rear and better shocks. The bars really made it a lot more fun to drive, but I had to reduce the thickness of the rear bar a bit (so it's about halfway between the stock size and the beefy aftermarket size) because otherwise ye olde harsh rear ride reared its ugly head. My rig is relatively light on the rear axle so that doesn't help either.
1999 Concourse
dougm
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by dougm »

I didnt notice any difference in ride quality by adding the rear bar myself. What i did notice was more stability and resistance to wandering in the wind. I couldnt believe when i got underneath that they didnt install a rear bar at all from the factory. Those were my only two complaints about the RV, the swaying/wandering and the harshness of the rear suspension. I really like the thing even though its 10 years old due to the construction of the house portion and it being one piece fiberglass, but if the air suspension doesnt cure the bumping/banging ride i will resign myself to parting with it. I also ordered a 200 watt Renogy solar system with 40 amp controller so i can expand if i stack the panels with sliders on the bottom set and special brackets. With the suspension and the solar setup i spent right at 5500 bucks with shipping. Just guessing i have spent in excess of 10 grand on this thing since i brought it home not including the purchase price. 1500 in new michelin tires, shocks, sway bars, batteries, new microwave, new stereos front and back, had to buy a new dash panel because someone butchered the back side of the radio cutout to install a cheesey radio in the dash, back up camera, 12 volt LED televison, LED tubes to replace the flourecents, new console that goes on the engine dog house because my Dog busted the old one standing on it, anode for the water heater, new water pump for the house, new sediment trap for that same pump, new shower head, new valve on back side of toilet, and the list goes on.... I still want to redo the laminate floor the previous owner installed and put down vinyl plank flooring which i already purchased and then redo the dinette area and make it more of a storage/ desk type area to open up some moving around space. But thats the easy stuff so i will save it for last. Sorry about the long winded babble, im disabled now and all my so called friends still work at the railroad so i dont really get an oppurtunity to chat about the Chinook much with anyone. Apologize in advance if you notice that i tend to babble sometimes, i had a major head injury and thats part of why they disabled me from my job. Probably you will notice i edit my posts alot as well because sometimes i forget pertinent information. Couple of years ago i would have been able to do this suspension conversion in one day, but now with my injuries its hard for me to get down and crawl around under a vehicle so i imagine it will take me close to a week to complete it once it arrives unless i can enlist an extra pair of hands, but it looks pretty straight forward as far as i can tell from the PDF install instructions.
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Blue~Go
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by Blue~Go »

Maybe I wasn't too clear about it. The big (huge) plus I noticed with the anti-sway bars was (the same as my old car I put them on), "flatness" in curves and side to side stability. It's FUN to take curves now. Also it took the side to side "wham, wham" out of going off of (say) a gas station apron at an angle. Used to be as the rear tires came off the apron separately the rig would whip back and forth but now with the bar it's more just one motion. This was with replacing the front stock bar with a Roadmaster bar and putting a Roadmaster on the rear. BUT.

But, I immediately noticed a horrible new harshness to the rear ride. Unbearable. So it was time to experiment. I left the new rear bar on but put the stock front bar back on. Harshness unaffected. So I took the rear bar off. Now the ride was back to "normal" (the added harshness was gone) but I was back to stock. Hmm. Next put the new front bar on but left rear bar as stock (i.e no bar). Harshness still gone and steering more fun but I still wanted something in the rear. I did some research and found that while the E-350's did not come with rear bars (from Ford, nothing to do with Chinook), E-450's did. And the diameter was about half that of the Roadmaster bar. Perfect? I used car-part.com to locate a used bar (had to be a dually bar so couldn't find one locally), and three days later had it in hand for about $70 including shipping. I did use new bushings. Put that on and..... Goldilocks! Had much of the goodness of the Roadmaster rear bar, but minimal added harshness. So I ended up with the front Roadmaster bar and the rear E-450 bar. Still a bit of added harshness in the rear though (E-350 nemesis!). I had been running Koni FSD shocks on all four corners. So I took the rear FSD's off and put on a set of Koni adjustable shocks in rear. Turns out that with them adjusted all the way soft, I was back to around the original suspension "ride" but now had the added (huge) bonus of the anti-sway bars. It's a whole different rig in corners now - so much more fun!

But with the air ride I bet you'll be able to run the bigger bars all the way around and have NO harshness. Excellent!

I'm sorry to hear about your head injury, but rest assured, we like it when people go on and on here - especially about Chinooks, mods, and trips :D Glad you have you here (and with a 2005 no less).
1999 Concourse
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HoosierB
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Re: MORryde Shocks

Post by HoosierB »

dougm,
I'm very interested to hear about the results of your Reyco suspension install. I too have the MORryde and recently replaced the "rubber blocks", along with new shocks and all new tires. The ride did improve. But I have to believe that technology in the suspension systems aftermarket has improved since my 2001 Chinook was built. So I'm anticipating much improved handling with a new system. How did you come to settle on Reyco? Did you look into any other systems?
Please keep the updates coming....
"Wanda" – '01 Chinook Concourse XL V10
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