This post is best aimed at my pickup truck towing friends! I made two modifications to my Ford F250 today: beefing up the rear suspension, and adding a front receiver for a bike rack. (Note: I have no connection with either of these companies or products other than as a consumer, and have yet to fully assess their value).

While towing, I found that the rear of the F250 sagged in the rear (you can kind of see in the first photo). Many people install airbags to beef up the rear suspension, but I was concerned with upkeep and maintaining air pressure – too many moving parts in my humble opinion. Instead, I installed a Super Spring (http://supersprings.com/supersprings_overview_general.asp), which is a suspension product designed to augment the existing springs in the F250. The concept is to provide extra suspension when an extra load is applied (like when towing). This “super spring” has a roller mechanism that provides this “as needed” capability. While I have yet to test it out towing, my truck clearly now sits level when hooked up to our trailer.

The other addition is a bolt-on front receiver from Bodiak (http://www.bodiak.us). The Bodiak front receiver bolts on to the tow hooks on the front of the truck. While we do have a bike rack on the rear of the Airstream, under certain situations (like when we get somewhere) we often have a need to carry bikes on the truck. This front receiver will allow us to do this. Having bikes on the front of the truck is admittedly not ideal, but as far as bikes go there is no ideal transport. Again, too early to tell how well this will work but I have high hopes!