OMG, don't tell my truck that!!

 

Chassis and suspension engineers don't. The ones I know also get crosswise if you call stabilizer bars "sway bars."

Personally, I don't use struts and shocks interchangeably, either, but I don't particularly care what anybody else calls them. Life's too short to worry about that.

 

Would call them coil over shocks. Because that's what they are.

Struts are a structural portion of the suspension. They turn as the wheel is turned. Anyone in the automotive industry calling a coil over shock "struts" is ignorant when it comes to suspension systems.

 

Well this drifted off nicely. Is there any point to all this or are we just arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? To the original question, Bilstein is a good first step, Icon and Boss is the next level. They get expensive though.

 

I installed Rancho Quick Lift and have been happy for about 2000 miles now... Only a couple months old...

 

How are the coil overs or struts or whatever you choose to call them on the F150 not a structural part of the front suspension? Remove them and the truck falls to the ground.

 

Had my dealer replace both front with OEM at 40,000 miles due to the right front began to leak oil. Those are still good with >65,000 miles on them. Original rear shocks have >105,000 miles and are also fine.

 

If you remove the coilovers, the truck can still go (ignoring ground clearance issues), albeit with a lousy ride.

If you remove a MacPherson strut, the vehicle can't go anywhere, as you've removed the equivalent of the upper control arm--the top of the hub is no longer directly attached to the vehicle.

 

How can the truck go, there is no spring or anything else supporting the LCA to the frame.

 

It would sit on the bumpstops. It'd still "go" and turn, and stop. You can't do any of that if the strut is missing from a strut based suspension configuration.

On 2005 to current F150s, the spindle is attached to ball joints located on the upper and lower control arms.

On the typical MacPherson strut suspension, the spindle is attached at the bottom to a lower control arm ball joint, and bolted at the top to the strut. If there's no strut, the spindle would just flop around on the lower ball joint. The strut acts the upper control arm, as well the shock and spring.